Exit through the grift shop
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." (Churchill)
If Rex Tillerson and Bob Corker have had enough, and are willing to be quoted, you can be sure that many others have, too. One day soon, a delegation will visit the White House and say what the nurse in Streetcar says to Blanche: "It's time to go."
That stunt in Indianapolis was not just a staggering waste of money and time; it was a signal to the believers that Pence will carry on the culture wars in his own way, pushing the same homophobic, anti-choice agenda he imposed on Indiana. But he'll do it without all the crazy tweets and without a bunch of loathsome relatives, insidiously, colorlessly. It will be the same racism and misogyny, because that's all the right has. Hate is their oxygen. David Duke and Steve Bannon and Richard Spencer will be unhappy; maybe they'll move to Idaho and start their own "country." Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham will be unhappy, but they'll get over it, comforted by enormous paychecks. We'll get tax cuts for the rich and repeal of the ACA and there will be no more idiot talk about The Wall -- Pence never promised a wall, did he? And though his hands are far from clean, it's not Pence that Robert Mueller is closing in on.
Trump has become a dead, decaying albatross. The one thing he was good at was rallying the "base" to a high level of frenzy, getting them to attack reporters and even friendly non-whites, leading the "lock her up" chant and joining in a group orgasm of rage. So what happened in Alabama, a state so deep-redneck you can't believe they walk upright? He couldn't even get them to vote for a sitting senator.
He's useless, a running joke, an international laughingstock. One day soon, a delegation will visit the White House, like the one that came in the summer of 1974, and they will say, "It's time to go." They will make him think it was his idea, because if they mention impeachment or the Twenty-fifth Amendment, he'll push back like a toddler who doesn't want to take a nap. For health reasons, or for the good of the country, or because the old bone spurs are acting up, or to spend more time with his businesses, he will go. He will go before the 2018 midterms.
"Our long national nightmare is over," Gerald Ford said, and it's hard to imagine Mike Pence coming up with anything better. Like Ford, his one virtue is that nobody hates him -- there's really nothing there. He knows how the system works and how not to crash around it like a bumper car with a loose wheel. He won't throw paper products at Latinos or tag an unstable Asian dictator with a dumb nickname; his racism is institutional, not emotional. He may replace some of the more incompetent appointees, but why bother? He has no more interest in the environment or the public schools or public housing than Trump. The public will see someone who works hard, doesn't play golf every weekend, goes to church on Sunday and hides the Republican agenda behind a bland, modest, apparently sane façade -- fascism with a human face. The late-night comedians will make a few jokes and give up. In fact, they may continue to joke about Trump, still tweeting madly in his Fortress of Turpitude; his name alone will get cheap laughs, like Bill Clinton's blowjobs, because we already know the gag.
The polls are not improving. The agenda is not being enacted. The white nativists are restless. The delegation is forming.
Let the healing begin.
If Rex Tillerson and Bob Corker have had enough, and are willing to be quoted, you can be sure that many others have, too. One day soon, a delegation will visit the White House and say what the nurse in Streetcar says to Blanche: "It's time to go."
That stunt in Indianapolis was not just a staggering waste of money and time; it was a signal to the believers that Pence will carry on the culture wars in his own way, pushing the same homophobic, anti-choice agenda he imposed on Indiana. But he'll do it without all the crazy tweets and without a bunch of loathsome relatives, insidiously, colorlessly. It will be the same racism and misogyny, because that's all the right has. Hate is their oxygen. David Duke and Steve Bannon and Richard Spencer will be unhappy; maybe they'll move to Idaho and start their own "country." Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham will be unhappy, but they'll get over it, comforted by enormous paychecks. We'll get tax cuts for the rich and repeal of the ACA and there will be no more idiot talk about The Wall -- Pence never promised a wall, did he? And though his hands are far from clean, it's not Pence that Robert Mueller is closing in on.
Trump has become a dead, decaying albatross. The one thing he was good at was rallying the "base" to a high level of frenzy, getting them to attack reporters and even friendly non-whites, leading the "lock her up" chant and joining in a group orgasm of rage. So what happened in Alabama, a state so deep-redneck you can't believe they walk upright? He couldn't even get them to vote for a sitting senator.
He's useless, a running joke, an international laughingstock. One day soon, a delegation will visit the White House, like the one that came in the summer of 1974, and they will say, "It's time to go." They will make him think it was his idea, because if they mention impeachment or the Twenty-fifth Amendment, he'll push back like a toddler who doesn't want to take a nap. For health reasons, or for the good of the country, or because the old bone spurs are acting up, or to spend more time with his businesses, he will go. He will go before the 2018 midterms.
"Our long national nightmare is over," Gerald Ford said, and it's hard to imagine Mike Pence coming up with anything better. Like Ford, his one virtue is that nobody hates him -- there's really nothing there. He knows how the system works and how not to crash around it like a bumper car with a loose wheel. He won't throw paper products at Latinos or tag an unstable Asian dictator with a dumb nickname; his racism is institutional, not emotional. He may replace some of the more incompetent appointees, but why bother? He has no more interest in the environment or the public schools or public housing than Trump. The public will see someone who works hard, doesn't play golf every weekend, goes to church on Sunday and hides the Republican agenda behind a bland, modest, apparently sane façade -- fascism with a human face. The late-night comedians will make a few jokes and give up. In fact, they may continue to joke about Trump, still tweeting madly in his Fortress of Turpitude; his name alone will get cheap laughs, like Bill Clinton's blowjobs, because we already know the gag.
The polls are not improving. The agenda is not being enacted. The white nativists are restless. The delegation is forming.
Let the healing begin.
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 12:12 PM
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