There was an amusing little dust up on MSNBC last night. Bulwark editor Charlie Sykes was asked to comment on Thomas Massie’s egregiously tone deaf Christmas card photo of la famille armed for bear, in light of four children being murdered at school last week in Michigan. Sykes called the display a “dick pic” which caused the host to flutter and respond, “Sorry, everybody, I’m not sure we can say that, Charlie!” This was family hour, after all. But Sykes is spot on in his assertion that, “He’s basically trying to show off. He’s trying to trigger to get the reaction.” Massie’s card has nothing to do with Christmas, honoring the Prince of Peace, nothing.
Sykes elaborates in his column this morning. And that’s where we get to Massie’s revelation.
Massie is a not a serious man, and his performative assholery did not deserve a serious or respectful response. Posting this photo has the same relationship to responsible gun ownership as sending out a d*ck pic does to genuine romance.
Unfortunately, it also seems to capture so much of what the post-policy, post-governing GOP has become these days.
His Christmas tweet — with its callous and vicious indifference to the latest gun-related tragedy — was not about any coherent idea at all, but it fits a pattern. As the GOP becomes an ever-more unserious party, its pols increasingly compensate for their various inadequacies by flaunting their hardware.
For a certain class of GOP politicians, this gun cosplay is a subset of their obsession with faux toughness. But it also reflects the way that triggering memes have displaced the business of governing, or even the attempt to govern. Who needs statesmanship, when we can text out pictures of our big guns?
Now here’s the big reveal, Massie’s epiphany of 2017 wherein he explained:
“All this time, I thought they were voting for libertarian Republicans. But after some soul searching I realized when they voted for Rand [Paul] and Ron and me in these primaries, they weren’t voting for libertarian ideas—they were voting for the craziest son of a bitch in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class, as we had up until he came along.”
Libertarian Republicans. Uh, huh.
Sykes goes on to say
Now, however, Massie seems intent on snatching the “Craziest SOB” title back for himself. But the competition is fierce.
Who, after all, can forget this great moment in American statesmanship? When Ted Cruz fried up some bacon on the barrel of a machine gun, because, well, you know.
If they start giving Oscars for Best Performative Assholery By A Republican, this will be a good entry. This is where the mentality in the GOP has sunk to. They don’t respect their constituents, they fear and manipulate them.
And I will repost again Thomas Massie’s beyond stupid comments to John Kerry about his “pseudo science degree.” I still can’t get this out of my mind.
If you’ve never seen @RepThomasMassie’s “finest” moment in Congress… enjoy this…pic.twitter.com/gtcTVzFiQL
— Debunktion Junction (@DebunkJunction) December 4, 2021
Thomas Massie has revealed the Republican playbook. I for one am grateful. Now I understand that Ron Johnson, Louie Gohmert, Rand Paul, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz, you know the rest of the names, never intended for a nano second to actually become lawmakers and govern responsibly and in the interests of their constituents. No. The name of the game is political theater. They are entertainers, pure and simple. This is an acting job for people with zero acting talent and no knowledge of politics. And as long as a certain segment of this country is so ignorant and uninformed to not know they are shooting themselves in the foot by sending these clowns to Congress, we will be seeing more of the same.
Thank you Congressman Massie. We are in your debt. The scales are falling from our eyes. Now we’re really woke. And this is what you woke us to:
- There’s no way America is going to be saved by performative assholery;
- That’s only the cover for what the GOP is doing;
- The GOP intends to escalate its gerrymandering and voter suppression and attempt to steal the 2022 and 2024 elections for real. The Republicans and Fox News have poisoned peoples’ minds to believe in election fraud so that they could commit it themselves.
That is where we are and that’s the threat we face. Make no mistake, that’s where this is going. January 6 was just the rehearsal. Wait until you see the show.
It pissed me off to no end that one of the things people liked about Bush 43 was the whole “he’s a guy it would be fun to have a beer with” thing. I of course believe it’s crucial for even our highest elected officials to have the proverbial common touch, and to have true empathy for the 95 percent of Americans who don’t make six figures a year. And the fact that most struggle from paycheck to paycheck in the richest country on earth because the SYSTEM has been methodically engineered to benefit the few rather than the many.
The performance art you speak of is simply another, and sadly increasingly effective Weapon Of Mass DISTRACTION. We’ve moved beyond people from (in most cases) well-to-do background and/or elite educations pretending they are, and care about regular folks. We are now into the era of the crazies and they are growing in numbers. Worse, that’s exactly what way too many voters want. Links added to comments are suspect but I think I’m a trusted enough member of this site to include one in a comment. It’s from The West Wing and addresses the issue of the conservative “regular guy” (who is anything but of course but he plays the role well) vs. President Bartlett, the guy regular folks resent like they did the smartest kid(s) in the class back in school. (And with Bush 43, and since the answer to the question Josh poses at the end is an emphatic YES for over seventy million voters)
Respectfully, I submit that the crazies have always been there. I should know; I’ve lived among them for nearly forty effing years (less and less by choice, I should add). Carl Jung was quite right when he pointed out that the potential disruptive people in society only need the right kind of push for things to get ugly, which is what is happening right now.
This will be tolerated only as long as it’s regarded as useful to enough of the exploitation crowd. When the cost gets too high, look for a really last stand to take place.
I agree they’ve always been there. What’s changed is that more of them are getting into positions of power, and that the ones who already held it but were backbenchers are now in the forefront and emerging as the leaders. Think back to Newt Gingrich, who for years was regarded even by the bulk of Republicans on the Hill as a pain in the ass who they wished would just keep his mouth shut and not complicate things all of a sudden found himself in a position to lead after Clinton took office. Hell, for that matter Bob Dole was for years regarded as the GOP’s designated “Hatchet Man”, someone they’d allow or even encourage to make a brutal comment which the rest of them could then “walk back” to make them/the GOP seem reasonable. It’s that dynamic that has changed. At least in my opinion. Crazy is now the order of the day, and outrageous bullshit the new mother’s milk of the conservative movement.
This season greetings card pic and all the rest (i.e. Marjie Kooky Pants) are the new penis extensions…or penis givers if you will. The new truck nuts. I say “new” but this gun=penis fixation they have really isn’t new.