So, now that the Trump ship is really sinking, all the rats can scurry off and declare themselves ready to lead the GOP’s assault on Joe, on woke, on George Soros, and on the liberal-radical Left-wing thugs who are tearing the country apart.
The latest buffoon to stick is head up out of the water and announce his desire to make America great again by ridding the country of its destructive, leftist slant, is the former Governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, who started his 2024 campaign gig today on ABC News.
When I was a kid, the phrase ‘political interview’ meant that the individual being interviewed actually answered some real questions. But that’s no longer true. Now the phrase ‘political interview’ means that the so-called ‘guest’ basically delivers a speech without being asked a single, critical question at all.
In other words, what Asa Hutchinson got this morning was some free advertising time on ABC News. Which he basically used to say next to nothing at all.
Of course, because he’s from Arkansas, he had to start off by telling everyone that he’s the real Evangelical in the race. And by that he means he will help Evangelicals see that there’s an alternative to Donald Trump who will help them meet their desire for more freedom and less government in their lives.
Now maybe I’m stupid and maybe I just don’t get it, but I always thought that the role of government, at least a government based on the Constitution of the United States, was to guarantee and enforce basic freedoms, like the freedom to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, or the freedom to marry someone of the same sexual gender, or the freedom to vote from home rather than having to stand on a two-hour line.
I guess I just don’t understand what the word ‘freedom’ really means, or at least what it means to Asa Hutchinson and all the Americans he hopes to lead.
Here’s how Hutchinson explains his concept of freedom to dummies like me: “most of these people that you're speaking of are patriotic Americans that -- they want freedom in their lives. They want to have less government intrusion. They want to have a growing economy. They want to have an America that meets the needs of their families and provides the opportunities for the future.”
Exactly how intrusive has government been in my life? I registered for a Social Security card when I was eighteen and got my first, after-school job. I registered for a passport when I went to Europe for the first time in 1969. I registered for Medicare when I turned 65. And I began taking my ‘charity’ from the Social Security Administration when I turned 68.
That was it. I’ve had exactly four contacts with that ‘intrusive’ government over the past 50 years. Oh – I forgot! I guess the government’s being intrusive when I go past a sign telling me how fast I can drive. Who the hell is the government to tell me to stop speeding when I drive past a playground where some kid might chase his ball into the street?
Oh – I forgot another governmental intrusion which has made me less free over the years. I remember lining up in the school gymnasium to get the Salk vaccine. Talk about overreach, talk about government keeping me from being free.
We can solve that problem immediately. Just get rid of that goddamn Anthony Fauci – that’ll do the trick!
And by the way, right now roughly 15% of the entire American workforce gets paid with a government check. Half those workers are employed by state and local governments but most of that money also comes from the feds. The United States has the highest percentage of its workforce on a government payroll of any industrialized nation-state. So maybe if the government was less ‘intrusive’ that all those public employees could also, as Grandpa would say, ‘cholb en drerd,’ (read: stick it you know where.)
By getting rid of Trump the GOP might begin to tone down the profanity and vulgarity which are the rhetorical hallmarks of a Trump campaign. But the stupidity and senselessness of the GOP’s so-called ‘cultural war’ will certainly remain.
I feel very smart every time one of those GOP shitheads opens his or her mouth.