Soon the orange brown husk that is called trumpty plumpty will crack open and out will crawl the offspring of Eloon known as, "X@1*$^$$?X$" who will reveal themselves to be the one true leader of the rubepublican party.
As always, thank you for your debt service rubes.Yesterday’s chaos on Capitol Hill was primarily a story about Donald Trump and Elon Musk, these two unfit humans who will, more than anyone else, influence the fate of the world’s oldest democracy and only superpower over the next four years.
But let’s take a moment to note the other players on stage, the neglected players with minor roles, what one might call the extras. I’m speaking of course about our elected representatives—in particular our elected Republican representatives. They played their part in yesterday’s theater of the absurd, in which an agreement their own House leader had crafted to fund the government was blown up by Musk’s disapproval of it, and then Trump’s 11th-hour demand to add a debt ceiling hike to it.
Their capitulation was necessary to the success of Trump’s and Musk’s willful bullying.
One might note that these representatives actually hold current government office, unlike Trump and Musk. They have actual responsibilities, unlike Trump and Musk. Indeed they have sworn an oath to the Constitution that they will “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office” they hold.
Yet, needless to say, their priority isn’t to well and faithfully discharge their duties. Their priority is to listen closely so that when Trump and Musk say, “Jump,” they promptly ask, “How high?”
They are the Kent Brockman Republicans. As you will recall, in a 1994 episode of The Simpsons, Brockman, the pompous local news anchor, was convinced that the Earth was about to be invaded and conquered by giant space ants. He fearfully announces his willingness, his eagerness, to submit to the invaders:
One thing is for certain: There is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
Brockman presumably feared for his life. Or feared the terrible torture of enraged ants. What do these Republican representatives fear?
Loss of office through primary challenges. That was Musk and Trump’s threat on social media: “Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this [support the continuing resolution to keep the government open] should, and will, be Primaried [sic].”
Is the prospect of a primary challenge as awful as being devoured by ants? Apparently so, judging from the behavior of our Republican representatives.
One could try to reason with those elected representatives, pointing out that any primaries are over a year away; that it’s unclear Trump would even follow through on this threat, let alone win scores of primaries against incumbent Republican members; that their voters may actually be more upset if they willingly shut down the government over the holidays at the behest of the world’s richest man. But making such arguments would be in vain. When fear has taken over, reason goes out the window.
The House Republicans fear their incoming insect overlords. So they capitulate to them before they’ve even taken office.
In recent years it’s become a Republican talking point, when attacking some reform that might strengthen our democracy, to say, But we’re a republic, not a democracy. It’s true that the Founders made the case for a representative republic as opposed to direct democracy. Part of that case, as explained in Federalist No. 10, is that “the delegation of the government to a small number of citizens elected by the rest” should have the effect:
"to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves."
Republicans once claimed to admire Madison and Hamilton. But the Founding Father for today’s Republicans is Kent Brockman.
