Like A Beer in the Headlights

If you’re like me, you’ve been keeping up with every key moment of the January 6th commission hearings. At this point, you're probably having dreams where Liz Cheney is lecturing you in a steady tone about a big lie, while flanked by Representatives Elaine Luria and Adam Kinzinger saying "DERELICTION OF DUTY..." on repeat. If you're not careful, Nancy Pelosi might show up in your dreams, and let's just say she's not that great in dreams. Liz on the other hand is a dream come true for the conservative movement. I've celebrated Liz on this blog and for the record, my invitation to do a bourbon tasting with her still stands.

After the completion of the 8th hearing, it’s fascinating to watch what the Republicans are doing in response.

Nothing.

The elected officials on the right are doing nothing to shore up the image of their Party. They're barely defending or disputing the Committee's claims on Trump's actions. With the exception of the Republicans who sit on the Committee, Republicans are basically doing nothing.

That is unless you want to call “calling the Presidential actions a sham” a sham is doing something. Because this is one thing the right is doing when they find a moment in their schedule for the biggest matter concerning government today; its existence.

It's evident that the Republicans are playing their cards right too. A recent poll finds that 61% of republicans feel that Donald Trump's actions were appropriate during the events of January 6th. Some might say throwing ketchup on the Whitehouse walls is careless and inevitably costs taxpayers money in cleaning supplies and paint, but throwing a kid's meal at the wall doesn't make you a bad president. It just makes you a child. Most Republican voters aren't concerned about the ketchup, much less the clear effort to overthrow an election he lost. Or perhaps they don't even know.

I can understand why the Republican Establishment is trying to avoid the topic of January 6th though. It's because the evidence of corruption is not just against Trump. It points at many in the Republican Party.

I watch a lot of political news and commentary, but I don't watch sports. Especially track & field or running sports of any kind. It's because I get enough running by watching Senator Josh Hawley running for his life through the Capitol, with his fist bump still ready to be pumped, should the violent mob request it one more time. It is precisely because I don't watch running sports that I didn't know that Josh had bad form when running through federal buildings in leather-soled shoes and a suit. But a runner wearing a slim-fitting suit is not the only thing that didn't fit the moment. It was also the counter-democratic strategy pervading Congress and the Whitehouse that also seem unfitting for a Senator, a job reserved for no more than 100 people in the entire country.

It was stated best by my favorite writer, independent journalist Matt Labash (sorry Rachel Hollis, maybe try a book called "Girl Don't Wash Your Jeans" or something?). Matt said, of Josh, the would-be H&M model made Senator from Missouri in the subtitle of his recent article “Josh Hawley outran the January 6 mob, but can he outrun his karma?”

The obvious answer is 'who knows' because as long as he stays within the republican party it's unclear if integrity will ever be a prerequisite for getting elected – Labash, a Conservative writer, is routinely critical of the likes of Josh, his preferred boss, Trump, and other election deniers, and circus professionals like Lauren Boebert. I would imagine, it's probably because he likes being conservative, and possibly enjoys the Constitution and the benefits of voting. He likes criticizing gender fluidity and disputing Al Gore's position as the creator of the internet and doesn't like Bernie Sanders' mittens. To be honest, to be so pure in conservatism sounds appealing, with or without knitted winter attire. Matt Labash is one of the good ones, and whether she is the daughter of Darth Vader or not, Liz is one of the good ones too.

To be fair, integrity has always been a hindrance to holding public office. Although as I understand it Richard Nixon has mixed feelings on this toward the end of his life, being an honest man is not a recipe for staying in office. For Josh Hawley, his saving grace is to have an electorate that is only watching Fox News, and attending Turning Point conferences, not tainted by the basic news often referred to as "information" by its fans or the boredom of major congressional hearings. At said conferences, Ted Cruise is a rock star, a status he earns from a room full of people in blue suits with red ties, and Lauren Boebert flows seamlessly between trashing people to citing scripture (WWJD ammiright?!).

Matt Gaetz, between child sex trafficking activities, spoke at the same conference. He managed to inspire the crowd by saying that people that attend a Pro-Choice rally are "just disgusting" and have "the least likelihood of getting pregnant". Gaetz was applauded for shaming pro-choice rallies attendees when he said they look "like a thumb". It's obvious that thumbs are not Matt's type, unless they're attached to an underage girl texting him. We know he prefers his illegitimate sexual partners to be young and generally unpregnant, at least to start off.

All this has very little to do with the January 6th Hearings. And of course, that is the point. In the same way that Matt Gaetz is trying to draw attention away from the fact that he is being investigated for child sex trafficking, that is exactly the way that the Republican Party is responding to the January 6th Committee hearings. By directing people's attention anywhere else.

The Republican Party has said to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, so they can put all their effort to stay in power, at the cost of America.

The typical conservative American is sitting, staring in their beer, oblivious to the actions their own party is taking against them. They have been distracted by single-issue voting strategies while they ignore the ways that their own voting power in a citizen-run nation is being taken from them. The Republican agenda is to reclaim power not just from the Democratic party, but away from the Conservatives who put them in office, to begin with.

That is the most undemocratic thing I can think of.