In her ongoing search for what she stands for and trying to decide if she wants to be as extreme-right as her husband who’s co-founder and publisher of The Federalist or seem semi-moderate when it suits her or when someone on the right insults her late father, Meghan McCain has been leaning more to the former. And yesterday, she helped entrench her position there with a tweet that read -- This is pure, unadulterated crazy-talk. Reality continually shows itself otherwise. Life is too short to research all the many refutations, but a couple leaped out immediately, so I replied with them as just two basic, but blunt examples. The first is that just this year, in an Indiana GOP primary for town council, Republican voters ACTUALLY NOMINATED a man currently in jail who had admitted KILLNG his wife with cancer and then dumped her off a bridge!!! Okay, in fairness, no, that’s not a physical health issue. Other than the part about cancer and getting killed. But…well, I’d suggest it’s…er, overwhelmingly worse than nominating someone who has recovered impressively well from a stroke. As long as we’re getting all, y’know, high and mighty. And no, 17 rape allegations against Trump – including one currently in trial – isn’t a physical health matter either, though it hasn’t stopped much of the oh-so noble Republican base from considering him literally a Messiah from God. Let alone the long list of Republican officials and candidates accused of sexual abuse. (Meanwhile, when Al Franken had a claim made against him of a photo showing him making a bad joke pretending to touch a sleeping woman’s breast years before he was in the Senate when he was a comedian, he resigned. By today’s GOP Trump standards, he shouldn’t have been joking about such a thing and instead actually grabbed them because women let you do anything. If Franken was a Republican, he might be president today…) But going back to what dear Ms. McCain was specifically saying, OK, I'll add one more example to her truly-crazy pandering claim. She might have forgotten it, since it was so long ago – all the way back in 2016, a whole six years in the past. That’s when Republican Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois ran for re-election despite having suffered a debilitating stroke that kept him out of the Senate for a year! He had to relearn not only how to walk, but also how to talk! But to Meghan McCain, who fancies herself quite the political analyst because her father was a senator, if you dare claim that reality existed, if you dare point out that Mark Kirk was so weakened he was unable to work for an entire year and yet stayed in his Senate job and ran for re-election (ultimately losing to Tammy Duckworth), then you are a liar and a propagandist. Compared to Kirk, within just a few months of having his stroke John Fetterman was back campaigning. Within five months he was on a debate stage. Yes, he stumbled over some words. But so did his opponent Mehment Oz, who didn’t have an excuse. So did Trump, regularly. So, did George W. Bush. So, do most people. And John Fetterman will get even better. That’s how rehab works. By the way, there are currently two senators currently serving who had strokes. Without any concerns or outrage to how well they’re doing their jobs. In fact, I suspect most people would have no idea they had strokes. In fact, as Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out last night, Winston Churchill had an acute stroke when he was Prime Minister of England -- and even his cabinet didn't know for a year, when Churchill finally reported it. To pretty much no reaction by the country. So, what faux-Dr. McCain left out of her diatribe diagnosis is explaining why John Fetterman would be unable to do his job today if elected, let alone given that he would have two additional months before even being sworn in. (And if going back six years is too far for Meghan McCain to handle, how about right now, this year. That's when Republicans have nominated for the Senate and rallied around Herschel Walker. He's written openly about having disassociative identity disorder and repeatedly threatening to kill his wife. After a career playing football and getting concussions. But says now, he's "cured." Not that that's how disassociative identity disorder works, mind you. For the record, John Fetterman has never once tried to kill his wife. Or threaten a shootout with the police. And stroke patients do keep improving.) So, as I wrote back, I just wish she would spare us her ignorant NONSENSE. But that seems to be the standard of Republican efforts these days. Ignoring reality, saying whatever you want, literally lying, and throwing it all against the wall, no matter how untruthful, and letting it sit there for the world to see. Just the other day, Marco Rubio sent out a tweet about a campaign canvasser of his who he said was brutally beaten just for passing out flyers in what Rubio suggested was a Democratic neighborhood. The man was badly beaten, it was awful, and two men were arrested. Except, in the police report, there was zero mention of it being politically