The other day, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted the following "outrage" from his account on Twitter – Now, first things first, just to get the blatantly obvious out of the way: No, Target does not do any of that. It would be just a truly horrible business plan, and if that they did that, they would likely go bankrupt and would be sued by their shareholders. But you probably figured that out already. There are two possibilities here. 1) Tom Cotton actually, truly believes this, in which case he’s a maniacally lost conspiratorialist who has no business being a United States senator with responsibility for helping make laws. Or 2) he’s just pandering to his fascist GOP base which is wildly xenopobhic, conspiratorial and went around to Target stores trashing displays and threatening employees. I believe that #2 is the most likely choice here. It should be noted that one thing (of many) that Tom Cotton (R-AR) leaves out in his threat as a U.S. senator to Target is that there are also consequences for a national business that panders to fascists and ignores everyone else. Indeed, a business that only pursues business centered on the beliefs of what today’s GOP base wants – a base that promoted the Insurrection to overthrow the government and which still believes the 2020 election was “rigged,” follows and thinks JFK, Jr. is coming back to life to run on a ticket with Trump is not going to be in operation very long. Such a local business might do well deep in the heart of Tom Cotton’s Arkansas, but it wants to have a successful national presence, companies recognize that there is actually a world of diverse people and opinions out there, much as fascists wish wasn’t the case. Another thing that Tom Cotton seems to overlook is how really poorly public smears against a corporation like this worked for Fox “News” against Dominion Voting Systems. I have no idea if Target has had meetings to discussing whether or not to sue Tom Cotton, unless he ratchets his smears up a notch. But given that the account he tweeted under was a personal one and not his official Senate government account, and therefore not protected, he might want to put his attorney on speed dial, just in case. This, of course, isn’t just about a tweet Tom Cotton decide to send out and smear a national corporation in order to pander to his extreme-right, intolerant base. It’s become standard practice in the GOP, and it’s transcended hypocrisy. Hypocrisy has almost lost all meaning in today’s Republican. Consider that amid all the extreme-right hand-wringing and “outrage” over things like which books to burn, and what clothes someone wears when reading supervised storytime books to children, and anything they don’t like being “woke’ and how most anything liberal means it’s “grooming for pedophilia,” what the Tom Cottons and Republican leadership and GOP extreme base conveniently overlook are stories like the one last week that the Chicago Tribune published about a State of Illinois report finding that between 1950 and 2019, at least 1,997 children were sexually abused by Catholic cleric and religious brothers, four times the number that the Church itself had previously reported. And that’s just in one state. We didn’t see any Tom Cotton or GOP leadership or far-right hand-wringing and “outrage” for actual sexual abuse of children when that report was just released. Further, there was no “outrage” by Cotton and the fascist GOP right when Rolling Stone published a story about about Charlie Kirk's far-right Turning Point USA organization actually teaming up with a registered sex offender who had been convicted of attempted “coercion and enticement” of a minor. (Kirk, you may recall, is the popular GOP activist who I wrote about a few weeks ago here after he said that gun massacres were basically worth it since they helped protect the Second Amendment.) Silence on the far-right and in Cotton Land. Crickets. Actual, convicted sexual abuse of children. Because those are on-brand for the Republican Party today. Those are the base. But oh, my, when Target sold colorful shirts and “woke” blouses. Weeping, “outrage” and literal violence trashing displays and threatening employees. Cries of "satanism" by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Speaking of which -- With things like this tweet from Cotton attacking Target for what it sells. And Ron DeSantis changing laws in Florida to attack Disney for criticizing a bill, Republican attacks on M&M for a piece of cartoon candy they introduced, and on Mr. Potato Head for selling two products in one box, and against Bud Light for how it markets its beer, and the de facto Republican Party leader Trump saying that the party should push for default which would bring about financial disaster, I wouldn’t be surprised if Big Business has started to take note that today's GOP claiming that the party is good for business is not your daddy's GOP. Nor good for America.
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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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