Does Anyone in the GOP Ever Mean What They Say?

I just heard a report from the New York Times that Kevin and Moscow Mitch wanted to run Daren the XLV out of the Republican Party⁸. At least they did when they were still cleaning up the mess in their pants after the January 6th events. Now they kind of support the guy. Since that eventful day they’ve both done their best to try to unite the party so they could hold on to the power of their offices. In other words, both men seem to be not only lying, but pretty much spineless as well.

I understand that they are politicians and that kind of person lies for a living, but this represents the basest and most blatant lie there is. Moscow Mitch and Kevin both know that the Orange Baby did everything possible to overturn the last election yet deny that knowledge as having merit or weight. A week or so after the events of January 6th, Kevin, bless his heart, hauled his sorry behind down to Mar Lago to kiss the ring or something⁶. Who can trust that kind of two faced behavior in anyone? I don’t care if Kevin is a politician. A man should say what he means and mean what he says.

Sissela Bok said in her book “Lying: Moral Choice in the Public and Private Life”, “that the principle of veracity is a minimal necessity for a functioning society. This is a lowest-common denominator principle based on the common human intuition to favor truth instead of lies. Humans across time and cultures prefer truth because trust in some degree of veracity functions as a foundation of relationships among human beings. When this trust shatters or wears away, institutions collapse.”¹ What part of this is difficult to understand in light of how close The XLV came to becoming a dictator for life, like his buddy Vlad Putin?

Truth is always related to context, but isn’t the context of a mob running rampant through the capital calling for Nancy Pelosi and hunting Mike Pence context enough? We all saw Mitt Romney have to run the opposite direction because the mob was storming in that exit from the building. No doubt the other senator from Utah was tucked away safe and sound because he knew what was coming. Maybe he didn’t know, but he knew what had been planned. Mike had encouraged the planning. Had Mike been honest about that? Well, not so much. Did he do anything illegal, again, not so much. Is he guilty of wrongdoing? Of course he is. Now, the question is if the people of Utah are going to put their votes where their mouths are?

Marge lied about her involvement with the planning of January 6th and now is crying because there are people in Georgia who think she should not be allowed to go back and redo what she’s already done⁵. Jimmy Jordan won’t come clean about what he knew or maybe what he participated in at the University with the wrestlers³. Joshy Hawley has been nothing less than an embarrassment to his sponsor back in Missouri. During the recent confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court, Joshy insisted that the candidate had a record of going easy on people who prey on children as sex toys². Matt is actually accused of such behavior and he’s an accepted part of that whole clique⁴.

Is it any wonder that folks don’t have confidence in the government? But here’s where I have to scratch my head and my butt. Folks are mad with Old Joe. Joe isn’t the one lying to them. That’s not to say that Joe doesn’t lie. He’s a politician. Of course he lies. But not like the clique lies. Joe wasn’t exactly honest about the effect that the stimulus package was going to have on inflation, for example. But people needed the help at the time. The roll out was not as carefully planned as it could have been, but then the help for the small business folks the previous administration rolled out, was so fraught with fraud, that there are still people being prosecuted for misrepresenting themselves and essentially stealing money that was to help struggling businesses.

This is the growing problem. When we all can see that our leaders are less than honest, then we can also be less than honest. But for some reason we tend to treat our lying leaders with the same metrics that Mark over at Facebook does. If the politician is bold in his statements then he is deemed to be alright. The Orange Baby is the most blatant example of that thought. If anyone has ever sounded like he was sure of himself while he was lying through his teeth, the OB would be the poster child for that behavior. Just pause for a second and remember how confident he sounded when he told the Georgia Secretary of State, “We won the state.”⁹ He knew at that moment he was lying. Yet he delivered that line as though it were God himself speaking.

The mob at the capital in early January of 2021 exemplifies the problem with leaders who lie. It appears that the majority of those people really believed that what they were doing was patriotic and righteous. It wasn’t, but they had believed it was. John Lilly once wrote, “whatever we believe to be true either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found.⁷” I have a lot of trouble saying the people who ran through the capital that day were rotten folks. They were not and are not. But they believed something to be true that was not true, and they acted on that belief to their detriment.

We could consider people like Rudy and the lawyer Eastman as examples of believing to detrimental extremes. Rudy had been considered as America’s Mayor. But now? He’s remembered for a press conference where his hair dye ran down his face. Lawyer Eastman is still out and about trying to convince state legislators to decertify the 2020 election, so that Daren the XLV can be reinstated as president. That can not be a good thing to have on your resume.

There is an old saying that probably has its origins with the Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus. “The wheels of God grind slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.” For all these politicians from Moscow Mitch to Marge to Joshy to Jimmy to Donny, “his own self take heed”. Old sayings hang around for Millenium because they represent an aspect of reality that we really must pay attention to.

I’m going to return to an idea I’ve expressed here a number of times. The Washington beltway crowd thinks that the midterms are going to be a bloodbath for the Democrats. That might be true, but it won’t be true if the Republican Party fields even more liars. Goofball conspiracies are probably not going to be as popular this election as they have been in the past. I don’t think the American populace cares to endure more division and celebration of non-democratic rhetoric. I can’t imagine how folks will vote for supporters of Vlad’s efforts to murder Ukrainian civilians in the streets and hit train stations with rockets. I think that good old common horse sense is just going to prevail and that kind of horse sense can not support cruelty to animals or humans. In that regard Old Joe may have a bad hand in most areas from inflation to the Covid pandemic, but not in the practicality of defending basic human rights. And THAT may be the most important aspect of his presidency.

References

1. Bok, S. (1999). Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life. Vintage Books.

2. Bolton, A. (2022, March 22). Hawley, Jackson clash over handling of child pornography case. The Hill. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/599304-hawley-jackson-engage-in-dramatic-clash-over-handling-of-child-pornography/

3. Devine, C., Griffin, D., & Kamp, P. (2020, March 6). Six former wrestlers say Rep. Jim Jordan knew about abusive OSU doctor. CNN. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/06/politics/jordan-osu-wrestlers-strauss-invs/index.html

4. Fandos, N. (2021, March 31). Matt Gaetz Under Investigation Over Possible Sex Trafficking. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/politics/matt-gaetz-sex-trafficking-investigation.html

5. Kika, T., Mandel, B., Waggoner, K., Pilkington, P., & Chang, G. G. (2022, April 19). ‘I Did Nothing Wrong’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Snaps After Jan. 6 Question. Newsweek. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-response-january-6-legal-challenge-1699116

6. Levin, B. (2022, April 21). “Take Care of the Son of a Bitch”: McConnell and McCarthy Talked a Big Game About Dumping Trump After January 6, Then Did Nothing Like the Cowards They Are. Vanity Fair. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/mitch-mcconell-kevin-mccarthy-donald-trump-january-6

7. Lilly, J. C. (1987). Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer Theory and Experiments. Communication Research Institute.

8. Martin, J. (2022, April 21). McConnell and McCarthy’s Jan. 6 Fury at Trump Faded by February. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us/politics/trump-mitch-mcconnell-kevin-mccarthy.html

9. Saul, S. (2021, May 26). Trump, in Taped Call, Pressured Georgia Official to ‘Find’ Votes to Overturn Election (Published 2021). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia.html