CSotD: Dysappointments
Skip to comments
I had been looking forward to the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, but it seems to be falling flat, and Anderson pinpoints the issue. It doesn’t seem to be widely known, but there are two very different groups set up for the commemoration:
America250 is a non-partisan group set up by Congress to encourage celebrations throughout the nation, but it is being overshadowed by
Freedom 250 which is the President’s group, extolling patriotism from his perspective, and including next week’s cage fight on the White House lawn and a rally in place of the concert which was canceled when performers found out they weren’t participating in America250 but Dear Leader’s partisan event.
Freedom 250 has so eclipsed America250 that, as Ted Rall observes in an entry on his website, we’re not having anything like we did a half-century ago, when the country was deep in Bicentennial fever.
Rall reminds us that, in 1976, we were a nation recovering from Watergate and eager to be reunited with each other.
Perhaps you had to be there.
These days, division is encouraged by powerful corporations and powerful politicians, and the voices of malcontents who once complained to each other in dark obscurity have been raised, amplified, spotlighted and rewarded.
Well, at least promised rewards.
Dear Leader campaigned on a promise to bring down the price of groceries, but it hasn’t worked out that way.
Not only has Trump failed to keep that promise, but he recently responded to a question about inflation by saying he loves it, and that it will fall, including oil prices, as soon as he has concluded his war with Iran.
Experts agree that gasoline prices would fall within weeks of a real ending of the war, but say it will take much longer for them to arrive at pre-war levels.
And prices of products carried by ships, planes and trucks will likely fall a little more slowly while distribution chains sort themselves out. In the meantime, Wexler’s suggestion that people will cheerfully adjust is obviously sarcasm, given how the rising price of eggs impacted 2024 elections.
Voters blamed Biden for the rise in egg prices, though he had little control over the outbreak of avian flu. But Trump alone is responsible for price increases caused by a war he declared without consulting congress.
We can’t expect people to understand how the economy actually works, but the polls show that, once again, the blame is placed on the White House.
As Margulies says, Trump depends, and insists, on loyalty, and whether he trusts the polls or not, he demands loyalty of Republican politicians on all levels, unleashing devastating primary destruction even on relatively — but not perfectly — loyal Senators like John Cornyn.
The loyalty is such that even those who ran against Trump have forgotten the things they said about him then, and, in the case of Ted Cruz, what he said about his wife.
Before he was made secretary of state, Rubio called Trump “a con artist,” and Vance described him as “America’s Hitler” but apparently changed his mind when he was offered the vice-presidency.
Anderson suggests that all is forgiven, in return for abject obedience.
This style of loyalty is reflected in Maine, de Adder suggests, where Trump’s own character flaws are ignored while attention is being directed to the admittedly flawed past of the candidate opposing Susan Collins.
One difference is that Platner has confessed to his shortcomings and pledged that he has recovered from a troubled life, while Dear Leader has never admitted to any of the charges against him, even when they were confirmed by juries.
One example of Trump’s insistence on loyalty above all else is his nomination of Bill Pulte as director of National Intelligence, a move that has dropped jaws on both sides of the aisle, with wisecrackers expressing surprise that Trump found someone even less qualified than Tulsi Gabbard had been.
More serious commentators, however, have shuddered that Pulte, who has been dedicated to attacking Trump’s opponents, will gain access in his new position to as much information on anyone in the nation as he wants.
However, neither the wisecracks, the forebodings nor Pulte’s falling short of the legal requirements for the position are dissuading Dear Leader from the nomination, though he has reduced it to a temporary appointment.
This, obviously, won’t satisfy those who fear Pulte harvesting data on Trump’s critics.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Dear Leader’s nomination of his personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, as Attorney General has prompted less tangible dismay in Congress than it has from cartoonists and other commentators, as seen in this array of differing concerned approaches..
There was criticism back when John Kennedy appointed his brother Robert to the position because the AG is expected to be autonomous and it seemed unlikely that two siblings could maintain the ethical distance required.
Bramhall suggests that there is no such distance even being contemplated, and other critics of the move have reminded people that Nixon’s AG, John Mitchell, had been his campaign head, and eventually wound up serving 19 months in prison for his role in Watergate.
Margulies not only echoes Bramhall’s doubt that the president’s personal attorney would operate independently, but intensifies the charges by depicting him as a puppet, and the nomination as coming out of a sewer.
Telnaes caps the criticism by calling Blanche a weapon in the pocket of a gangster, expanding upon her established motif of the Trump administration as the equivalent of an organized crime family.
And Sheneman turns the accusations on Blanche himself, comparing him to a gathering of famous fictional toadies, suck-ups and brown-noses.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
This past week’s Meet the Press debacle has not yet faded from view, and Jones goes after Trump for his habit of insulting and degrading women journalists, suggesting that it’s as much cowardice as it is misogyny.
Molina just repeats the insult Trump flung at Kristin Welker and turns it into a reminder of a broken promise that has sent prices skyward and dropped Dear Leader’s approval ratings into the cellar:
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
Comments 7