I was reading the front page of one of those news consolidation websites, browsing over the headlines, and a wide range of names popped out from the stories, which brought a few other names to mind. Among them all --
Marjorie Taylor Greene Lauren Boebert Matt Gaetz Madison Cawthorn Josh Hawley Jim Jordan Devin Nunes Mo Brooks Elise Stefanik Rudy Giuliani Lin Wood Sidney Powell Mike Lindell Louis DeJoy Jared Kushner Ryan Zinke Brett Kavanaugh Reading the list, the only thing that kept the soul from getting crushed as the names poured on, one after another after another, Newton's Third Law: for every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. And this reaction got me thinking of Trump's infamous admonition to "Drain the swamp." As I think has long been clear, when Trump said he would "drain the swamp" in Washington, he actually brought the swamp into his administration. But in fairness to him, I think that people misinterpreted what he meant. It wasn't a case of him lying, which -- given that this was Trump -- would be a natural assumption and sort of stunning that it wasn't that at all. Rather it was knowing what he actually meant by "draining the swamp." To some people, indeed most people, "draining the swamp" obviously means getting rid of the putrid bilge and cleaning up the area. But that's not the only interpretation. After all, other people might look at draining the swamp not for getting rid of bad things, but as a way to find the nuggets that are left over. All the golf balls that are sitting at the bottom that you can collect and sell back, the lost possessions that fell overboard once upon a time and can now be reclaimed, the murder weapons that were thrown into the swamp to avoid being used as evidence. Drain the swamp and get all these gems back. But further, for others still -- most especially if you're a real estate developer -- draining the swamp is a Good Thing for you to use the now-drained swampland as landfill on which you can build a whole new foundation. And so, when Trump said he was going to "drain the swamp" in Washington, I contend that he meant he was going to get rid of all that saturated wetland covering up the good stuff he could build on in the nation's capital and bring to Republican leadership and national prominence his constructed vision of Trump World -- which is how we've ended up with the MarjorieTaylorGreene, LaurenBoebert, MattGaetz, MadisonCawthorn, JoshHawley, JimJordan, DevinNunes, MoBrooks, EliseStefanik, RudyGiuliani, LinWood, SidneyPowell, MikeLindell, LouisDeJoy, JaredKushner, RyanZinke, and BrettKavanaughs of the world as today's voices of the Republican Party. And so many others, including those on the state level, too, who had been hidden under the cruddy water as bottom feeders and could reach their full potential until Trump drained the swamp and reclaimed them. And they could finally join the Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Rand Paul, William Barr, Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Louie Gohmerts, and all the other dry rot who were already there, waiting for the additional planking to build with.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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