Republicans so far gone that they can’t recognize their own madness
When Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican rebuttal to the State of the Union address Tuesday night, she revealed just how “normal” violence, hatred and vitriol have become in the Republican Party.
Republicans had already done enough to damage the party’s brand before and during President Joe Biden’s speech to a joint session of Congress. Dressed in what social media users quickly dubbed “Cruella Deville couture,” congressional toddler Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia began the day by carrying a white balloon through the halls of the Capitol in an apparent attempt to criticize Biden’s handling of a Chinese spy balloon. That publicity stunt never got off the ground because people already knew three similar balloons had entered U.S. airspace during the presidency of her idol, Donald Trump. Unlike Biden’s team, the Trump administration didn’t even detect the balloons, let alone send a fully armed F-22 to shoot them out of the sky.
With the balloon stunt officially popped, Greene abandoned her recent attempts at moderation and returned to the age-old tactic of all toddlers: throwing a temper tantrum and screaming on the floor wherever she happened to be. In this case, it was the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
She was joined in her screaming tantrum by dozens of other Republicans, all of whom collectively helped Biden appear poised, confident and level-headed as he discussed his accomplishments thus far and his vision for the future.
The president threw jabs at the opposition, to be sure, but all of them were based on actual policy proposals put forward by Republican leadership. The GOP countered with screams, shouts, boos and other uncontrolled iterations of incoherent frothmouthed fury.
So it was against that backdrop that Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican rebuttal, declaring that “the dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy.”
We agree. Though we also think she missed a few adjectives, like dangerous, ignorant, racist, unconstitutional and un-american. The past president’s apologist also needs to take a good long look in the mirror before she starts decrying crazies.
While the fact that the aforementioned Greene blamed wildfires on a conspiracy of Jews using “space lasers,” and another
Republican congressman, George Santos of New York, lied about his mother’s death in the 9/11 attacks in order to win votes is crazy, those accusations don’t even begin to scratch the surface of violence, conspiracy and hatred lurking in the Republican Party.
Just this week, Huckabee Sanders advocated for eliminating parents’ rights to make decisions about their own children’s health care and to instead have the state regulate what options are available to parents and pediatricians. Her Republican colleagues in 22 states have proposed similar restrictions on parental authority over their children’s health care.
She also advocated this week for banning drag shows in her state — a clear violation of First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression that has been proposed by Republicans in at least nine states. That’s not just crazy, it’s unconstitutional.
Another Republican leader, Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, has been leading his own attacks on free speech, pushing through laws like “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop Woke.” Those laws are already leading to removal of hundreds of books from library shelves in a symbolic (though not yet literal) book burning across Florida. Free speech has been silenced as teachers, administrators and students alike fear the consequences of discussing any topics that may touch on African American history or LGBTQ+ identity, or essentially any element of history that involved discrimination. Desantis has even limited the ability to “speak” through the ballot box by attacking the voting rights of Black, brown and low-income Floridians.
Meanwhile, Huckabee Sanders pointed to Biden’s “radical” agenda of fighting for “crazy” “woke” ideas like reducing health care and prescription costs, rebuilding America’s infrastructure, limiting government intrusion on parental rights and promoting free speech. If anything epitomizes the GOP’S slithering madness, it’s this: Republican leadership is so deranged that it regards a decidedly centrist Democrat as “crazy.”
Yet, for conspiratorial extremists like Huckabee Sanders, Desantis and Greene, the lines couldn’t be more clearly drawn.
For the new generation of Republican leadership, “normal” means criminalizing free speech and free expression, and giving a group of violent conspiracy theorists control of the House of Representatives.
Mere discussion of the real social and economic challenges facing Americans must be silenced, because discussing a problem means acknowledging that there are challenges facing Americans beyond the imaginary rhetorical boogeymen they’ve created. Being frank about our challenges means we are obligated to do something about them. Something that is wise, fair to all and resolves both the challenge and any conflicts it might present. It requires being a grownup rather than being an internet troll.
In a refreshing moment of honesty at the State of the Union, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-utah, told Santos that he “didn’t belong here.” Romney later told reporters that, “Given the fact that he’s under ethics investigation, he should be sitting in the back row and being quiet instead of parading in front of the president.” Unfortunately, Romney’s willingness to put country before party appears to be a vanishing trait among his fellow Republicans.
The GOP has no policy platform, no economic platform and no plan for moving the United States forward beyond screaming at their enemies, silencing dissent and otherwise “owning the libs.” They don’t need a policy platform. Their new normal begins and ends with compliance and a return to the violence, vitriol and hate that was once normal under Jim Crow. Everything else is “crazy,” plain and simple.
Being frank about our challenges means we are obligated to do something about them. ... It requires being a grownup rather than being an internet troll.