Yesterday was quite a show for the GOP. From local government to international politics, we could see where the conservative movement is heading and it’s both hilarious and scary. Anti-democratic agitators “overthrew” the elected school board in Asheville. The lieutenant governor went full anti-vaxxer in public. And the leading conservative pundit is cozying up to right-wing authoritarians in Europe.
First, let’s talk about Tucker Carlson’s trip to praise Hungary’s right-wing authoritarian leader Viktor Orban. Orban proudly says his movement is building an “illiberal state” and has instituted laws that reduce freedom speech and restrict learning in universities. He has passed measures that discriminate against minorities and the LGBTQ community. Carlson, of course, has been praising him as the savior of Europe and, last night, gave the strongman a platform to talk to conservative Americans about his illiberal views.
Carlson reminds me of Charles Lindberg and the parade of conservatives who praised European fascism before World War II. He’s becoming a conduit for the xenophobia that’s infecting places like Hungary, Poland, and the rural U.S. He’s little more than a prep-school version of Donald Trump. Like the ex-president, he’s a carnival barker who will follow the applause regardless of where it leads. Unfortunately, a bunch of other sheep will follow him down a dangerous anti-democratic path.
Next up, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson went full anti-vax, declaring anybody who promotes getting vaccinated should be voted out of office. I’m sure that came as a bit of a surprise to a whole bunch of Republicans who did public service announcements encouraging people to get vaccinated. Robinson apparently thinks Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore should be primaried and defeated. Either that or he’s full of shit, probably the latter.
To be fair, though, Mark Robinson is an idiot. He lucked into a position of authority that he’s not qualified to hold, even if it doesn’t have any real power. Like Carlson, he’ll say anything that gets him applause. For Robinson, that’s what politics is all about. He’s what the Republican Party has become.
Finally, the clown car showed up at a Buncombe County School Board meeting last night. Congressman Madison Cawthorn, who shares an intelligence quotient with Robinson, used the public comment period of the meeting to bash the school board for requiring masks instead of making them optional. Cawthorn is not interested in governing. He’s just interested in publicity. Like Robinson, he has no business anywhere near the levers of power.
After Cawthorn’s show, a group of belligerent parents, one wearing a “Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump shirt,” screamed at the board and accused them of ignoring “the people.” When the board took a break, they stormed the stage and declared themselves the new school board and voted to make masks optional. It was hilarious and pathetic. It was also dangerous.
Those poor, stupid people were following the lead of the January 6 crowd, trying to overthrow an elected government. They have little respect for democracy or governing. They are also a product of the Republican Party. The GOP has failed to hold anybody accountable for anything because they are scared of these ignorant, uneducated, misinformed people who make up their base. With the exception of Trump, the party has no leaders, just opportunists and cowards.
The combination of these three incidents paints a devastating picture of the Republican Party. The GOP has largely given up on democracy. As Carlson showed, they are looking to anti-western, authoritarian strongmen for examples of a post-democracy America. They embrace leaders like Mark Robinson and Madison Cawthorn who wear ignorance and bigotry as badges of honor. And they have given up on the rule of law and succumbed to the power of the mob to drive their agenda and excuse their transgressions. And people who were once the adults in the Republican Party are conspicuously absent or quiet.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
This is what happened after Madison came to make public comment.
https://youtu.be/BbI1MXQwkoI
Here is something I wrote this week about how all the trumpery anti-truth propaganda intertwines:
“Deep, Deep BS:
The world is in existential throws:
-the Amazon has 2 killing pandemics, destroying both man and forest. There is a vaccine for one. Can we find a “vaccine” for the other?
-managing CO2 seems likely only in a dream. But this real nightmare will not end until it ends us — or we wakeup! — in time to do something about it.
-“Delta” variant is deadly. Vax, breathe a sigh, or be lax and die.
-extreme weather it seems, yields fire, fear, floods, & and dry streams.
-sea level rise is on schedule to put us “six feet under”.
-nearly half the American people (and others?), receive the sound waves of TRUTH, but have installed sound barriers to keep them from hearing, use filters that prevent truth from reaching the senses, and/or have “‘bought’ opposite wave technology” that converts truTH to truMP.
-An entire major political party has been recruited (bribed & coerced) into this trumpery. If there are short term gains to be had by the GOP, (Goodbye Onerous Principles), there certainly will be long term losses to the society that may bankrupt democuracy (as easily, as notoriously, and as quickly as a Trump “deal”), and could cause an end of humanity.
We are in deep BS (Bull S–t), are permitting MS (more s–t), and are doing insufficient to keep it from being PHD (piled higher & deeper).
Everyone, shovel the BS away! And shovel hard. Enough of us must do so to reach herd immunity against this anti-truth pandemic.”
Edwin Orville Finch
As someone who’s dedicated most of my professional life to electing Republicans….this is true, painfully so.
This foolish has being going on since Reagan and it’s getting worse everyday. Keep speaking the truth. and vote for common sense people, that care about the well being of all Americans.
They are the new republiKKKan party. Idiots and opportunists is a perfect description.
Any politician would be a sucker to throw in with this ex-president. He is a loser based on what little we are learning from the leaked tax problems; I would suggest he has a higher concern over where his next dollar is coming from rather than making it back to the White House.
Unpaid taxes, penalties , attorney fees (these folks are getting their money up front based on past dealings ) and existing notes he cosigned, coupled with lower revenue from his properties are more of a pressing reality.
His former attorney commented several years ago that eventually he will have to sell off his properties to cover his upcoming debts.
Then, of course, there remains the criminal charges on the horizon from Georgia, New York, and possibility the Jan 6 shenanigans.
Here, here. Today’s GQP is not like the GOP i knew growing up in the 80’s and 90s although, by the late 90’s, with Gingrich in power, i knew this was taking us to a bad place somewhere. The Tea Partiers of the late oughts, ditto, another step on the road to fascism. Now, we’re there, where one party is fascist and the other, while not perfect, is definitely not. I know which side i’m on.
Great article. Thanks for the information!