Some of us wonder how it is possible, in this day and age when people are supposed to be more “informed” with access to information 24 hours a day, that psychopaths like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar and Josh Hawley can be elected to federal office. Part of the answer is that voters have a “choice” to believe what they want to believe even if what they choose is demonstrably false because they are consumed with petty grievances and prejudices. They can’t see the “big picture” because they are too enamored with self, especially in regard to racial grievances they blame for preventing them from saying and doing what they want without worrying about laws that prevent blatant discrimination.
Of course the transmission of the dialogue of conspiratorial nonsense and hate has allowed the emergence from the polluted depths of the human mind figures that seem more like deformed mutants in human form, who can still be easily recognized as such by the mindless noises escaping the hole they are better off just breathing through (although what does come out is more suitable for what comes out their other hole). Greene’s office staff, for example, may put out statements claiming that she doesn’t support violent insurrection, but then she goes on podcasts and insinuates that she does, in fact, support violent insurrection. After all, you can’t tame a wild beast; they act on instinct, not by anything most human beings would consider to be behavior governed by rational thought.
We know who they all are, or at least we thought we did. Out of the sewers as emerged a new name: Madison Cawthorn, representing an Appalachian district in North Carolina, and who has been the subject of much embarrassment even for Kevin McCarthy. At 26, Cawthorn in the youngest member of Congress, and he apparently has received a “pass” from many people because he is wheelchair bound; in 2014 he was a passenger in a vehicle that crashed after the driver fell asleep, or at least that is the story we have been told. He currently is being charged with driving with a revoked driver’s license; according to NBC News, Cawthorn’s license was suspended last year for speeding, and again this year for an incident in January.
But traffic violations are just a technicality. Cawthorn is another one of those fanatical fascist Trumpists who also has been accused of helping to incite the January 6 insurrection, for which there was a failed attempt by opponents in North Carolina to prevent him from being allowed to take a seat in the House. Cawthorn ran his freshman campaign making racist smears against non-white lawmakers he accused of trying to “ruin white men,” and in general playing the white identity and nationalist card, which apparently worked quite well for him in the district that far-right “Freedom Caucus” member Mark Meadows “served” before he joined the Trump administration as chief-of-staff.
Interestingly, while Greene and Cosar have gotten away with speaking at white supremacist events and “justifying” violent insurrection that before Trump would have forced them into a “early retirement,” today, the failure of the Republican establishment to just say “no” to anything Trump has allowed any psychopath to run for office and even win. Cawthorn’s racism and support for insurrection didn’t seem to bother anyone in the Republican leadership; only something to do with sex and drugs was capable of doing that.
Thus when Cawthorn recently told another far-right podcast that he had been “invited” to an “orgy” at an unnamed congressman’s invitation—absurd on its face because Cawthorn is disabled—and suggesting that he saw cocaine use by congresspersons, that was baaad, at least for McCarthy, who decided to privately “consult” with him on the matter. Personally, I can imagine the person doing the inviting being Matt Gaetz, but that is another story.
But it all comes back to why voters actually voted for someone who had a history of not just making racist insinuations, but clearly lacks the maturity or judgment to represent anyone’s district, which is plain to see now if wasn’t so “clear” in 2020. Cawthorn has again suggested that “violence” will be “justified” if in the 2024 election is “stolen.” A video has surfaced in which Cawthorn called Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “thug”—which is a term many people would use in reference to Cawthorn, at least in his head and whatever comes out of that hole in his face. While most people are impressed by the courageousness of Zelenskyy, you have a coward like Cawthorn justifying his name-calling by claiming that Zelenskyy is “corrupt” in “wokeness.” Yeah, that insane.
NPR tells us that there are some voters in Cawthorn’s district who are fed-up with his antics and don’t intend to vote for him in the upcoming primaries, although the Republican primary field is so crammed with wannabes that Cawthorn may still manage to reach the 30 percent threshold to avoid a runoff election. And yes, there are those for whom Cawthorn’s asinine behavior and lack of maturity is just a “thing.” Despite Sen. Thom Tillis endorsing another candidate in Cawthorn’s district, who would not "never embarrass Western North Carolina with a consistent pattern of juvenile behavior, outlandish statements, and untruthfulness,” you still have Cawthorn supporters who either don’t believe the “gossip” against him, or those like Paul Heyer, who just shrugged it off, claiming that Cawthorn was the “lesser of the evils,” as if there was more than one. He also told NPR that
As long as he (Cawthorn) gets the job done that I agree with or with what's good for us in North Carolina. I don't have a problem with him stirring the pot. The pot needs to be stirred a little bit. Sometimes the pot needs to be emptied.
It is a more than fair question to ask what exactly is that “job” people like this voter want done in the age of Trump. Being “contrary” is not enough reason to vote for someone who is a moron. What’s “good” for bigoted white nationalists is not “good” for the country. Frankly, if any “pot” needs to be “emptied,” it is the human waste that the Republican Party has allowed voters like this to fill since at least the time Newt Gingrich set out the pot to see who would be shameless enough to use it out where everyone can see them.
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