Let’s be honest here. The Trump/GOP threat is still here, and it’s real. These conniving twits will still screw us every chance they get, and we can never let our guards down. What do they say, “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”? But for a group of people who hold every rein of government worth holding, they sure seem to have a lot of trouble getting out of their own way. And it’s not only beneficial to the rest of us, but it’s as amusing as hell if you look at it in the right light.
Let’s start with Paul Ryan and the House. It’s kind of funny what happens when you run on slogans, and not on ideas and plans. For 7 years the GOP, and especially Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell pounded home one theme, and one theme only; “Repeal Obamacare”. That was the mantra, the only real theme, and it became the sole benchmark for their base to believe in. And then they win it all, they can finally do it! And guess what? It turns out that just tossing 20M people, many of them GOP voters off of health care, and turning dictatorial control back to the insurance companies isn’t as easy as passing meaningless bills that would never become law. Suddenly it by necessity became “repeal and replace”, and the base isn’t buying that, they want the whole enchilada, like they were promised.
Also, it’s really very simple when you think about it. Even if you have plans, like tax reform, and a last minute, jury rigged replacement health care plan, you still need votes. And Paul Ryan has no freakin’ idea how to get them. Since the day he became Speaker, he never had to whip votes, he could get his caucus to vote for the ACA repeal because they all knew that Obama would never sign it. But he’s going to have a hard time getting anything to pass, because his caucus is not unified, it’s now fractured into three separate parts. The Freedom Caucus will oppose anything he offers up that is not destructive to the government itself. If he deals with them to get support, he loses the moderate “Tuesday fools” or whatever they calls themselves. Maybe now he knows why John Boehner danced out the door singing ‘zippety-do-dah”.
Ditch McConnell is no better off. He’s supposed to do nothing more than to be a conduit for bills from the House to Trump’s desk. But it’s not working. First one out of the box, his caucus comes out and promises that Trumpcare is DOA in the Senate. Some of his Senators have seen the protests and the town halls, they have to run for reelection, and they’re not walking the plank for a slogan. This killed Ryan in the House, all of his members are up for reelection, and they’re not walking the plank either if the damn thing isn’t going to get passed. Now he’s getting flak from a few members about changing the filibuster rules. He’s in almost as much trouble as Ryan is, especially since almost anything the House passes if they have to cater to the Tea Party will be toxic to the Senate.
Hair Furor and his brood of spoiled shitheels are getting to be almost as amusing. Let’s start with the man-child himself. For some unexplained reason, in his emotional and intellectual state, he seemed to think that being President would be like being the Queen of England, or any other monarch. largely ceremonial while the lower classes do the work. Having had to suffer the indignity of first the courts, followed by the Democrats, and even members of his own party defy him has sent him into repeated 2 y.o. tantrums on Twitter. He insults judges, whom the way he’s going he’s going to need, praying that they don’t block every shitty piece of legislation or EO with his name on it. He insults the Democrats, who could give a shit less, and he insults his own party, whom he requires to get anything at all done. The tweets alone are funny enough to fill an A-list comedy routine.
And it only gets better for both him and his Satan spawn. In one way, Trump is actually lucky that he has the Russia connection flap going on right now. With the revelation that not only is his son talking business with him, but also that he changed the terms of his trust to allow him unfettered and unsupervised access to both his funds and his business documents, if it wasn’t for the Russia scandal, everybody would be baying for his blood for violating the emoluments clause of the constitution, and even the GOP would have a hard time protecting him, none of them have “bases” strong enough at home to stem the deluge turnout of enraged non GOP constituents. But this Russia probe will not go on forever, and you can damn well bet that the Democrats have already memorized this topic, ready to hammer both him and the GOP over the head with it when it can consume the media coverage.
His kids are no better off. They always thought that a filthy rich daddy was the ultimate eraser. That might have been more likely to be true if Daddy hadn’t insulted and pissed off the media so much that at this point they’re like the FBI but without the guns and badges where the Trump clan is concerned. With the new revelations that Jared has not actually divested himself of his conflicting business interests, and the fact that Ivanka may not have either, and besides, she’s sitting in on and sometimes next to leaders of foreign nations that either make her line of gaudy crap, or whose country she wants to sell her line of gaudy crap in, and some minor bitching about ethics and emoluments violations have already started. It might well be that the Democrats want to tie this together in a pretty bow with Daddy when it can dominate the news to increase the humiliation, but it is out there, and it ain’t going anywhere.
So, while we are still in the most dangerous and perilous times for our country, there are spots of levity if you know where to look for them, and if you’re receptive to them The old saying is that “It’s always darkest just before the dawn”. I dunno, I always thought it was pretty freakin’ dark at 1 AM, but then wadda I know?. But in this dark freak show, there are the occasional northern lights if you just look up to see them. Be strong, and be confident. “We have met the enemy, and he is — an idiot!”.