Reading between the lines of the new GOP playbook
While you were busy worrying about other things like how to keep Matt Gaetz away from your children, etc., the Republican party in Connecticut got a new party chairman.
Her name is Sue and she is a magical cat who is part rainbow, part unicorn and part butterfly. She has wonderful adventures with her friends, QAnon the Owl and Proud Boy the turtle, although she does not necessarily endorse the views of either one at this time. Further study is needed.
Technically, the above is not true. Sue Hatfield, the new chairwoman, is an ordinary human being, although I would like to point out that there is an actual children’s television show called “Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty,” to whom I say, “Pick a lane.”
Hatfield, meanwhile, has taken the place of longtime chair J. R. Romano, who left for a job as Director of Munitions of the Romulan Star Empire “a major interstellar state encompassing the Romulan people and their subject worlds and species, with whose families he plans to spend more time,” according to the press release I got.
As one of her first acts, she has published an op- ed in these very same Hearst Connecticut newspapers explaining her vision for the future.
“I think it might be time to get everyone around that plastic Graco picnic table, hand out the wooden spoons and Hoodsie cups, and go over a few important ‘ Moms Rules’ that can govern both life and politics,” is an actual line from the op- ed.
Indeed, let’s go over some of those rules.
Hatfield: “On the Little League Field or at the local hockey rink our children line up after each game and fist bump the players on the opposing team as they say ‘ good game’ or ‘ congratulations.’ Our children display this respectful act even when they find it difficult to do so.”
Me: Another thing the children can do is link arms and chant “stop the steal,” while claiming they were deprived of victory by invisible cheating. Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 election and, in the process, destabilize our system of government, are one of the many pressing issues of the day about which Hatfield has been stunningly silent.
It’s a little bit like, the day after Pinochet was deposed, sunnily announcing, “You know what’s bad? Hurting people.” A lovely sentiment, but where were you when he was torturing his opponents?
Hatfield: “Huddle Up — There is No ‘ I’ In Team. The other moms and I teach our children that there is no ‘ I’ in ‘ T- EA- M’ and they should ‘ huddle up’ around their teammates when they fumble a play on the athletic field.”
Me: Yes, but there is an “I” in “insurrection.” Two “I’s” when you get right down to it. The people who invaded the U. S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were coming for your teammate Mike Pence. The rioters were shouting “where’s
Mike Pence?” and “hang Mike Pence.” Even if you think he “fumbled a play” by refusing to decertify the election results, you’re supposed to huddle up around him. Make a forceful public statement. Which you did not do.
Hatfield: “
Me: When Trump tweeted, “The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! ... They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!,” that would have been a great time for you to make that point. The friend thing?
Hatfield: “
Me: When Trump, speaking of progressive congresswomen, said: “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” that would have been a great time for you to make this point.
Hatfield: “An excellent book that can serve as a refresher of these and other important “Mom Rules” is Robert Fulghum’s famous book ‘ All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.’ ”
Me: All this stuff about Mom Rules is fine, when moms get to be with their children, but in 2018, during her run for attorney general, Hatfield was pressed hard by the New Haven Independent’s Paul Bass and went on record as supporting Trump’s policy separation of children from their parents at the border. It’s nice to be a mom who can drop her children off at kindergarten. It’s nice to be a mom who can even find her children.
Three cheers for Hatfield for trying to set this new tone. It’s badly needed. The problem: it’s a cheap date with her conscience. It’s not going to cost her much, although the foaming- at- themouth Trumpers have already diagnosed this as a repudiation of their Great Pumpkin.
The pricier date would have been a few months ago or a few months before that or a few months before a few months before that. But you only have to scroll back to Sept. 22, 2020 on her Twitter feed to find “Check out my new banner” and a picture of her and Romano holding a Trump and Pence sign.
The only way her current words mean anything at all will be if she will tell Republicans to let go of the idea that the election was stolen and that Biden is an illegitimate usurper. A majority of Republicans still believe the election was rigged. They need to hear from their leaders that it wasn’t. Or, as Fulghum succinctly put it: “Flush.”
Colin McEnroe’s column appears every Sunday, his newsletter comes out every Thursday and you can hear his radio show every weekday on WNPR 90.5. Email him at colin@ ctpublic. org. Sign up for his newsletter at http:// bit. ly/ colinmcenroe.