It was almost immediately in the aftermath of the Monster Energy Drink Rebellion and MAGA Shitshow…One of the first things our incoming president and leader of what is supposed to be the party in eternal opposition to the party of the managerial class and entrenched wealth had this to say:
“We need a Republican party that is principled and strong.”
Okay. I get that a wishy-washy centrist Beltway columnist might say that, you know, someone along the lines of the late David Broder, for example. Guys like him made whole careers chronicling what increasingly appears to be the kabuki theater of Dems vs Repubs, a charade that even Barack Obama has memorably characterized as something less than playing for keeps.
Here is what he had to say in the Rose Garden the day after Trump’s upset win over Hillary Clinton:
Now, everybody is sad when their side loses an election. But the day after, we have to remember that we’re actually all on one team. This is an intramural scrimmage. We’re not Democrats first. We're not Republicans first. We are Americans first. We’re patriots first. We all want what’s best for this country. That’s what I heard in Mr. Trump’s remarks last night. That's what I heard when I spoke to him directly. And I was heartened by that. That's what the country needs -- a sense of unity; a sense of inclusion; a respect for our institutions, our way of life, rule of law; and a respect for each other. I hope that he maintains that spirit throughout this transition, and I certainly hope that’s how his presidency has a chance to begin.
This after eight years of knee-jerk Republican opposition to almost every single goal Obama tried to accomplish, large or small. Such a charitable flight of fancy is one of three things: naive, stupid, or incredibly cynical, and I don’t believe Obama to be dumb or wet behind the ears.
And in that way he represents the Democratic Party of the last few decades, the one that would have us believe that they try so very hard to accomplish great things for the common people and really would do so, if only if it weren’t for those mean ol’ Grinches in the GOP, your Newt Gingriches and Mitch McConnells ever serving as flies in the honied ointments that look to me to be now more than ever less sweet nectar than plain old snake oil.
For if that is true, then why the blue hell does Joe Biden get out there hours after a god-damn Republican-led insur-fucking-rection and solemnly tell the American people that we need this party in our lives? Does he still ascribe to Obama’s characterization of Dems vs Repubs as “intramurals”? Or anything else in that airy and highfalutin blather about “unity,” “inclusion,” “respect for our institutions,” and so on and on?
The post-Trump GOP, the one we have now, makes a mockery of all those ideals; treats them as toilet paper, in fact. And Joe, a word of advice: you fight against the GOP you have, not the GOP you might wish to have or the one you evidently remember so fondly who backed your legislation to screw credit card and student loan debtors and small-time criminals.
Noble bipartisan efforts, both of those. And one wonders if in light of his joint effort with segregationist Southern politicians to end the noble experiment of actual school integration with teeth back in the 1970s, he might not have, if called to do so, said “We need strong and principled Southern segregationist politicians.”
Because that makes about as much sense as him saying we need the GOP right now. I mean, I get that the obscenely wealthy and greediest of our billionaires and the more overt racist portion of our electorate would like to have a party speaking up for their interests, but that does not mean that the Democratic party, the one that is supposed to stand in opposition to all of those initiatives, needs to give them a helping hand, or even extend them public sympathy or anything other than scorn.
No mercy. Destroy them. Make them join the Whigs in the dustbin of history. Because the status quo ain’t so quo any mo’ Joe , and there’s no turning back the clock now.
PS: Miss me with the “rally ‘round the president in these troubled times” thoughts. I am not in the mood.