If you’re looking for entertainment out of the ordinary during this extremely hot summer brought to you courtesy of global climate change, then look no further than the Republican tent revival in Milwaukee or the ongoing Democratic circus of cannibals surrounding President Biden.
The Republican freak show has gathered in Milwaukee this week to canonize and coronate Donald Trump, fresh off his felony conviction and a recent assassination attempt. While there you can purchase your favorite Trump T-shirt, or for just $29.99 you can purchase one with Trump and buddy Jesus smiling together. For little more than that you can buy a mug, a baseball cap, or perhaps some pajamas for your child. For those who like a live WWE event, Trump appeared with an odd-looking square bandage on his ear at the beginning of week, prompting true believers to weep, faint and praise gawd for Trump being saved by “divine intervention.”
That T-shirt just cost five dollars more.
Left unasked, unanswered and unspoken is why would gawd intervene on the behalf of Trump while failing to do so for thousands of innocent children killed by gun violence, or rape victims or Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy or Malcolm X, to name a few? Or, paraphrasing a Holocaust survivor, if gawd exists, he owes someone an apology.
The faithful tell you that you have no right to question gawd’s plan, while apparently they have no idea many aren’t questioning gawd’s plan — just their interpretation of it. Meanwhile, if gawd is in Milwaukee this week, we have a subtle reminder; he just owes a little of his hard-earned cash to get his Trump/Jesus paraphernalia.
There is little new to say about the foot washers at the Trump tent show in Milwaukee that hasn’t already been said. His choice for Vice President, JD Vance, has all the political acumen of a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman and all of the integrity of a white-shoes-wearing used car salesman on a discount car lot in Pikeville, Kentucky.
But that is today’s GOP. The heroes of the party are now living saints to the teary-eyed rabble who worship them. Unable to think critically about those who’ve taken over that political party, they are, as H.L. Mencken once wrote, victims of their own mysticism. They are members of a technological medieval peasantry. Their political heroes “begin to sprout haloes and wings.” We’ve seen this before with populists in the U.S., but with Trump the results seem more overwhelming due to the froth of social media, which seemingly has the ability to add legitimacy to the claims of con men by endlessly repeating lies, half-truths and quackery.
Those who vote against their own self-interest and believe Jesus stops bullets — or, at least in Trump’s case, deflects them — are more than happy to hand over their hard-earned cash. They’re rapturous about it.
Other than the peasantry, the GOP is dominated by Trump, Vance, Nikki Haley, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Stephen Miller, Jason Miller, Kelly Anne Conway, a handful of other questionable greedy hustlers and their ultra-rich donors, who may or may not believe the vile hatred spewed by their puppet leader, but certainly are in line to personally benefit from the power and money such close association may bring. In nearly every case being a close association of Trump is completely contradictory to previous public statements and stances of his closest minions. Thus Vance, who once compared Trump to Hitler, can be thankful that Trump took it as a compliment and put him on the ticket while Haley, who ran a strident anti-Trump campaign, can speak now about the need to re-elect him while simultaneously leaving all of those who followed her on the sidelines or without representation unless the “Never Trumpers” decide “Never” isn’t that long. Meanwhile, former Trump VP Mike Pence is nowhere to be seen. Though an evangelical, Trump’s fans had hoisted gallows during the January 6 insurrection and would have been more than happy to hang him from them.
The press can’t handle this mess. We don’t know how to do so. We’re too busy bowing to false equivalency and prostrating ourselves on the altar of access. We interview the MAGA stalwarts and act surprised at their faith (and tears). We are trying to treat the RNC convention as if all is normal, while still reeling from years of being accused of being the “liberal media." In fact, we’re neither liberal nor conservative. We’re greedy. Our owners only want money, however they can bring it into their coffers.
Instead of sending political reporters to the Republican Convention or the Democratic Convention, we should send crime beat reporters — if enough of them still exist. Covering the GOP today is like covering a mob family. The rest of the press? As a Good Fella would say, “Fuggitaboutit.”
