Idiot Wind
The modern Republican Party is a clown car of sycophants and racists.
Politics
The modern Republican Party is a clown car of sycophants and racists.
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your mouth
Blowing down the back roads headin’ south
I am acutely aware that this particular Bob Dylan song is not meant to be political. The lyrics referenced throughout are from “Idiot Wind,” off Dylan’s 1974 masterpiece Blood on the Tracks. The song, and the album, are about the collapse of his marriage …not necessarily politics.
Yet, in true Dylan fashion, the lyrics to “Idiot Wind” have a multi-faceted application.
In the context of this current moment, they apply aptly to the status of Donald Trump’s Republican Party.
I haven’t known peace and quiet
For so long I can’t remember what it’s like
Now, I’m a card-carrying liberal (snowflake, libertard, etc.), so I’ll cop to the fact that I am writing from a place of bias. The truth is, I don’t have anything against Republicanism or even some of their ideas. However, the Republican party I was politically opposed to no longer exists.
I suspect there may be some conservative Republican stalwarts left. I suspect they’ve been forced into their basements to have their conservative discussions. It seems most have been told to goose step in line, have been forcefully marginalized or completely ousted (see Liz Cheney).
It’s unlikely Liz Cheney and I would agree on anything, ever. Except for the fact that what has happened to her for speaking the truth about Donald Trump is a blight on not only Republicans but also American politics.
The modern Republican Party can now add her ouster from Republican Congressional leadership as another feather of shame, and awfulness, in their increasingly large headdress.
The Republicans are, for reasons unknown to most thinking people, being led by an abject failure of a businessman, a charlatan, a narcissist, a reality show personality, a thrice failed husband, a man with the empathy of Idi Amin (or choose your own authoritarian figure), someone who has only his interests in mind, and someone who is perhaps one of the most awful individuals to ever live in Washington D.C. — let that one marinate.
Truthfully, now one of the most horrible people in American history.
I am, of course, referring to Dr. Phil McGraw.
Just kidding, it’s Donald Trump.
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe
It seems fitting that the most prominent current mouthpieces supporting this orange imbecile include:
An entire television news network (FOX News)
A silver-spooned unashamed racist mouthpiece (Tucker Carlson)
A guy currently being investigated by the FBI for both human trafficking and pedophilia — charges he has denied and has yet to be charged with (Matt Gaetz)
A woman who lost her House of Representative committee assignments — by her Republican party — in February because of her racist and anti-Semitic statements and social media posts (Majorie Taylor Greene)
A television pillow barker (Mike Lindell)
Why in the world is a charlatan mouthpiece like Mike Lindell given a platform? The man sells pillow for chrissakes. Oh wait, Trump is also a charlatan …birds of a feather and such.
In the case of Gaetz and Greene, they’re just spoon feeding horrible things to each other. These two self-righteous morons have decided to live out some asinine rock and roll fantasy by spreading their awfulness (because the pandemic wasn’t bad enough).
The knuckle-headed combo of Gaetz and Greene have launched a bizzare “tour.” But instead of playing arena’s with screaming fans, they’re playing retirement homes with nattering octogenarians wearing MAGA hats whose teeth will fall out if they scream too loudly.
The first stop of this “Double Gee Tour” (Gaetz & Greene) was in Orlando, Florida on May 7. It was held at a Trump-centric retirement community called The Villages. And how did Matt and Marj enter? Why blasting AC/DC of course!
Nothing says “I’m in touch with my constituency” more than rolling in to a community of octogenarians cranking AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.”
Tucker Carlson is what happens when you give someone a name like Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson — which sounds like it should by followed by the word “Syndrome.”
And FOX News? What can be said there? Rupert Murdoch is an opportunist first, media mogul second, and frankly, I’m not even sure human being makes it into the top five.
You hurt the ones that I love best
And cover up the truth with lies
One day you’ll be in the ditch
Flies buzzin’ around your eyes
Blood on your saddle
The central theme of the Gaetz & Greene Tour is perpetuating the idiotic myth of “The Big Lie.” If you believe the Republican messaging, “The Big Lie” is that all voting is corrupt in the United States and the election was therefore stolen from Donald Trump.
Unfortunately, “The Big Lie” is no longer fringe, it’s the policy of the Republican Party.
The big lie is, by definition, “a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the facts, especially when used as a propaganda device by a politician or official body.”
Because Donald Trump has never had an original thought, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that this is not something he came up with. And because it is Donald Trump, who is not so great at gaslighting his racism, it won’t surprise you to learn that the origins of the big lie are awful.
The German expression was coined by none other than …wait for it …Adolf Hitler. When he was dictating Mein Kampf in 1925, he defined the big lie as something so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”
Spoiler alert: Nazis used the idea of the original big lie to turn sentiment against Jews.
I have been asked often: “What is it about Donald Trump?” My answer is the same — he normalized racism and hatred. As a nation, we’ve always been racist and biased, just not so overtly. Trump allowed many Americans to show their true colors.
While it didn’t seem possible that more people could come out of the woodwork supporting Trump’s awfulness and lies, it’s like a clown car. There appears to be no shortage of minions and sycophants climbing out of the current Republican clown car screaming: “LOOK AT ME!!”
We are culturally and politically in very dire straits, and it should be terrifying to anyone paying attention. I fear that no one is paying attention.
Idiot wind
Blowing like a circle around my skull
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol