Things Republicans Said This Year
It’s almost the end of 2023 and because it was, in many ways, a long and tiresome year, I’m going to engage in a brief moment of pettiness, disclosing the dumbest things I heard this year from the party of Trump. I kept score because I believe in accountability. This isn’t all of the things, it’s just a sampling. There isn’t time or room for all of them. But here are some of my least-favorites.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is among the obvious nominees for people who went places no American, and certainly not one who is an elected representative should go. She has abandoned the precept that she represents all of her constituents, not just the ones who voted for her and subscribe to her dangerous views. Unlike Greene, we know that voting is a right. While most Republicans aren’t this explicit about taking the right away from Democrats, we get the point. Also, I’m still struggling to understand why Democrats would “flee” blue states.
Greene has an appalling lack of knowledge about history. Nikki Haley wouldn’t admit that the Civil War was about slavery when she was caught on stage like a deer in the headlights. Greene is cavalier about what a second one would mean for our country. This is essentially a call for that.
Then there is the love of guns. The AR-15 lapel pins sported by Republican members of Congress. The suggestion that if we only had more guns, mass shootings could be avoided. The refusal to acknowledge the statistics that show this happens in our country, where guns are freely available, but not in countries where access is restricted. So, of course, Lauren Boebert, no-longer member of Congress George Santos, and Alabama Representative Barry Moore devoted their legislative time and efforts to this attempt to name a national gun for America.
And there’s the persistent hate of those who are different, the need to make life even more difficult for those who are already struggling enough as it is without being denied health care. The ACLU says 2023 saw a bumper crop of anti-LGBTQ legislation from the right, including 508 bills introduced and at least 84 passed, nationwide. North Dakota, Tennessee, and Florida ended up with the worst records.
A lot of what we heard from the Republican party this year was just plain stupid. And mean.
A lot of dumb stuff is being passed off as political speech. There don't seem to be consequences for any of it. Yes, you have to choose your battles and you can't fight every provocation, but the Democratic party can do more about these sorts of comments, and probably will as we move from primaries to the general election. Do you really want a representative who thinks we should bomb our ally, Mexico? One who wants to take away people’s right to vote? Talk like this needs to be hammered home when it happens, because it is, after all, what they are saying.
How do you respond to a Marjorie Taylor Green who calls for Civil War? Do you ignore it to avoid giving her oxygen? Maybe that’s the smart move, because she’s certainly in search of all the attention she can get. But we know there are dark corners of our society where calls for violence, and perhaps even civil war, take hold when left unchecked. Democrats have to make sure this doesn’t get normalized.
Here's what happens when you normalize anti-democratic behavior: Donald Trump is posting, as he did into the run up to 2020, about voting fraud. The implication is always that if he loses, it's because of fraud. Remember that? The big lie didn’t emerge in the wake of the 2020 election. From far out, Trump was saying that if he lost, he would not accept the results of the election. He's doing it again.
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Nikki Haley’s refusal to say slavery was the cause of the Civil War should be disqualifying in the minds of voters. Donald Trump’s penchant for insurrection if he loses the vote may end up being disqualifying in the eyes of the courts and will hopefully be so in the eyes of voters. But there is some persistent rot at the core of the Republican party that permits them to tolerate these sorts of views and comments from people they accept in their party. They are reprehensible, dangerous, and anti-American. And it’s important that we take note; that we make sure that in 2024, people understand who and what they are voting for, and what those people are saying.
Do you have a least favorite things a Republican said or did this year?