motivated. And it’s since come out that the man was a white supremacist provocateur—and has been arrested for armed burglary, grand theft and multiple probation violations, and is currently out on probation. And he was at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. And it turns out that the neighborhood was heavily Republican. And to make matters worse for Rubio (yes, that's possible), are the questions of not only why was this convicted white supremacist on probation canvassing for him -- but why is he on the payroll of the Florida Republican Committee??!! And that the victim didn't suggest the attack was politically motivated until Rubio tweeted it. Rubio has backed off from his charges, his campaign isn’t answering question, and there’s been no mea culpa or correction. So, the public charge and original Rubio tweet stays up there, for the world to see. On Monday, Rachel Maddow did a report about Republican “tricksters” who have been Photoshopping erroneous graphics onto pictures of t-shirts that Democratic candidates are wearing, making it look they are supporting wedge issues that they aren’t. And Photoshopping the skin tones of Democratic black candidates to make them look darker than they actually are. There is so much more. And we all know there is so much more because we have been inundated by it on the news for the past two years, and more. But the list it all would just be unbearable. Going back to "this week" is almost enough. (Just yesterday, on the heels of Meghan McCain's screed, Republican Jim Jordan posted an "outraged" tweet about unnamed stores in unnamed liberal cities that had to close due to violence. Of course, putting aside that he didn't include any details about anything he wrote, what he also didn't say is that the states with the five highest homicide rates are all Red. And that the 14 states listed on the InfoPlease site as "most unsafe" are ALL Red.) Do Democrats do inappropriate things on campaigns? I have no doubt. But they also are at such a lower level of truly malicious, lying, criminal deception and at an overwhelmingly-less frequency that they almost never crack the news. And I meant literally “criminal” – two Republican operatives were just sentenced "this week" (see what I mean? I wasn't kidding) for illegal robocalls they organized to attack black neighborhoods during the 2020 election. Meghan McCain, this week. Marco Rubio, this week. Jim Jordan, this week. Convicted robocallers, this week. And Ms. McCain blathers idiocy about the nobility of the Republican Party. We can't get past this week without getting muck all over our shoes. And it goes on and on and on and on from Republicans. But then, this is a party whose base no longer believes in the proven reality of election safety, and election denial has become a core of the GOP, even to the point of denying the fairness of elections before the elections occur! Unless, no doubt, they win. A party whose base believes in the word of “QAnon,” which by its very name is anonymous, they have absolutely No Idea who it is. Yet believe his/her/their/its word that JFK, Jr. is going to come back to life and run with Trump. And that Anderson Cooper eats babies. As has been clear to many, if not most rational people, the Republican Party has long since crossed the line from decency and pursuing democracy into a world where lies, white supremacy, abuse of women and fascism can reside together. But within the past few months, the GOP has seemingly gone into a new realm where reality does not appear to exist, and the party officials and base don’t seem to care. Where their moral compass is broken and unfixed. A realm where, like with Ms. McCain here and so many others (including Trump and his 30,000+ documented lies when in office that the GOP accepted), you can say near-anything you want, even if reality and the truth don't back them up or seemingly exist. A realm where they can support a white supremacist insurrectionist like Doug Mastriano for governor. Where they can support an incompetent, utter hypocrite liar like Herschel Walker, just because they want to “win” a Senate seat. Where they can support a virulent election denier like Kari Lake for governor and even posture her as a new face of the party. Where conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar are accepted and even growing voices in the party. The Republican Party may have crossed the line long ago, but they are now lost in a deep, dark Black Hole which is trying to suck democracy and the entire country down with it. Meghan McCain almost seems quaint when she writes, “If Fetterman was a GOPer, his campaign would be over. If you claim otherwise you are a liar and a propagandist.” Almost. But of course, there is nothing quaint about it. It is virulent lying with no connection to reality and without remorse. She is just one piece of the whole sick puzzle. And it fits in perfectly. It is a realm where reality has no place.
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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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