Tuesday, June 02, 2020

“There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come.”

I try to keep this blog apolitical, but wow, what a piece by George Will in the Washington Post.  Here's how it ends:

In life’s unforgiving arithmetic, we are the sum of our choices. Congressional Republicans have made theirs for more than 1,200 days. We cannot know all the measures necessary to restore the nation’s domestic health and international standing, but we know the first step: Senate Republicans must be routed, as condign punishment for their Vichyite collaboration, leaving the Republican remnant to wonder: Was it sensible to sacrifice dignity, such as it ever was, and to shed principles, if convictions so easily jettisoned could be dignified as principles, for . . . what? Praying people should pray, and all others should hope: May I never crave anything as much as these people crave membership in the world’s most risible deliberative body.

A political party’s primary function is to bestow its imprimatur on candidates, thereby proclaiming: This is who we are. In 2016, the Republican Party gave its principal nomination to a vulgarian and then toiled to elect him. And to stock Congress with invertebrates whose unswerving abjectness has enabled his institutional vandalism, who have voiced no serious objections to his Niagara of lies, and whom T.S. Eliot anticipated:

We are the hollow men . . .

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass

or rats’ feet over broken glass . . .


Those who think our unhinged president’s recent mania about a murder two decades ago that never happened represents his moral nadir have missed the lesson of his life: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come. Which implicates national security: Abroad, anti-Americanism sleeps lightly when it sleeps at all, and it is wide-awake as decent people judge our nation’s health by the character of those to whom power is entrusted. Watching, too, are indecent people in Beijing and Moscow.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try harderto keep it apolitical.

Rumpole said...

Try harder to voice an opinion. All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men and women to remain silent.

Today is the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. Sec of State Pompeo is meeting with people who protested there. I am just wondering how he squares those brave souls actions with his president who yesterday moved armed riot troops into the park across from the White House to attack peaceful protestors?
What is sauce for Peking duck is not sauce for the American turkey?

You should always post the ignorant rants of people like 9:14. They should be heard so they can rightfully be embarrassed by their ideas.

Anonymous said...

Oh no, Trump has lost the DC-bowtie-wearing vote.

Anonymous said...

And by "DC-bowtie-wearing vote," you mean all Republicans with IQs above 120. It was a fairly small group even before Trump, but these people have almost universally left the Republican party.

Anonymous said...

Tell me more oh white, liberal, privileged, Mercedes/Porsche driving, suburban living, college educated folks.

Anonymous said...

Is this how you suggest to handle it?

https://jonathanturley.org/2020/06/02/the-trump-administration-may-have-its-first-domestic-terrorism-case/

Anonymous said...

@945

I was born in the 70s watching the optimism of Reagan as he amnestied millions of decent and hard working immigrants, the amazing coalition built by Bush 41, and the patriotism and decency of McCain (watch it again if you've forgotten: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrnRU3ocIH4).

In the 90s, when I turned 18, I registered as a republican.

Twenty years later, just after election day 2016, I changed my party affiliation and became a "no party affiliation" voter. I don't feel that I left the republican party. The republican party left me the day it nominated and supported the election to the highest office in the land of a hateful man who has no decency and who clearly neither loves or understands what the Untied States is all about. #EPluribusUnum

Trump and the republican party have lost a lot more than the "DC-bowtie-wearing vote;" they have lost the vote of decent-minded people who believe that the ends don't justify the means.

Anonymous said...

This is the president of the United States: https://youtu.be/0AtAgLsDkF4

Anonymous said...

I drive a Tesla. So does Markus.

Unknown said...

The Fat Lady has not even left her house. The only way Biden can win is if he has about a 10 point lead over Trump because a lot of folks will just go in and vote for him as opposed to the party which has mastered PC talk and delivers nothing, except that it thinks it can tax most people up the Kazoos and give it away. But, guys, people with money won't make as much if it is taxed heavily, and the "peaceful protesters" across from the White House who injured 60 Secret Service agents can perhaps receive guaranteed payments to cover their weed needs.
By the way, this Blog is much better if it stays apolitical because the readership of the Gerstein Blog is juts getting more nd more "progressive," with a lot of folks just not reading it, as the editor puffs his self importance up on a daily basis.

Anonymous said...

David, lol please. George Will? Good one.