Reality vs The GOP: A Matter of Perception
Who would have guessed that the United States Congress would take so long to elect a Speaker? Well, you probably didn’t have to guess. There is no way that bunch can reach an agreement about anything at all. That was the reason the Upstart Frat Boy fired the last one. The last Speaker, gasp, agreed with the President of the United States and kept the nation open with an agreement that the Frat Boy and his ilk found to be blasphemous. Not that he agreed with Ole Dark Brandon. Oh hell no. A. K…ing Keven agreed! That’s the beef. He agreed. It appears that agreeing is against the Republican Religion.
I don’t mean the Pseudo Christian Theocratic Evangelical Tin Hat Wearing Qanonists who stand out in every rain shower because this one might be the Storm. I mean the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus-eres who believe they were sufficiently mature at three years old to have mastered congressional strategies which they prove and reprove to themselves and the world with the art of saying the Magic Word. Noooooo!
This is the only belief these limited folks can risk believing to define real due to the parochial attitudes in the districts from which they originate. For example, I heard a Congressman from the South explain why he would not vote for one of the multitude of designated speakers because that one had voted for gay marriage. Mind you this was a guy who also voted for certifying the Biden election. Two stiles and you’re out rules, apparently. That and he is obviously a heathen.
Parochial beliefs about what is real can appear in strange ways. Take Ms. Bobo from Colorado. She does not quite understand the meaning of “reaching across the aisle” at least not in the way that the majority of Congress uses the phrase. Does not mean that she does not think she’s right. Scalise believes he has the goods on The Biden Clan but all he can muster is a bunch of malcontents. Yet the very things he is trying to accuse Scranton Joe on we all have observed D. Jailbird Tramp and his progeny embroiled in for the last several years. D. Jailbird Tramp himself believes he is so right that there is no value in him apologizing. He’s probably right but not for the reasons he touts. I doubt there would be a reason that would matter to anyone if he apologized for the chaos he’s brought about in the last year and a half or so.
There are Republicans who believe they are right about abortion. They are so right they will sacrifice their political careers on their rightness. There are Congress people whose arses are still chapped because Obama was elected president. I could go on and on but none of this crap is about religion at least not the religion these yahoos are claiming you know the one about Jesus and all? These are all parochial beliefs that folks back home use to define real. It is not comprehensible to any of these Tin Hats that they do not own reality. There are lots of ways to define it and the one they use is probably so limited as to be useless in the face of the myriad possibilities that actually exist that work to define that elusive idea known as reality. Now here’s an example that is going to chap arses in spades but mostly in white nationalists. Sorry spades it was there.
The following is a bible verse, Proverbs 6:16, which is used to support the idea that God don’t like no ‘bortions go’n on ‘round here. I’ve made some notations which are more nearly accurate concerning the meaning and application of the verse. This might just be one of the finest examples of Political sounding ignorance in play in today’s Republican Party.
Proverbs 6:16–19 -There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes (as in Grab ’em by the pussy, if you’re famous they’ll let you), a lying tongue (oh Lordy there are tapes and tapes and tapes). Hands that shed innocent blood, (how many people died on January 6th? I’m pretty sure none of the ones who died got up that morning and did a Clint Eastwood good day to die shtick). A heart that devises wicked plans (like that an election was stolen no matter how many lives had to be sacrificed. Right Ruby and Shaye?).
Feet that make haste to run to evil, (well, even though feet were not technically involved, Brad Ratzenberger did not call D. Jailbird. D. let his fingers do the walking but he just had to run on down to Georgia, as devils are wont to do, and interfere with shit he shoulda just left alone). False witness who breathes out lies (The Washington Post said that the liar in chief made a total of 30,573 false or misleading claims during his time in office¹. Here’s the best part: The Washington Post only counted one inaccurate claim per topic per venue, such as during a particular speech, tweet or interview. Could that be enough to count as breathing out lies?). And one who sows discord among brothers (kind of defines our boy D. Jailbird, doncha think?).
So, how does anyone make this verse about abortion? Is it a convenient belief that makes what you want to believe real? Believing is required to change the meaning of this verse to mean something other than what the words actually say. One could even say that to pretend this verse is not defining behavior for righteous men requires one to “make believe” that the verse can be manipulated to the convenience of limited Tin Hatted people, doesn’t it? To make it about abortion is another one of them alternate reality thingies ain’t it?
The problem seems to be related to the relationship the entire Republican party has with what they are allowed to include in reality. These are the folks who bitch about other people being woke, whatever that actually means, while they themselves are somehow blissfully numb to anything that takes place outside of their projected idea of reality. It is not that these folks are aware that the reality they “see” is by definition, projected on some screen in their very own thinking machinery which is the same condition everyone else on the planet is subject to. These poor souls think they are observing the external reality but cannot see that the reality they see is interpreted by their own internal reality projections.
What that means is that Ms. Bobo really can not see that reaching across the aisle is at odds with the public persona she’d like us to believe defines her. Scalise can not see that his performative accusations will never be real no matter how many disgruntled whistle blowers he can manifest. D Jailbird can insist that if he forces people to be loyal they will be. And…The entire Republican Party can believe they will not need Democrats to solve the non-partisan problem we all have because the Republicans couldn’t agree about electing a Speaker of the House. My god what a horror. Should anyone who calls themselves Republican or conservative or right wing actually consider that any other description of reality is just as valid as the one they worship, well then the world as we know it would come to an end. Maybe if it did we could keep a Speaker of the House. ’Cause what we’re doing now just ain’t working.
References
- Kessler, G., Rizzo, S., & Kelly, M. (2021, January 24). Analysis | Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30573 over 4 years. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 28, 2023, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/
If you’d like to support John (and any other writer on Medium!), the best way to do so is to engage with this blog. Claps, highlights, and comments are the best way to tell Medium that you want to see more of what John writes and help get his blog in front of more people. And if you haven’t already become a Medium member, joining gives you the opportunity to access all of John’s blogs, as well as thousands of other writers on the platform.
Thanks for reading, and John would love to hear your thoughts! Comment below, let’s start a discussion.