Save for those "immune" from the effects of the Trump virus, collective schizophrenia is what defines the Republican Party

 

Save for a few party members concerned about how the history books will judge them, Republicans seem to be inflicted with a collective case of schizophrenia. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, schizophrenia is defined as “any of a group of severe mental disorders that have in common such symptoms as hallucinations, delusions, blunted emotions, disordered thinking, and a withdrawal from reality.” Well, we can at least admit that they are giving a convincing impression of it. Republicans in Congress who claim Rep. Liz Cheney was “fired” from her leadership because they want to “move on” from Donald Trump’s election fraud claims are themselves “withdrawing from reality” by being purposefully delusional about the fact that Trump continues to replay his “stolen election” shtick over and over again like a broken record.

Even the events of January 6 have not proved to be a sufficiently powerful "medication" to at least suppress the worst impulses; Republicans in the House continue deluding themselves and their supporters that there is an "equivalency" about BLM protests and the intent to overthrow the government--just as some, like John Boehner, are making a false equivalency between the "Squad" and the destructive "Freedom Caucus." Congressmen like Rep. Andrew Clyde are clearly hallucinating when they claim that the attack on the Capitol building appeared to them to be a “normal tourist visit.” Clyde admitted that he was one of several people who tried to barricade the entrance of the House floor from what even he referred to as a “mob," but because they failed to breach the door, their actions could not be characterized as an “insurrection.” Well, they did breach the Senate chamber, so what does he call that? 

Perhaps it isn’t “fair” to call Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene schizophrenic; maybe she is suffering from just plain paranoid schizophrenia, which implies a genetic brain disorder. We have learned that it is a habit of hers to stalk and physically and verbally harass anyone who happens to “trigger” that broken synapse in her brain that causes her to go on another “mission” to assassinate someone’s character. Back in 2019, CNN’s investigative arm, KFile, reported that Greene and her cohorts had patrolled the halls of Congress looking for mainly minority female Democrats to insult, and “suggested” that “execution” was the “appropriate” punishment for “socialists.” 

The other day Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez merited a follow-up “visit,” with Greene obscenely trailing her in the halls and calling her a “terrorist” for supporting the BLM. Why would anyone want to allow someone like Greene whose ideology is ground-up in insane QAnon conspiracies even a shred of credibility by agreeing to “debate” her? Now that would be “nuts.” It seems that her fellow Republicans cynically prefer to let the “liberal” media take care of the business of “disciplining” Greene.

Of course we do remember how Republicans used to be “big” on playing international tough guy, although maybe that isn’t exactly true. They liked playing “tough” with Americans with progressive political views, usually referring to them as “reds” and ruining many careers in Hollywood, since they blamed “liberal” filmmakers and actors for “brainwashing” the public. For example, the 1937 film Black Legion with Humphrey Bogart was a major studio effort that dared to force America to confront racist and anti-immigrant “real Americans” dressed up in ridiculous hooded outfits just a decade after they marched proudly (including their women) in the same outfits in Washington D.C.

For good or ill, Richard Nixon turned from redbaiter in America to embracing the Chinese communist regime and making “pals” with the Soviet leadership, and after initially talking tough about the Soviet Union—I know, because I spent four years on the “front line” in West Germany—Ronald Reagan was just as eager to make friends with Mikhail Gorbachev. More recently, Trump went out of his way to make “friends” with Vladimir Putin, believe all his lies about Russian election interference, refusing to take seriously Russian cyber attacks and stabbing our democratic ally, the Ukraine, in the back by withholding congressionally-approved military aid to counter the aggression of his pal—who, after all, had already annexed the Crimea, which was Ukrainian sovereign territory.   

So perhaps it is not a surprise to learn from Newsweek that Republican and former Reagan Russia advisor and “expert” Suzanne Massie—who at age 90 seems to be nearing that age when many people are afflicted with dementia—has announced her desire to abandon this country and made a personal request to Putin to grant her Russian citizenship. She recently showed where her true “loyalties” lie when she appeared on the Russian propaganda organ NTV and bashed the Biden administration and the media for giving people the “wrong” impression about Putin and Russia generally. They are so “unfair” to Putin, conveniently ignoring the many political opponents and journalists who have been jailed or have been “mysteriously” murdered or poisoned; to say that Putin didn’t provide at least “tacit” approval for these actions is like saying Hitler had nothing to do with the Holocaust because there was never anything in “writing” that explicitly implicated him in that crime. Even Hitler had his “human” side; that doesn’t mean he was really a “good guy” deep down—and neither is Putin.

Massie, of course, can’t escape the accusation that she is a hypocrite bar none. Who unilaterally abandoned the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty originally signed by her precious Ronnie in 1987? Why, none other than Donald Trump in 2019. Not that there was no cause for it; Putin has not been exactly shy about boasting about new weapon systems, including an intermediate cruise missile that  may or may not be ready for prime time, given reports of failed tests leading to “mysterious” explosions, deaths and radiation poisoning. This and Putin’s annexation of the Crimea and his continuing  threats against the sovereignty of the Ukraine, interference in U.S. elections and cyber attacks on government and military IT are not the actions of a “gentleman” but of an enemy; no “friendly” nation does these things, and as long as Putin is in power, Russia is no “friend.”

Massie admits that some people will regard her as a “traitor” to her (previous) country. But I think it is more “explainable” by a mental illness caused by that virus that Trump expectorated all over the country, infecting tens of millions of people. It is rather ironic that the people most eager to “cure” themselves of the Trump virus are white nationalist extremists like the Proud Boys, a leader of whom recently released an expletive-laden denouncement of Trump for “abandoning” them in their time of “need,” since true “friends” do not do that.