Power Outrage

I was bemused, but not remotely surprised, by all the faux "outrage" from the world of MAGOP over President Biden making a proclamation about Transgender Visibility Day, the same day as Easter.

O horrors.
 
A few thoughts immediately struck me, all of which seemed pretty obvious, but I guess the points slipped through the MAGOP cracks.
 
First, if your religious faith is able to be shaken by other events also happening on the same day that is sacred to you, then it seems your religious faith has a pretty weak foundation.
 
Second, Transgender Visibility Day became a world event 15 years ago, in 2009, and it always falls on March 31.  The date of Easter always changes each year. And this year, they both just happened to fall on the same day.  Though, in fairness, the Transgender Visibility Day folks did have a standing, 15-year claim on the day.
 
Third, what little I know about Christianity, it seems to me that Jesus would especially welcome his day being celebrated in honor of people being discriminated against.
 
And fourth, no, President Biden was not getting rid of Easter by noting the occasion of another event.   Putting aside that since Easter is celebrated by the church, he has no actual presidential authority to get rid of a religious holiday -- however, the White House had a very public Easter Egg hunt on their grounds which should have been a big hint that President Biden was joyously-happy about celebrating Easter.
 
Mind you, the MAGOPs also tried to find fault with President Biden’s Easter Egg hunt, trying to be “outraged” that a White House flyer for the event explained that participants in the egg decorating contest couldn’t include any “religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.” It took a statement released by the American Egg Board (yes, really!) that this has not only been the policy for the group’s standard requirements on public events for almost half a century (!), but that also of course means the policy existed when Trump was in office.
 
As they wrote:  “The American Egg Board has been a supporter of the White House Easter Egg Roll for over 45 years and the guideline language referenced in recent news reports has consistently applied to the board since its founding, across administrations.”
 
But hey, why let a half-century reality get in the way of a chance to be “outraged” by something non-existent about President Biden.  This is today’s Republican Party, of course, and that’s Standard Operating Procedure.
 
In fact, my favorite “outraged” tweet about this all came from someone who tried very hard to make clear why the “excuse” of March 31 being Transgender Visibility Day was meaningless -- but unfortunately for them in doing so, they said the quiet part out loud.  What he wrote was --
 
“The excuse will be that ‘Transgender Day of Visibility’ is a fixed ‘holiday’ that always falls on March 31. The problem with that excuse is that the president does not need to issue any proclamation recognizing it and no president has recognized it until Biden two years ago. He may not decide the date for this fake bullshit holiday but he does decide to officially proclaim it.”
 
As I replied, the big problem for him (and for others equally “outraged”) is that the reason for his “outrage” becomes 100% clear by his comment, as he tries to explain away that pesky March 31 date.  After all, he said plainly:  it's not that Transgender Visibility Day (which he acknowledged is always March 31) and Easter happen to share the same day this year, but that the "problem," as he says outright, is that President Biden has recognized Transgender Visibility Day for three years now, whatever day it falls on.
 
Got it.  Thanks for clarifying things.  The “outrage” can’t be more blatant than that.
 
But the MAGOP “outrage” over non-existent reality didn’t even end there, of course.  Because…I mean, why should it?  They’re MAGOP.  They eat “outrage” for breakfast.
 
And after the reality about Transgender Visibility Day always being on March 3 for for the past 15 years became a hurdle too high to get over, the MAGOP world had to come up with something else to get “outraged” over.  And so, with no other "outrage" in sight, they manufactured a new lie.
 
What the new “outrage” was -- one that got regurgitated and repeated by MAGOPs across social media -- is something best expressed by a tweet that tried to dismiss the annual March 31 date as a mere piffle and change the subject to another supposed disgrace entirely:
 
“oh...it happens every year...so where did Biden wish everyone a happy Easter? Why did he push Easter to the back burner? Why didn't he come out and wish both? No [he] prioritized the alphabet event as usual.”

(I suspect "the alphabet event" means "DEI" -- diversity, equality and inclusion.  Something apparently this person believes would offend Jesus.)
 
But anyway, yes, that, then, suddenly became the new “outrage.”  That Joe Biden, devout Catholic, apparently didn’t wish people a Happy Easter.  And for reasons unknown to man, they actually believed this to be true.  Since, after all, belief tops reality among the MAGOPs and followers of Q conspiracies.  As another person wrote:
 
“My problem is he made no mention of Easter all weekend until now, after days of backlash.”
 
No mention of Easter all weekend, they cry!  No wishing everyone a happy Easter, they insist!  How, oh how, could it be!  It's the end of Easter, thanks to President Joe Biden!
 
If only had they had the good sense and common decency to…well, y’know – check it out.  Like this from the White House on Easter Sunday --

I mean, for goodness sake, take a look:  they even added a little Easter Bunny to the White House at the top!

And further, President Biden had this on Twitter, too.​

​Of course.

But yeah, if that March 31 date gets in your way, try insisting without the slightest whiff of evidence, and with utter and brazen stupidity that the deeply Catholic President Biden didn't wish Christians a Happy Easter.

But then, why not?  ​It's become the MAGOP mantra --

If at first you don't succeed -- lie, lie, lie, lie again.

Repeat and repeat.  Pass it on.

In the end, if your base is founded on believing that the only things true are what they want to be true, it makes life so much more comforting.

Unfortunately, reality has a way of rearing its head.  If you believe in your heart that the road you're driving on at 70 miles per hour goes straight to the horizon, when in truth 100 feet ahead there's a sudden cliff drop-off to the river far below, you will go crashing down very soon.  No matter what you believe.