Adam Keiper is quoted recently in the Bulwark, saying, “Between the immigration bill being DOA, the D.C. Circuit ruling on Trump's immunity, Tucker Carlson hanging out with Putin, the failed Mayorkas impeachment followed immediately by the failed Israel funding bill, and now Ronna stepping down, today feels like a perfect storm of GOP insanity.”
Except it doesn't feel like a perfect storm. It IS a perfect storm.
What I have to express this time around is how obvious all this bullshit is. Yes, people live in their insulated bubbles of misinformation, and it's impossible to penetrate those bubbles without encountering insanity on the level so intense that we all quickly unfriend and block it before it drives us insane as well.
But seriously, come on!
The Republicans had a good deal. A damned good deal! Perfect? No. But damned good. In exchange for all the border policing Republicans want, Democrats (and indeed, ALL of us) would get more aid to Ukraine, which we all desperately need. Also Israel, though less so.
And the Republicans scuttled it. Not because they objected to anything in the bill specifically, but because they wanted to deny Biden the win. They wanted to keep immigration reform as a key issue in the upcoming election.
One has to be a Trump follower in order to be that stupid.
They threw us all under the bus, just to make Biden a (very!) little bit more beatable.
What disgusts me the most is that Republicans will get away with it! The blood is SO on their hands for killing this bill. Yet they will point those bloody fingers at the Democrats and say, "They failed on immigration!"
And nobody, not one, among the right-wing masses will ever notice how red those pointing fingers are.
So I, as one cursed to see things as they actually are, have to resort to venting on this blog with a burning question: What will it take? At long last, what can finally shake Americans out of the goddamned tree of stupidity?!
Because it must happen. Yesterday. Or we're all doomed.
These past three years under Biden have been good, with one grave exception: There has been no urgency, zero, to counter the Right Wing Media Cult. None. Democrats have not only not countered it, they have yet to even try! By leaving conservatives in charge of the FCC, they are even actively encouraging it! They have allowed its expansion into Spanish-speaking talk radio unchecked. They felt the terror brought upon themselves through their own inaction on January 6th, 2021. And STILL they do nothing!
It's maddening. You want to scream, "For fuck's sake, DO something! ANYTHING!"
This is not a case where we all have to shrug our shoulders and say, "Well, that's just freedom of speech for you." No! This is a case where laws MUST be enacted forcing for-profit, ad-driven news sources to adhere to a minimum standard of truth-telling. In other words, right wing media can go on lying to people, exercising their freedom of speech to its fullest, but they cannot retain the label of "news" if they do so.
Yes, that will make the news less profitable, but GOOD! The news isn't meant to be profitable! Profitability is for the entertainment industry. And if news becomes entertainment, then it will only tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.
They need to hear that Republicans are now the most anti-immigration reform party ever!
They need to hear that Trump is the antichrist! (I'm an atheist and I find that argument compelling!)
We need the Fairness Doctrine brought back.
I don't think there's ever been a moment in history where so many people have so fully committed to something so stupid. With the possible exception of Nazi Germany, and yes, the comparison is apt.
It could happen here. It mustn't happen here.
In the name of God, American Christians are in league with Trump/Satan. And no, that's not hyperbole. That's observation.
There's an old prayer apt to this situation: "Oh, Lord, deliver us from your followers!"
At long last, what will it take?!
Eric
*
