Mr. Write's Page

Just one day after 100 CEOs threatened to withhold financial support from the two Republican senators facing runoffs in Georgia, the Trump Administration relented and okayed Biden’s formal transition as President-Elect.

Technically, the head of the GSA finally did her job and signed off on Biden’s victory. Word is, Trump allowed it after aides assured him he wouldn’t be required to concede.

I remain astounded by the guy’s utter lack of class, integrity, and decency. What a putz.

We had to endure four years of President Grab-Em because an appalling number of people convinced themselves that a vote for Trump was better than siding with those awful bleeding-heart socialist lib-tards.

The Trump faithful justified their votes by embracing as truth the obvious lies and propaganda fed to them by their right-wing thought leaders. What a bunch of putzes.

A few decades ago, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) observed, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

That truism is especially relevant today, in this era of (1) Trump, (2) a particularly vile crop of Republican politicians, and (3) the MAGA crowd, our new national embarrassment. That’s quite a villainous trifecta, and all three are happy to dream up facts of their own liking.

A while back, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) illustrated Moynihan’s point by falsely attributing the quote to — who else? — Ronald Reagan. That’s called irony, people.

Moynihan was a centrist Democrat and much more of an intellectual than most politicians. He noted one key difference between the political left and right:

“The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”

A valid point, but unfortunately for us, the conservatives figured out ways to militarize culture and thus have weakened and perverted politics to the breaking point.

One wretched example: we continue to set records daily for COVID infections and deaths, even though we could take simple steps to protect ourselves. The conservatives sabotaged any hope of that by politicizing the wearing of face masks. Facts be damned.

Or consider that, with exceptions you can count on both hands, America’s Republican politicians, elected and appointed, remain silent while Trump pouts, refuses to admit he lost the election, delayed Biden’s transition, and schemes to stay in office by any means he can gin up. Facts be damned.

Or consider that three-quarters of Republican voters say they think Biden won because of voter fraud, a claim that is not only false, but delusional.

It’s a fact that Trump voters have been conditioned to think in ways that defy logic and ignore reality. Their thought processes, however, are easy enough to follow.

In their minds, “minorities” dominate population centers such as Detroit and Atlanta, and “minorities” are known to be, well, less honest than, you know, real Americans.

To the MAGA faithful, it’s as simple as that. The big-city “minorities” are unscrupulous people who could, would, and did engage in voter fraud on a massive scale.

Any evidence of that? None at all. Zero.

Facts be damned.

It boggles the mind that one-third of the American population is aboard the right-wing crazy train. They have chug-a-lugged the Republican Kool-Aid and liberated themselves from any obligation to acknowledge reality.

I wouldn’t know how that feels because I’m a rational adult. I use my brain. And my brain has questions.

My brain wants to know why Donald Trump and a long list of cowardly, craven Republican officials, elected and appointed, are not already facing criminal charges for malfeasance in office, dereliction of duty, and betraying their country.

My brain wants to know why Biden and the Democrats haven’t already taken that whole contemptible bunch to court.

Democrats, it’s fair to say, are not as skilled as Republicans at playing political hardball. It’s just a simple fact that liberals are not as mean, sneaky, and underhanded as conservatives.

Well, the Dems need to toughen up, because the lunatic right wing seems perfectly willing to bring down the house. That’s a sobering thought.

For now, however, Biden and Harris won, demonstrating that decency and integrity are not dead.

But God knows what’s ahead of us.

One last point: when you think about the damage caused over the course of the Trump years, don’t forget the example his actions and behavior have set — and, for now, continue to set.