I just can’t seem to let Donald Trump’s most recent viscous bashing of a dead American patriot and war hero go.
I am actually surprised by the thumping chord the attacks on John McCain have struck in me, because I long ago realized going lower than anybody thought possible was literally Trump’s singular talent in his evil, pathetic life.
Chewing on the grizzle of his warped words these past couple of days, it came to me that what matters most and concerns the hell out of many, many millions of us in this country is just what-in-the-hell it takes for the Republican Party to censure this awful, awful bastard. Are there no lines to be drawn in your mud, GOP? Are you just going to sit there, backs turned, while Trump pisses on the graves of great public servants? Will Trump really shoot one of you in the middle of 5th Avenue just to prove a point?
We can now say with 100-percent proof that the Republican Party is completely soulless and without a shred of decency. That so many in this cult also wrap themselves in the American flag and Christianity adds to their gall, and just blows apart a normal, working mind.
And here’s where I need to briefly scold myself, because for over a year I’ve been encouraging my friends and colleagues on the Left and in the Resistance to shrug off this madman best we can, and put all our efforts into mobilizing and getting our candidates elected.
Spending too much time trying to change broken minds parked in darkness was akin to banging your head against some brick wall. Aside from the blaring headaches that will get you, the constant 100 mph rev of the heart was also going to take a helluva toll.
I mean, what good can you do after knocking yourself flat on your back, when there is heavy lifting and real fighting to be done?
But John McCain was dead and being bullied, so who was going to stand up for him?
Certainly not his party who had long since left him on the battlefield so they could side with the enemy — a slobbery, 320-pound, traitorous sharpy who rolls out of his steel-enforced rack every morning thinking about one thing and one thing only: himself.
Really, how in the hell did the Republican Party get to THAT place?!
And if your answer is, they were already there, pal, then I am typing wholeheartedly in agreement. Trump has exposed his party for what it has always been — cold … heartless … cowardly … calculating …
Except what is the calculus now? To slowly but surely drive away everybody from your pathetic party except a still-scary percentage of terrified white men? To kiss off our veterans, too? I mean, the vets who for some weird reason have stayed with you despite all your fictional weapons of mass destruction and nagging bone spurs.
Say what you will about the Republicans — please — but give them this, for the past few decades they have been far better at the political long game than the Democrats. Part of it is, yes, they have no conscience — I am looking at you, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell — and part of it is they understand what drives their shrinking but ardent low-brow base to the polls.
Until Trump came along that is.
There is real, delicious irony that this party has allowed itself to be pinned underneath the most awful version of itself in Donald Trump.
By advocating for a sick, narcissistic madman they have shown ALL of the world how dark and empty they are. They have decided there is nothing they can do about any of it.
Leave it to the Democrats, then, and the 65 percent of America that has decency at its core to defend our very best, like John McCain.
And when Trump has squeezed out the little life that is left in you, Republicans … When everything you claimed to stand for is dead and gone … When you are gasping for air and begging forgiveness … Not even the patriots in the Democratic Party will come to your rescue …
We remember John McCain. And we honor him.
