The Fuckening Continues

 

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari .)

I'll admit it. I didn't vote for Biden. He's not my guy. But, as John Wayne had famously said of JFK's election, "I didn't vote for him but I hope he does a good job." And I'm saying the same thing about Biden. Of course, there are already things I'm seeing in the White House that I don't like: There are the usual round of corporate executives and "former" lobbyists that are part and parcel to every neoliberal presidential administration. And Biden is absolutely the Neo Anderson of neolibs.

     But for nearly a month, I've laid off the old guy. After four years of the psychological and political freak show of the last four years, I'd decided, as had so many of us, to just take some time off and bask in the glorious quotidian calm of this boring yet effective administration. It's the emotional version of having tinnitus for 48 straight months only to have the ringing abruptly go away. Bernie disagrees, but Twitter's lifetime ban on the last guy also greatly aids in the blessed relief for those of us who desperately needed a break from the constant lies, name-calling and threats on which, until the ban, the MSM had breathlessly reported and further amplified.

     However, in the background of that blessed silence, was the realization that getting rid of Trump last November 3rd wouldn't be the panacea to all our ills. Doing so wound up costing seven people, including three police officers, their very lives on or just subsequent to January 6th. We all know what that date means. once known as Epiphany Day. Donald Trump, at least in the short term, had robbed it of its thunder and replaced it with, "The Day the So-Called President Had a Public, Pants-Wetting Temper Tantrum and Tried to Get Thousands of Armed Thugs to Stop the Results of the Election He'd Lost at the Very Moment They Were About to be Certified."

     And no amount of press conferences or speeches by a hollow-eyed Joe Biden, his voice desiccated by age, and his glorious, stultifying boringness and much-needed pragmatism can change that.

     The last general election itself marked an important turning point in American history. November third marked the exact moment the Republican Party abruptly transitioned from being a mainstream conservative party with fringe elements embedded in it to being one in which the anti-democratic, fascist and racist fringe became the mainstream. At the risk of taking a page of the Rude Pundit's book, let us call this, The Fuckening.

     Because this wasn't a mere loss, the usual political ritual of when a Gerald Ford, George HW Bush or Jimmy Carter fails to win a second term and gently goes into that good night. No, no, no, that's now the old normal, just like the old normal that had been sledgehammered into wistful, gauzy memories after 9/11 and, since last year, COVID-19.

     The New Normal, at least as far as the right wing goes, is to challenge every election that a Republican loses. Just as going out without a mask or walking into a building or onto a plane without passing through a metal detector, concessions and concession speeches are so 20th century, quaint relics from a bygone age in which politics wasn't a viciously hyper-partisan blood sport 24/7. One has to literally squint to find any common ground on which all lawmakers in both parties can agree, including bestowing Congressional gold medals to the Capitol Police Officers who'd risked their lives to defend the very Republicans who'd subsequently refused to honor them.

     The Fuckening was given an evolutionary shot in the arm with the election that same fateful night of some certifiable whackjobs like Marjorie Taylor-Green, Lauren Boehbert and Madison Cawthorn, who was videotaped madly wheeling his way toward the January 6 riots like a moth to a flame.

How Do They Fuck Thee? Let Me Count the Ways...

 

It seems inconceivable that the same people who less than 20 years ago willingly gave up their rights for just the illusion of security would become the same who now scream about their rights and refuse to wear masks and socially distance for much more than just the illusion of security. And yet, that's what we are. The ones who'd gladly allowed their bags to be rifled at airport and stadium checkpoints while weakly mumbling, "Well, if it keeps us safer..." now holds their own safety and health as well as that of their fellow Americans in utter contempt.

     And part of the reason why Republicans lost just three incumbents in the Senate and nearly took back the house and why Trump received 11,000,000 more votes than he had in 2016 was because Republicans promised to give them everything that radical electorate wanted (short of jobs and stimulus checks), no matter how extreme or outlandish their demands.

    Time and again, we've heard Republicans piously demanding that the "some people" who'd had "questions" about the presidential election results deserved to have their voices heard (a refrain we hadn't once heard from them when liberals and Democratic voters had legitimate questions after the clusterfucked 2000 and 2004 elections. Back then, the refrain was, "You lost. Deal with it.").

    Only then it's worth listening to the electorate, provided they voted for the same guy who'd incidentally put those questions in their head before, during and after the election. Other Republicans followed suit like toddlers imitating their father, challenging their own election losses in their downballot races. Proving what dittoheads right wingers the world over are, in the wake of their own elections, Israel's Likud Party, anticipating major losses, is about to launch an offensive aimed at their own right wing voters calling for them to question unfavorable election results.

     The Fuckening is metastasizing and going global.

    Add to this the run of the mill wingnuttery of Republicans screaming hoarsely about nonexistent liberal gun-grabbing every time there's a mass shooting (proving Americans refuse to relinquish some cherished traditions such as mass shootings), and, while screaming hoarsely about nonexistent voter fraud, race-based vote caging and, while screaming hoarsely about nonexistent toilet misappropriation, a neverending war on transgender rights.

     While Donald Trump's crushing loss in the 2020  election was absolutely essential to the survival of our democracy, it turned out to be a double-edged sword. While restoring sanity back in the government (at least in the Executive branch), it simultaneously made things worse. Trump skated through his second impeachment, every Republican in both chambers voted against the latest stimulus bill just because Biden wanted it, they're bitterly opposed to a transgender rights bill, a voting rights bill and even the renewal of the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act).In fact, Republican obstruction is such that Democrats like Biden and Manchin, who've gone on record as opposing ending it, are now seeing that ending the filibuster will be the only way to protect the voting rights of all minorities.

     And let's not forget, the vast majority of Republicans voted in opposition to the Electoral College  results the same day the Capitol Building was invaded and their lives placed at hazard. It didn't matter to them that Trump himself had let slip the dogs of war and directed them into their workplace. Trump beat the impeachment rap again, they're still ginning up white grievance over the election results and, despite the spate of mass shootings, despite over 90% of Americans in favor of gun background checks, the GOP still refuses to listen to the vox populi as long as right wing donors and groups wave large sums of money beneath their snouts.