Running on Empty

​I’ve seen something very weird on Twitter the last couple of days.  Actually, okay, yes, I see something weird on Twitter pretty much every day, most especially since Elon Musk took it over, but this is hitting a separate level.  Whether it’s going to be a trend or just something occasionally desperate that will pop up from time to time as happens with those who are desperate, we’ll find out.

First, there was a tweet from the RNC Research account.  They attached a video of President Biden playing golf the day before on his vacation, and wrote that Joe Biden has taken a vacation for 180 days of his presidency.  Now, first of all, this is idiotic and clearly idiotic, the sort of thing that isn’t even remotely close enough to reality so that you don’t scratch your head and wonder, “Hmmm, could that be true??”  It’s ludicrous enough that most sane people will look at it and laugh and think, “No, riding a bike for exercise doesn’t count as a vacation.  Man, are they ever desperate.”  Second, the fact that this ludicrous, unbelievable comment was sent out by the official Republican “Research” account only serves to discredit the concept of Republican research the next time they want to offer something.  But third, and most of all beyond all that, is that their effort to slam President Biden enters the realm of The Law of Unintended Consequences, because all this ludicrous tweet accomplishes is to draw attention to all the golf that Trump actually, really played regularly for four years and all the vacations he actually, really, truly, honestly took – not to mention the golf courses he owns around the world, which leads to him hiding his taxes until he finally was forced to now, and everyone finding out the problems uncovered, including how much he may owe and possible crimes he may have committed.

Then, the next day – yesterday – came a tweet from some guy, apparently known on the extreme right, perhaps as a provocateur, who had been banned from Twitter until Elon Musk (of course) reinstated him.  He posted a tweet that I’m assuming attempted to be a joke along the lines of “The IRS hasn’t seen Joe Biden’s tax returns because he files them in Ukraine.”  Now, first, of course, it’s a well-known public fact that not only has President Biden released 23 years of his tax returns, but also they all have been posted online for everyone in the world to see.  So, right away, whatever comes after “The IRS hasn’t seen Joe Biden’s tax returns…” immediately stops the sane reader with, “Hunh??  What on earth are you talking about???!”  Second, as jokes go it’s terrible, because it not only starts with a totally unbelievable premise that immediately distracts the reader (a really bad thing to do when telling a joke), but also has a payoff that’s meaningless, since there’s nothing wrong with filing tax returns in any number of jurisdictions domestic and foreign.  At best, it’s the kind of quip that will get a smile of “Yeah, that’s true!” agreement from like minds.  Which undermines them (a really bad thing to do to your audience) since, of course, it’s widely known to be not even remotely true.  An actual joke would be something like, “The IRS is celebrating that it got Joe Biden to submit his tax returns to them because they were sure he would claim they should be filed in Ukraine.”  It’s not a good joke, but at least it’s a joke and funnier.  But third, and most importantly, the effort to slam President Biden enters the realm of The Law of Unintended Consequences, because all this ludicrous tweet accomplishes is to draw attention to the reality that President Biden has, in fact, impressively released 23 YEARS of taxes -- all posted on the Internet for everyone in the world to see.  As opposed to...well, you know. “You know” who was the first presidential candidate in half-a-century to not release his tax returns, promised to release them but actually fought releasing them for years, and once the IRS released them (as ordered to by the Supreme Court), all the problems Trump was trying to hide have been uncovered, including how much he may owe and possible crimes he may have committed.

And that’s the weird thing that extreme right voices are doing.  It’s one thing to say things that are incredibly stupid.  And it’s one thing to say things that are blatantly, monumentally untrue.  But it’s really weird to say things that are SO stupid and SO untrue that they only serve to draw attention to the awful (and possibly criminal) problems the person you’re trying to defend has.

Further, beyond drawing bright, shining Klieg light attention on Trump’s worst nature, it also raises the question, “Wait, is this the best slam you’ve got???!  You have nothing else??  All you can do is criticize President Biden for things everyone sane knows are wildly untrue??”  Other than giving comfort to those who already agree with you and appreciate embracing what is wildly untrue, it only shows your emptiness to everyone who you need to convince, so that you don’t have as bad an election result in 2024 as  you did in the Mid-terms.  It only shows your desperation.  It only shows that the person you’re trying to slam must be pretty good.

There are many things President Biden can be justifiably disagreed with.  But when you’re trying to reverse course and build support from your own serious problems -- starting with extremists, Insurrection, and fascism -- mere disagreement of policy is a hurdle because what you’re offering is monumentally worse.

As I said, I don’t know if this will be a continuing trend or just a case of coincidental, desperate imbecility.  It’s been a tactic that Republicans have done for decades (which I wrote about on the Huffington Post years ago) – attacking your opponents with your own worst qualities, to hopefully make it hard for them to criticize you for them.  But not at this level, not with this high degree of utterly-blatant stupidity that draws attention to you and to your problems you’re hoping to hide by attacking.  Which helps show the disarray Republicans are in these days.

But whether these kind of backfiring attacks are a trend or periodic coincidence, it does show either way that “You’ve got nothing.”  Which, when you’re trying to reverse course and build support, is a really bad place to be standing.