Monday, May 29, 2017

BRA: A Moral Holiday

No, this is not about Memorial Day.  The "moral" is not a reference to war and warriors.

It is about the political environment here in this Banana Republic of America (BRA.)

A candidate pummels a newspaper reporter and breaks his glasses.  The following day he is elected!
Gianforte’s staffers reported that, rather than shunning the candidate, the conservative grass roots seemed to be rallying around him: his campaign pulled in more than a hundred thousand dollars in donations between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. “Gianforte, the manly and studly candidate, threw the hundred-and-twenty-five-pound wet-dishrag reporter from the Guardian to the ground,” Rush Limbaugh said. Duncan Hunter, the conservative congressman from California, said, “It’s not appropriate behavior—unless the reporter deserved it.”
The manliest of men, indeed, for beating up a reporter, who "deserved it"!  What a warrior!

Hey,  this is to be expected under a king, er, president, who famously said that he could "shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters" and proved himself correct by winning the elections, right?
The possibility, becoming likelier these days, is not that American voters will affirmatively turn toward authoritarianism but that political partisanship is the condition under which we lose touch with ourselves.
Meanwhile, the man with bone spurs that prevented him from killing a few commies, and who loves his golden showers, stepped outside the BRA and continued to lead his party and the country down a moral decline:
He and his supporters have repeatedly tested the limits of political impunity, and thus far they have survived. Yes, the FBI continues to function, pending the appointment of its next director. Yes too, the special counsel continues to investigate, subject to whatever action the attorney general and president may take against him. But Greg Gianforte is headed to Congress. Jared Kushner and Donald Trump will soon return to the West Wing. There, they’ll continue to deploy the powers of the presidency to protect themselves. They’ll leverage dark and dangerous forces in American society to help them. Someday, maybe, they will cease to get away with it. But not yet.
Mayday, mayday!!!


2 comments:

Ramesh said...

Yes, it seems anything goes in the incredibly highly partisan politics in your country. Its sad - your politicians led the world in the past on decency and trying to do the right thing. now its only extremists on both sides who prevail.

Contrast that with the behaviour of the French right. Take Fillon for example or Juppe. After they lost the Presidential primaries or the first round, they chose to support Macron instead of Le Pen, even though they did not like Macron's centrist or leftist policies. Contrast that with Cruz, Rubio, et al.

By the was "studly" is a new one. I have to enrol in an American language course :)

Sriram Khé said...

Yep, the way the French candidates ganged up against the real threat--LePen--was impressive. A similar thing is happening in Germany now--Merkel's opponents are clear in their vehement opposition to trump, whom they consider the real danger to the country and to the world.
63 million assholes (especially the GOP leaders!) voted for the asshole-in-chief, whose buddies are the likes of erdogan, el-sisi, duterte, ... :(