The Grand Illusion
Many long years ago, when my children were much younger than my grandchildren currently are, they watched the original version of Sesame Street. Among other jingles I recall was one presenting four items to a song entitled “One of These Things” (Is Not Like the Others). The idea was for the youngsters watching to pick out the item that was different.
When the latest predictable Republican flail came up, this time about Hunter Biden, I wondered if any of those Republicans had watched Sesame Street. Probably not, because it was likely too liberal for their parents. But they should have because the vast majority of Republicans in Congress seem unable to make any sort of meaningful distinctions about anything.
They don’t see the difference between dangerous immigrants and those willing to work hard and obey the laws of the land. They don’t see the difference between involuntarily or unwittingly retaining a few classified documents and returning them as soon as they found out and deliberately taking and hiding hundreds, if not thousands of classified documents, and then justifying it by legal falsehoods. They don’t see the difference between paying taxes late in one or two years and bilking the government with falsified records for decades. They don’t see the difference between limited shading the truth and making over thirty-thousand false or misleading statements over an entire term.
They not only don’t see the difference, but they’re trying to prosecute Democrats for minor failings while blatantly ignoring massive disregard of the laws and longstanding U.S. traditions (like the peaceful transfer of power).
But if they reject the concept of knowing the difference as expressed on Sesame Street, because it’s too “liberal,” what about the concept as expressed in their favorite book – the Bible? The one that says:
“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
Nope… they even don’t follow their own holy book… except when it serves to oppress others in some fashion.
What I find just as frightening is, all those people who voted for those Congresspeople. What are they thinking?
Maybe I should punctuate that differently. What, are they thinking?
They’ve been told that the game is rigged, that “elites” or “the swamp” are trying to run their lives.
The nasty part of this mind-virus is that they’re not invited to engage with and change the system. Instead, they’re told that it’s all a “con” and that they should be in on it with the Republican party.
They aren’t. Let’s look at something small recently. Governor Greg Abbot of TX recently tweeted about how Garth Brooks was booed off the stage in a TX Country Festival. How “Go Woke and Go Broke”, how Garth called conservatives idiots and how it proves what America actually feels.
The problems? Well first of all Garth Brooks never called Conservatives en masse idiots, he called people having a fit that Transgender people exist idiots. Second, he was never boo’d off any stage. The “Article” Governor Abbot quoted was from a Satirical site called the Dunning Kruger Times.
Now many of us are laughing at this, questioning why the Gov doesn’t fact check. But I don’t think that’s the issue. Certain people WANT to be offended and WANT their biases confirmed. I think Abbot knew it was fake but also knew his followers wouldn’t check or care, they’d just assume it’s true and parrot it out.
Sadly he’s proving right.