Taking "Right" Out of the Far-Right

​Yesterday, far-right conservative Tom Cotton (R-AR) scathingly slammed Democrats on the Senate floor for their unanimous passage of the First Step Act, a crime bill that reduced some mandatory minimum sentences and has to goal to reduce America's prison population.

"It's your party who voted in lock step for the First Step Act,” Cotton railed, “that let thousands of violent felons on the street who have now committed innumerable violent crimes.”

One really big problem, as Sen. Dick Durbin rose to explain – two sponsors of the bill were Republicans Chuck Grassley and Mike Lee.  And Republicans were in the majority when it passed.  And...Trump signed the bill!!  As Durbin sarcastically called it, “The so-called Democratic measure,” an hugely bi-partisan bill that passed by 87-12.

After Durbin spoke, Cotton did acknowledge that Republicans had, indeed, supported the First Step Act.  "Yes, it's true that President Trump signed the First Step Act," Cotton admitted. "It was the worst mistake of the Trump administration. Yes, it's true that a number of Republican senators voted for it -- they were wrong."

At first, I was going to say, “To his credit, Cotton acknowledged Republicans supported the bill,” except there’s really no “credit” involved.  He’d been 100% wrong and had two options – denied it while standing in midst of all his colleagues, who had voted for the bill, and been totally humiliated and discredited, or he could have said, “Yes, it’s true.”  So, there wasn’t any real option.  But the point here is that he did something worse.

Cotton barely acknowledged being completely, embarrassingly wrong…and instead, tried to place the blame on others.  “It was the worst mistake of the Trump administration,” he said. “Yes, it's true that a number of Republican senators voted for it -- they were wrong."

No.  It’s Tom Cotton who was wrong.  Further, it’s not that “a number of Republican senators voted for it” – but, in fact, a majority of Republican senators voted for it!  If he wants to disagree with the bill, fine.  But he doesn’t get to turn this into a “Yes, but…” thing, most especially a “Yes, but you were wrong.”  Tom Cotton tried to excoriate Democrats on the Senate floor for the historical record.  He blamed his party’s opponents, period.  (For the historical record.)  And he did so because trying to “own the libs” is bloodsport for Republicans.  Who cares if you’re wrong, blame them.  Call every bill they pass “socialist,” even if you have no idea what socialism is – and this isn’t that?  Who cares, it plays great with your party that doesn’t seem to know any better.  Tell your supporters that Democrats eat babies in the basement of a pizza restaurant.  Who cares, your Q-party base believes it.  Send out fundraising letters outraged that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke federal law because she tore up a document that you know was just a photocopy that has been distributed to hundreds of people (including probably to you) and which was of a speech that many tens of millions of people heard, and is preserved on video.

So, no, it’s not “they were wrong.”  Tom Cotton was wrong.  And no apology – in fact, not even an admission of being wrong.  After all, he doesn’t say “I was wrong, but….”  He says, “It’s true Trump signed the First Step Act” and “It’s true a number of Republican senators voted for it.”  But “they were wrong.”

This, unfortunately, has become a far-right Republican standard.  Not just a Tom Cotton thing.  And not just being factually wrong about their slams of Democrats.  But being factually wrong, and openly letting it sit as correct.

Whenever Trump would say things that were factually wrong, his far-right Republican acolytes would respond that that’s the problem with Democrats – they go by what Trump says, while we go by what he means.  No, sorry, he was wrong.

In fact, just the day before I read this from Tom Cotton, I had a similar experience on social media.

Someone on Twitter posted a video of a Canadian politician chastising the Minister in a ridiculing way, comparing him to being like playing chess with a pigeon.  The woman posting this wrote this Canada was clearly through with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, just like Americans were through with Joe Biden.

Forgetting for the moment that, no, “Americans” aren’t through with Joe Biden even remotely.  Some are – though were through with Joe Biden before he was even sworn in.  Far more to the point is that the video was not what she said it was – in truth, it was from eight years ago, and was an attack against, not Justin Trudeau, but a local parliament minister!

I wrote back that “Using an 8-year-old video related to another politician entirely puts your analytical perception, honesty, and grasp of facts and reality in question.”  And then posted the full video of the clip she had used.”  And how did she respond?  Did she acknowledge being wrong?  Did she do a mea culpa?  Did she apologize?  Oh, tosh, you probably can figure out that, no, she of course did none of that.  What she did was write a one sentence response –

“The point is the same.”

I responded, “No, it's not. That's an empty attempt defending being wrong about FACTS. The video was NOT evidence of Canada "being thru" with their PM. It was on something else entirely! So, the fake-analogy (and reality) to President Biden was untrue, as well.”  I then noted that I don't debate deception. And said goodbye.  I have no idea how she replied to that, though, because I muted and then blocked her.  Life is long enough to respond to lies, but too short to debate them.

And that is so commonly becoming a norm in today’s fascist Republican Party – because causing distrust of authority and facts is a core foundation of fascism, because then the fascist leader can rise up and say, “You can’t trust the media, you can’t trust the courts, you can’t trust the intel services – you can only trust me.  Because I alone can fix it.”

And the cool thing for Republicans is that you can either be wrong by total mistake, but you’re off the hook because you can still blame Democrats – or you can knowingly be wrong and just blame Democrats as part of the process.

So, ignore the fact, be wrong, don’t apologize, blame those who corrected you, and use your error (intentional or otherwise) as being evidence of what you want others to believe the truth “really” is.

Being wrong is one thing.  Everyone is wrong about different matters from time to time.  However, saying “But that’s okay” is another thing entirely.  And sadly, that’s where we are far too often with today’s far-wrong Republican Party