In recent days, Adam Schiff has mentioned he’s considering a Senate run in 2024 when Dianne Feinstein retires. Schiff and Eric Swalwell were both considering a run in 2018 but Feinstein upended all plans where (unfortunately) she decided to run for one more term, and so everyone else dropped out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Swalwell considers a Senate run again – and maybe even Gavin Newsom, though he’d likely wait to see if President Biden decides to run again or not. And for all I know Katie Porter might consider a Senate run (in part because she’s talented and popular throughout the blue state, but also in part because, unlike most of California, she’s in a purple district and has a tough run every year.) [UPDATE: Hours after writing the above, Katie Porter announced her run for the Senate.] I bring all this up for a different reason, though. When the story broke, Dinesh D’Souza posted a tweet that said, “He’s a joke.” Not the most substantive response to be sure, but at least one didn’t have to waste much time reading it. Of course, the funniest thing about his tweet calling someone else a joke is that it came from a guy man convicted of a felony and given a pardon by the twice-impeached president currently under at least five federal and state investigations. But I bring this all up for yet a different reason. It’s that in response to D’Souza’s tweet came a string of agreements from loyal acolytes who got the Schiff Memo long ago, and said things about Rep. Schiff like, “He should be in prison a very long time ago.” And “He should be going to jail.” And “Running before he’s thrown out. Still need to indict for JAN 6.” (I haven’t quite figured that one out yet.) “I hope he leaves in handcuffs.” “He can run and leave his spot, but justice will come for him, and has a better shot of holding a seat in jail.” And “It is going to be a hot, messy Schiff show when he goes to trial.” And…well, okay, you get the point. The extreme-right, crazy MAGAs think Adam Schiff should be in jail. I get it. Well, up to a point. I get that those so far on the right-wing fringe they’re at risk of falling off the edge thing Adam Schiff should be in jail. I’m just not sure why they think this. I think it has something to do with him saying something as an exaggeration during Trump’s second impeachment trial that, as a paraphrased exaggeration to make a point, it wasn’t actually factual. But if so, exaggerating is not yet considering a federal crime. Or a state crime. Or even a faux-pas. At worst, it’s a cousin to a malaprop. But what Schiff said wasn’t even that. It was an exaggeration for context. At least, I think that’s what has their shorts bunched up. Since none of these people ever seem to say what particular crime Adam Schiff has committed for which he should be in prison, it’s hard to be sure. (And this doesn’t include the guy who thinks Rep. Schiff should be indicted for something on January 6, for which I not only don’t have an idea what it is or could be, I’m not sure the guy does either. It just seems to sound damning to those who don’t attempt to think.) And then today comes the news that Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who was a House leader of the Insurrection, and last month voted against a bill to protect child sex abuse victims and whose own family said he should be removed from Congress, said that Dr. Jill Biden should be investigated for no known reason. Yes, honest. I love vibrant political debate. But I'm past debating things like if Adam Schiff should be in jail or that Jill Biden should be investigated. There seems to be an ongoing belief on the extreme right that if you don’t agree with them you are a traitor or a socialist Commie or shouldn’t be allowed to vote or should be put in jail. Or any combination of all four. It is no doubt a shock to many on the extreme right when they discover this perception of their world doesn’t mesh with reality. When someone has a different opinion from you, that isn't actually considered a legal crime -- even if you also have a blinding, unthinking hatred for the person. The charm of fascist delusion, wanting to jail those you don't like who are different, has worn off. A big complaint of many Republicans is that they hate “the libs” for being arrogant elitists who look down at Republicans as stupid. What I always want to say in return is that when your party's base is near-united in truly, actually, honestly believing that Adam Schiff should be in prison because he exaggerated, you only serve to give liberals -- and sane people -- evidence that supports their claims. The problem is that it’s impossible to criticize every lunatic charge by Republicans, it’s like trying to catch a swarm of bees, one by one. And yes, I mean “lunatic charge." Just as one more example, also yesterday (it could be almost any day, so going back only one day for all these examples is the easiest way to fly) I came across a posting on social media by someone who goes by the handle “RealSCAREY” (and that’s another giveaway, when people go on rants but won’t use their actual names) and posted the following. I'm embedding the actual tweet for those who might be skeptical. And, yes, this was real. At first I thought it was posted as sarcasm. Then, after checking it out, I realized, no, it was just massive, unrelenting, intentional lies to disrupt.
Indeed, it was so bizarre that it was too difficult to let stand, so I took a deep breath and wrote back. I said, “What's actually ‘RealSCAREY’ is there are people who still -- 2 years later & with all the evidence made public contradicting ALL this, including video -- are so nihilistic & delusional they believe any of this is true. And ‘RealSCAREY’ that the new Musk-Twitter is OK with disinformation like this.” And that was just yesterday. As were all these “Adam Schiff should be in jail” tweets. Among a great many others. Yesterday. And these were the only ones on my personal feed. That I saw. We won’t even get into what’s posted on the extreme MAGA sections of Twitter and far-right crazy platforms. And yes, it is crazy. And then you can now add that a Republican Congressman thinks Jill Biden should be investigated. The best I can offer when wanting to catch the bees and explain as politely as I can to someone that “No, I’m not calling you insane because I’m arrogant, it’s because you’re actually nuts” is to explain – “When the base of your party follows a literally anonymous source, that actually has ‘anonymous’ in its QAnon name and believes JFK Jr. is coming back to life to run with Trump and that Anderson Cooper eats babies, that is crazy insane. And if one doesn’t like being called stupid, then it's best not to believe idiotic things like that or support a party for which that is the base.” To be clear, I don’t think all Republicans are delusional like this. Moreover, I don’t think that if someone has delusional opinions on something that they are crazy about everything – many people have blind spots. I just think that if you do have crazy delusional opinions about something, you shouldn’t get upset at others when they point out those opinions are stupid. Instead, you should thank them for directing you towards sanity. You’re welcome.
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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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