We have met the enemy and he is us! – Walt Kelly
For ‘tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard; and ‘t shall go hard, but I will delve one yard below their mines, and blow them at the moon. – Hamlet
A recurring First Ward theme is that all Republicans have to do is sit back and watch progressive politicians ply their trademark stupidity and laugh their way to electoral victory. But they’re clearly incapable of that abundantly basic maneuver which makes them even worse than their perpetually fascinating opposition.
And that’s really saying something when you consider progressive Democrats are the loons who thought it was a good idea to start referring to mothers as “birthing people.”
We’ll start with Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who appeared poised to demolish the Grand Cheeto. But now, though a series of terrible Trump-lite decisions, is already relegated to being just another GOP also-ran – before he even managed to officially announce his candidacy. That has to be some sort of record.
Even this social liberal was behind Florida’s badly misrepresented “don’t say gay” law which prohibited schools from teaching gender identity BS to first, second, and third graders. But that reasonable effort wasn’t nearly enough for Ron who now wants to extend the law through eighth grade, which makes even less sense than teaching it to first graders.
Considering what they’re bombarded with, seventh and eighth graders are already pretty savvy in the sexual regard, so there’s some real value in addressing the gender issue when the student is ready to hear it.
Then there’s DeSantis and Disney. How is it that Republicans, the very folks who insist on calling everyone else snowflakes, can’t withstand the slightest bit of criticism? So, Disney disagreed with him on the whole “don’t say” law. Big deal! Does that really merit an all-out war through which that self-purported less-government state is trying to take over their theme parks?
To wit, DeSantis is currently threatening to build a prison adjacent to the park, impose more restrictive ride inspection rules, and raise Disney’s tax rates. I’ve witnessed better behavior from a group of two-year-olds who just missed their naps.
But the topper is, in a truly ironic twist, DeSantis and his Republican lackeys want to remove the same press protections that might save Fox News from their slanderous selves. That move will never pass Constitutional rigor, but it’s another fine example of this vast GOP snowflakedom.
Not to be outdone, Tennessee’s Republican legislature voted to oust two of their black Democratic compatriots for participating in an anti-assault gun protest, only to have local government officials send them right back to the state capitol. This pointless Stalinesque purge only served to anger and coalesce the Democratic opposition which will be out in force in 2024 – and not just in Tennessee.
In yet another doomed to repeat history scenario, despite spendthrift Republicans sending the federal spending limit to unforeseen heights when Trump was in office, slimy speaker Kevin McCarthy is threatening to hold the government hostage over spending cuts the GOP failed to make themselves. That strongarm strategy failed miserably for the much smarter Newt Gingrich, which means the electoral fallout will be far worse for McCarthy and the congressional MAGA minions to whom he sold his soul.
But the worst example of the bent-on-self-destruction Republican dynamic comes in our neighbor to the north, Wisconsin – a state we should swiftly allow to secede from the union. Their brand-new Republican legislative supermajority is threatening to remove duly elected state Supreme Court justice Janet Protasiewicz for the crime of shifting the court balance 4 to 3 to the Democrats for the first time in 15 years.
The questionable legalities notwithstanding, the aptly named cheesehead state tried that impeachment maneuver back in 1853, and if it didn’t work then…
The singular reason judge Protasiewicz received an impressive 55 percent of vote against all conservative voter odds is the Wisconsin GOP’s obliviously draconian approach to abortion rights. And if those legislators think they’re in young voter hot water now, just wait until they try to impeach a Supreme Court judge for no reason other than an ideological political vengeance.
Which brings us to the topic that may well be the nail in the coffin of today’s MAGA-obligated Republican party. Despite a slew of heretofore unheard of judicial and referenda losses, the GOP persists in pressing their single-minded agenda to abrogate every last female reproductive right.
Republicans fell all over themselves in the wake of the Roe v. Wade reversal, but in a clear case of my mother’s “be careful what you wish for because you might get it” admonition, it may turn out to be the party’s undoing.
To be fair, some Republicans regulars are actually starting to see the prophetic writing on the tenement walls. Arizona GOP senate candidate Blake Masters’ previous “100 percent pro-life” stance was stripped from his website along with all other anti-abortion references. A slew of Iowa Republicans swiftly backed off their all-in pro-life positions when their Democratic opponents started using their video declarations in their television commercials.
South Carolina GOP congresswoman, Nancy Mace, who’s argued for party flexibility on abortion rights for some time, presciently warned, “Because we keep going down these rabbit holes of extremism, we’re just going to keep losing.”
Even Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told the Des Moines Register, “What I mean is this [abortion] is a personal issue for women and for men. It needs to be treated with the respect that it should. I don’t want unelected judges deciding something this personal.” That’s certainly some strange talk from a leading Republican.
So, while some of them get it, they’re the exception and not the rule, and if the GOP persists in further sinking their collective heads into the anti-reproductive rights quicksand, it will be the end of the party as a meaningful force. And that’s particularly true when their diehard base is, literally, dying out.
Can you say, “Hoist by their own petard?” I knew you could.
In summary, when it comes to the prevailing “hold my beer” contest pitting progressive ideology against their conservative counterparts, the Republicans are running away with it. Until the GOP figures out a way to move towards reasonability and stop losing elections on long-settled social issues, we’ll be stuck with an increasingly loonier batch of progressive Democrats whose policies will be even worse for the country in the long run.
If you doubt my theoretical point, please allow me to refer you to the Democratic morass known as the state of Illinois. It’s all the evidence I need.
