The next level of American political lunacy is proving difficult for me to conceptualize. I’m hoping the envisioning exercise is unnecessary, but if the polls are correct then it appears the Republicans are going to make significant gains across all the midterm political spectrums.
Which could prove to be interesting. Depending of course on how a person defines what’s interesting.
Because in order to be a proper Republican these days it seems that substance is irrelevant and performance politics is paramount. The good news for the performers is that being clever or thoughtful is unnecessary. In fact, from the look of things I’d say that coming across as educated isn’t going to help you connect with the base, and will actually be detrimental to your electability.
There are 469 seats available in November of this year in the American mid-terms. So I’m guessing the odds are good that more than one crowded clown car is about to arrive in Washington in November. I’m confident in the above assertion simply because the trending is so obvious.
Some people label this trending as Trumpism, but I think they’re only partially correct. Donnie isn’t the first nor will he be the last political figure to combine a blend of arrogance, aggression and ignorance and call it an ism. What Donnie added to the blend was his own particular pathology that resonated with the base for reasons that are depressing to even contemplate.
He brought his brand to American politics, and slightly over half the voters thought they were well represented by that brand. Which is the depressing to contemplate thing I was talking about earlier. Depressing because Don’s brand has always been to do and say whatever he needed to for his personal enrichment, and I’ve never been able to figure out how Trump voters calculated that Don at the helm was going to provide for anyone other than Don.
In order to promote his pre-presidency brand, Donald was free to misrepresent everything from real estate to charities and he was never really held to account. A few fines here and there are simply the price the wealthy pay for the freedom to break the law as they see fit. But I thought that ascending to the presidency would mean that Don would have to alter his style. Maybe be a little more covert. But Don didn’t change a thing about himself and apparently that was just fine.
So, his success was noted and emulated by Ted and Josh and Marge and Madison and they all jumped onto the brandwagon.
The problem is that in order to stay on the trump brand you need attention, and any attention is better than no attention. So if you can’t stand out with substance, then your best alternative to garner that attention is to whip up a recipe of shameless outrageousness with a side of noxious malevolence.
In my opinion this recipe for political success appears to be trending at the moment, and if I’m correct, then I’m back to pondering the attributes of the clown car occupants.
It’s possible that the new clowns in town may be nothing more than Marjorie mimics, or Cruz clones. Knock offs so to speak. But I think there’s going to be a new wave of representatives who got elected because they actually managed to out Marjorie the original Marjorie.
What I find alarming is that in some respects we’re seeing genuine representational democracy. Granted, you have to ignore the gerrymandering, voter suppression and disinformation campaigns, but some of these Marjorie’s actually represent their districts in attitude and not just in Washington. It’s likely that the people who elect these new Republicans may not agree with everything their candidate has to say, and so the trick to getting elected is saying enough to ensure that the voters find at least one thing you stand for that they agree with.
That means you need to find that one thing that scares your districts voters and then promise to fight against that thing. You also need to understand that the fear is visceral and not intellectual, and so it’s in your best interests to remind voters that if they’re not scared of that one thing, then they should be. People are remarkably receptive to some guidance helping them decide who to hate, and that darker side of humanity needs to be exploited at every opportunity.
If you have any questions about how this is done, you need to look no further than Tucker Carlson or Ron DeSantis for video instruction.
And so back to the clown car passengers.
I expect to see at least one representative who has dispensed with any decorum and declared homosexuality a sin and or a crime. I expect a white militia member. I expect a few Qanon adherents whose only debating skills are to accuse their adversaries of being pedophiles. I expect xenophobes and climate change deniers. I expect vaccine and science skeptics. I expect groomer accusers and wife abusers.
Speaking of domestic battery. I wonder if Hershel Walker is going to win a senate seat in Georgia. He’s lied his way through his campaign to this point, and not surprisingly that behavior has earned him an endorsement from Donnie. But he’s black and we’re talking about a Georgia senate seat here, so he’s going to need some white people to vote for him too. Quite a dilemma for a MAGA voting Georgian I’m guessing.
If he wins maybe they’ll name a section of the Georgia interstate after him. To be honest, I wouldn’t discount a white Republican governor naming I-285 the Hershel Highway as a sign of his distain for the people of Atlanta that didn’t vote for him.
So Hershel may get a ride in the clown car simply because of his blessing from Don, and that leads me to what I expect to be a popular clown car occupant.
The big lie, stolen election maga cult acolyte. People who are dedicated to delusion so strongly that they’re willing to nurture that delusion for two full years. If you’re ever looking for a political version of grooming then look no further than these people. They’ve been sculpted for the last six years by Fox and Infowars and the Trump brand and I’m relatively certain they’re coming to Washington.
They may not be sane but I don’t doubt they’ll be interesting. Assuming it’s correct to say that appalling can also be interesting.