It’s now frighteningly close to Election Day. November 5 has been touted as “the day the world waits for its biopsy result.” That is unfortunately all too true. What America does is important to the world. If it starts here, it will spread. If anti-democracy starts here, which is conceivable if the American electorate makes the wrong call in two weeks time, then the course of world history can be altered. Isn’t it amazing that an elderly game show host, an out of work clown, a man whose only life achievement is to understand how to use television to invent an untrue caricature of himself and then sell it to the electorate and stupifyingly gain access to the Oval Office, is back for a third time with the same scam?
The black comedy of all this has always been that Trump was the dog who finally caught the car — and then didn’t know what to do with it. Trump bumbled his way through an interminable four years, at the end of which 1.1 million Americans were no longer on this side of the grass, due to his pathetic inability to deal with the 2020 pandemic. And that, in many ways, was the least of his bungling. America’s reputation on the world stage was forever altered.
Two women are trying to right this wrong. Charlie Sykes called them “the Odd Couple,” and yes, in a sense they certainly are that. And it was nothing that I would have anticipated seeing, Liz Cheney on a stage with Kamala Harris, telling undecided voters that they should vote for Harris. Cheney’s best line of the night was when Dan Voboril, an undecided and retired school teacher, wanted to know how to convince people like him and his conservative siblings that Trump will worsen the “toxicity” in American culture. Cheney’s reply: “If you wouldn’t hire somebody to babysit your kids, then you shouldn’t make that guy the president of the United States.”
That’s the awful truth of this situation. No right thinking parent would leave their kids with Donald Trump while they went to the theater, particularly if they had girl children, but yet they wonder if they should give him another four years as steward of the nuclear codes and representative of America to the world.
If you can take an hour and listen to this tape, it’s well worth it. Kamala Harris makes the point that our similarities far outweigh our differences. Charlie Sykes makes the point that this election is not about Democrats v. Republicans but something far more primal, is America going to continue in the world as the America we know, the shining light of liberty in this world? And Liz Cheney pulls no punches. She plays bad cop to Harris’s good cop and lets it all fly. Lindsey Graham’s ears are burning, I’ll say that much. Cheney said, “Don’t listen to Lindsey Graham. That’s good life advice.”
If Graham was a better man, the kind of man he was when he was pals with both John McCain and Joe Biden, he would be up there on the dais with all of them, and not Trump’s preening lap dog.
Harris pointed out that all the people who were there with Trump the first time, to keep him following the law, are no longer there. That is the plain, sobering truth.
Not only would the guard rails be gone, but people like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and others would be the voices in his ear.
Lindsey Graham was never, and I mean NEVER made of the substance he’s given credit for one-time having. He managed to win a GOP primary in SC which was enough to safely get him into the Senate. But he’d have been like most Senators who if you think about it aren’t really known outside their own states by people who aren’t political junkies. But win that first re-election and the seat is that Senator’s for as long as they want it with all the perks that come with it. Nice gig if you can get it.
In Graham’s case he was hungry for a higher profile and as I said not made of the kind of stuff that could sponsor and push major legislation through to passage, or shape policy. Or perhaps more accurately be the leader of such things. As a result he became a Political Parasite and needed a host. I’ve referred to him as Lamprey Lindsey because he’s like that disgusting creature (technically it’s not actually an eel but it’s thought of as such) known as the Lamprey which once it latches on to a larger host creature never lets go until the host dies or is too weak to sustain it.
John McCain was Graham’s “host” and Graham feasted for all he was worth and given McCain’s bi-partisan relationships including with staunch opponents (Joe Biden for instance) Graham couldn’t have chosen a better “Host.” Then McCain got sick. He was dying and all of a sudden Graham needed to find himself a new Host to feed off of. Incredibly Graham took the gamble of latching onto Trump. Damn if the one time in his life he took a chance and goddamit it paid off for him. Trump of course has known the score from the start. He’s had Lindsey Graham types around him his entire life and being as disgusting as the eel in some cases he didn’t mind. Graham and Trump have served each other well.
Graham might be genuinely freaking out over the prospect of Trump losing. If that happens Trump is no more good to him than John McCain in his last couple of months. The thing is, Graham knows damn well there will be no new “Host” that will allow him to sink his teeth into them. He too will be finished. And in Georgia he might yet face criminal charges of his own although it might be getting too late to file a case. Perhaps he can get caught up in one of the other federal cases. But I can’t help but think of Graham as a Lamprey. Take a look at one and then tell me it’s not an apt comparison:
This country has never been a shining light of liberty in this world. If a city doesn’t shine for everyone, it ISN’T a shining light of liberty. I don’t care if there are worse countries than ours. Our track record with regard to liberty sucks unless you are a white, male, xtian and have a few bucks. Simple truth.
Thank you, Ursula, for a terrific passage: “amazing that an elderly game show host, an out of work clown, a man whose only life achievement is to understand how to use television to invent an untrue caricature of himself and then sell it to the electorate and stupifyingly gain access to the Oval Office”
Wa-HOOOO!