What Would Nellis Say?

Darkly Comic Chaos
 

 

With the darkly comic chaos of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives, we are reminded of their complete inability or lack of compulsion to resolve any of the issues that they scream and yell about during their campaigns, propose solutions for the real problems our nation is facing, or compromise with the enemy, which is anyone who is not allegiant to Trump. 

 

Bowing to pedophile Congressman Matt Gaetz and his radical gang of twenty, Speaker McCarthy was removed from his station for the Cardinal sin of joining a bi-partisan effort to prevent the government from being shut down. The agreement ignored the MAGA extremists’ demand for a thirty percent cut in spending, specifically targeting those programs that benefit children and our neediest citizens, as well as an end to financial and military support for Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion and slaughter of civilians.

 

The Republican majority has not passed a single meaningful bill since taking control of the House of Representatives in the last election. At the direction of the twice-impeached former president, who is a defendant facing ninety-one indictments as well as numerous civil lawsuits,  they have ‘weaponized’ every committee to ‘investigate’ the crimes of President Biden and his administration which has resulted in noisy hearings that have produced no evidence of criminal behavior by anyone. Their own witnesses testified that they could not present anything that justified these investigations.

 

News reports suggest that Representative Marjorie Taylor-Green was invited to join Trump for dinner, where he demanded impeachment hearings into the business practices of President Biden to make the legal challenges the former president is facing seem less daunting to the voting public. The following day, she launched those proceedings.

 

Considering the interminable boasting by Trump about his wealth and business acumen, the current civil trial in New York City has already demonstrated that, other than properties he inherited from his father, he has never run a business that did not flounder into bankruptcy, his billions are mostly fictitious, and his reputation is built on lies. His license to do business in the state of New York has been rescinded and the penalties for his crimes appear likely to result in the state seizing his properties, putting them up for auction to pay those fines, and dismantling his organization.

 

In spite of the fact that the criminal holding the reigns that guide the extremists who continue committing senseless acts of political suicide, the rest of the party refuses to stand up to the insanity. They are terrified by the prospect of Trump’s retribution, should they stray from appearing to support him, and the possibility of being primaried by extreme radicals at his behest.

 

In recent polling, more than half the Republicans support Trump as the next presidential nominee. The first two debates demonstrated that none of the other contenders have the guts to fight for the nomination or tell the truth about the nightmare facing our nation if the former president ends up winning the election. Each one of them is running for vice-president or a seat in his cabinet.

 

If ever there was a moment for the “adults” in the party to reclaim control, it is now. Electing a competent Republican Speaker of the House might have been the first step in the resurrection of the grand old party, which has been sullied and disgraced by their refusal to defend our democracy.

 

The next Speaker should be someone willing to serve the American people instead of polishing his ego or bowing to Trump’s demands. This person should be willing to listen to the voice of the people, who are sick and tired of the contentious confrontations that stymie any hope of getting anything done. They must be willing to reach across the aisle, to compromise for the good of the nation, and be brave enough to silence the extremists.

 

Unfortunately, legislative anarchists like little Jimmy Jordan, who in eight terms has never introduced a single bill and whose idea of governing is lording over raucous tragicomic political theater and pitching verbal Molotov cocktails to light up the media, or Steve Scalise who takes pride in giving keynote speeches to white-supremacist gatherings and refers to himself as “David Duke without the baggage”, are being bandied about as McCarthy successors. None of the proposed heirs are qualified to accomplish anything other than a continuation of the madness.

 

The Republicans are making no secret of their intentions. The Koch sponsored and administered Heritage Foundation spent four years and $22 million to create a thousand-page detailed plan (Project 2025) for the next Republican administration to completely dismantle the Federal government by eliminating up to fifty-thousand civil service jobs and the expertise that we as a nation depend on for everything from understanding the policies and intentions of foreign governments to ensuring that our food and medicines are safe, our bank deposits are secure, our roads and bridges are maintained, and our children are educated. 

 

Their radical Supreme Court is on course to eliminate every right granted to minorities during the twentieth century. They began by dismantling the Voting Rights Act, banning abortion, and supporting guns for everyone, and they will continue by outlawing birth control, invitro-fertilization, and minority voting rights in the next few years. 

 

Domination is the goal and cruelty is their weapon. Consider the attacks on transgender kids and the doctors and institutions that serve them, or school boards and librarians being intimidated and attacked for making knowledge available to everyone, or threats of violence to the spouses and families of Republican legislators who refuse to go along with MAGA policies. 

 

We are becoming numb to the violence as we witness white-nationalists gunning down minority citizens in Synagogues, Asian temples, and ethnic food markets, children being murdered in their classrooms, and ‘special’ police units beating and killing unarmed black men for the crime of being black as an everyday occurrence on the news. 

 

Shrill voices on the Fox network are calling for civil war because, as one of their top ‘hosts’ and MAGA devotee, Greg Gutfeld, screamed, “Elections don’t work! Our nation is in peril and the only solution might be war!” He is just one of many pundits advocating violence and insurrection to secure ultimate power for the white-supremacists by eliminating all opposition through any means necessary.

 

Unless some fearless phantom Republican politician is strong enough to take control, the only other option is to demolish the party on every level, from school board to the presidency, in the next election, so it might be reborn without the stain of radical white-nationalist hate and extremism. Our democracy hangs in the balance and, should the Republicans succeed in putting Trump in the White House and winning the House and the Senate, our rights and benefits will be eliminated and there will never be another free and fair election in this country.