The New York Times ran an article headlined, “Rating the R.N.C.’s first night on a scale of 0-10.” Seriously? That’s insight? It sounds like a movie review. “Read the top four takeaways . .” another article offered us. We’re addicted to Top Ten lists. We were told Trump was unusually emotional, and “seemed more pensive” in his first public appearance since the attempted assassination. Who cares? That has little to do with his wanton destruction of democracy, Trump's adherence to authoritarian tropes, or his desire to enslave, arrest or seek vengeance upon those who oppose him. We don’t care. It no longer sells.
Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, the “Christian” faithful are praying for his grace.
Trump deserves empathy for being shot at, but that doesn't require us to be sympathetic to a man who has fomented rebellion or previously supported violence, including using rhetoric and language to encourage the type of violence that nearly led to the loss of his life. His hardcore supporters are still preaching violence. Some of them are even saying it’s the beginning of the second revolution and it will all be peaceful if the liberals don’t resist. Forgive me if it sounds like the criminal is taunting the victim for resisting the crime.
Lester Holt, the NBC anchor who recently interviewed Joe Biden, tore into the President for using the words, “putting Trump in the bullseye,” even getting Biden to apologize for it without putting it into context or more importantly explaining why Biden should apologize for it. Holt, while one of the greatest sinners in applied illogic and false equivalency to this presidential race, is not the only sinner.
I feel dirty for watching the coverage, and dirty for covering this MAGA tent revival show. I’m waiting for them to sell leather-bound copies of the Bible complete with Trump’s signature on the author’s page. We in the press have contributed to the delusion that the RNC is a coronation while ignoring everything Trump did while in office, before he landed in office and after he left. We ignore the Jan. 6 insurrection, but at the same time we elevate one performance in a debate as being the straw that broke the camel’s back with Biden. What were the other straws?
And that brings us to Biden. No less than California Rep. Adam Schiff, currently running for Senate, has now jumped into the fray and called for him to step away from the race “because he can’t win.” Where did he get that idea? Trump? That’s the only one who benefits from this chaos in a blender. Polls? Please. That’s California dreaming. Cue Nancy Pelosi.
Watching the Democrats cannibalize themselves while running around like zombies with their hair on fire is cringe-worthy entertainment but not surprising. Watching it play out in real time in the midst of terrible climate problems, growing international unrest, and price gouging by international corporations is like reading the prelude to any dystopian science fiction masterpiece.
The truth is, the Democrats shouldn’t be fighting among themselves if they want to win. They should be fighting the Republicans who love to win so much they’ve cast their lot with the antichrist to do it (if you believe in such things – yes, that’s a jab at the “true believers.”)
Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump has anyone to blame but themselves for the criticism to which they must answer. But we have failed as journalists to properly clarify the problems both men present to the public. We are mired in a sense of placid, flaccid normalcy when none exists. Trump is a criminal. Biden’s crime is he hasn’t been in front of the cameras more often. I’ve criticized him for it, but it isn’t equivalent to being a felon. Biden has actually done the job well.
Then, just when you think things can be figured out, watch out for the third act twist. The Far Right is so mired in trying to make us Christian Nationalists (That’s the American Taliban for those who do not understand) that they’ve begun attacking their own delegates to the RNC. When Harmeet Dhillion, the National Committeewoman of the Republican National Committee for California, offered a closing prayer on the first day of the MAGA tent revival in Milwaukee, it set off a firestorm of criticism — among Republicans. Andrew Torba, the CEO of the social media platform Gab, said “Christian Nationalism must be exclusively and explicitly Christian. No tolerance for pagan false gods and the synagogue of Satan.”
Other Republican lawmakers in attendance in Milwaukee agreed and some urged that the wife of JD Vance, Usha, a lawyer, should be deported. She was born in San Diego to Indian immigrants.
So, maybe, just maybe both parties have begun cannibalizing themselves. What will remain this fall is anyone’s guess. But right now, if you like watching a dystopian nightmare, pull up a chair and grab some popcorn.
The show’s begun.
