Nancy Mace's fetish is cruelty
Nancy Mace is a low-rent bully.
When I look at her she reminds me of the Jeff Goldblum character from “The Fly.”
Goldblum, a handsome man, is so hideously disfigured by his mutation that it is difficult to maintain a gaze on him by the end of the film. The repugnancy of what he had become is so grotesque that — even through a flat screen in a sterile theater —every person could smell the stench.
Here is what my friend
of wrote about this issue. It resonated with me.
What I admire is his honesty, transparency and determination to put complex issues forward and meet them where they are without belligerence, rage or sophistry, but rather decency. Talking about this is necessary because keeping quiet cedes the floor to lowest common denominator bullies like Mace.
Here is the transcript of the speech (or you can watch the video, if you prefer) I gave in 2009 in support of gay marriage. It was the first time I had ever clearly, directly and personally spoken out on an issue with MY opinion. Before then, I had represented the positions of the politicians for whom I worked. When I broke with the party position on this issue, it marked the occasion of my first death threat.
The first thing to say about this issue is that it has nothing to do with bathrooms, and everything to do with cruelty.
In the main, Nancy Mace is an exhibitionist. She is a cosplaying sexless porn star writhing on the floor, naked for all the world to see, shouting, “Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!”
Her fetish is cruelty, and she has targeted a specific person — a real person named Sarah McBride.
McBride is Delaware’s Representative-elect and the first-ever openly trans woman in Congress. Mace has targeted her for real persecution, harassment and dehumanization.
Her audience is an internet mob enticed and stimulated by the practice of cruelty that gets truly frothy when viciousness is mated to Mace’s venal stupidity.
What Nancy Mace proves is that one person can truly make a difference. They can make everything worse.
Denying any person the ability to go to the bathroom is a despotic and despicable act that takes dignity from humanity, and leaves humiliation in its wake. This is what is going on here, and it is awful to watch.
Last weekend, Jake Tapper vouched for the faith of Mike Johnson, while referring to him as a “man of God.”
What is it exactly that Christ teaches?
What does he instruct Nancy Mace to do?
What does Jesus Christ command Speaker Mike Johnson, his avowed disciple, to do in this exact moment of outlandish misconduct and un-Christian cruelty?
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.
— Matthew 25:35-40
What I thought about after reading Chris Cillizza’s piece is this: what would I say to an 18-year-old person struggling to understand a misalignment between their sexuality and gender, how to process it, what to call it, and what to think about everything?
I thought about the people who might judge, mock, demean or laugh at them. I thought about the bullies who would make every single simple thing in their life a never-ending existential conflict
I thought about people who might judge people who are nice to them and treat them with respect, dignity and understanding.
What I would tell them is that there is great purpose to their life, and it will become known when it is time for it be revealed.
I would tell them that anything is possible in America, and to never give up hope or faith in your country because of the vices of the people in the country who don’t measure up to its ideals.
I would tell them that life isn’t fair, and they are going to have hard days, but in the end those hard days are going to forge an indomitable strength. Fire forges steel.
I would tell them that everything is going to get better from the worst and lowest moments.
I would tell them that I don’t understand their lived experience, but that I’m on their side, and that I would never tolerate anyone at any time treating them as anything less than anyone else because, in America, “we are created equal with inalienable rights which include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
I would tell them love is infinitely more powerful than hate, and that on the whole, there are more good people than bad.
I would tell them that the only people who matter are the ones worthy of your love, and that as you go through life, you will face bigotry, but also meet an incredibly surprising mix of people who will see nothing beyond your character.
Of course Sarah McBride isn’t a struggling 18-year-old. Instead, she is the duly elected and properly certified Congressional Representative from the 1st state, Delaware.
Nancy Mace has opened up a Pandora’s box of unnecessary division and foolishness for no good reason whatsoever, besides her neediness, bigotry and hatefulness.
Nancy Mace isn’t just assailing and assaulting Sarah McBride. She is attacking the state and people of Delaware who elected McBride to be their congresswoman.
It is unacceptable, outrageous and shameful.
This University of Delaware graduate (me) expects to hear a robust response from the state where the Return Day Parade still rolls after Election Day.
Yogi Berra was one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the sport, a D-Day combat veteran, a winner with 10 World Series rings, and a man known for his exquisite decency.
Yogi Berra was behind the plate in 1946 when he met Jackie Robinson for the first time.
The following year, Yogi put out his hand, and welcomed Jackie Robinson to the Major Leagues.
There is something of great importance to remember. Seventy-seven years have passed since that moment, and no one remembers the names of the sneering people who called Jackie Robinson the “N word.”
What we remember in America is greatness — not nothingness and hate. What we remember is grace. We remember Jackie and Yogi as giants. They will only get bigger from here.
The moral for Nancy Mace is this: how dare you? With a twist of “you have no goddamn right, you petulant, attention-seeking nitwit.”
After all, when it comes to the expectations of congressional dignity, one could be forgiven for thinking that she might have absorbed something after serving under Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a variety of different positions for so long.
Certainly it is the case that wherever Speaker Mike Johnson decrees Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride may go to the bathroom, her presence is going to class up the place.
Here is her statement, facing the vicious attack she is enduring:
I’m not here to fight about bathrooms, I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families. Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them. This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days.
The word to describe it is “grace.”
Nancy Mace is a poisonous American, and a blight on the Citadel. If she is representative of the character of officers that the Citadel produces it should be shuttered.
She is dishonorable — and utterly so. She is rotten in spirit, character and intentions.
Donald Trump has long denigrated America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen. He has insulted their fallen, their wounded, their disabled and their surviving families. Trump has denigrated their honor, valor, service and sacrifice. He has desecrated their country, and belittled their “last full measure of devotion.”
Incredibly, he has assailed American POWs, who have endured the unthinkable all around the world, as being cowards. The stench from his character assassination of John McCain and the 684 Vietnam War POWs will never lessen, and will always linger about him.
There can be little doubt that Trump would have despised an American soldier from the American south captured in the Battle of the Bulge.
He stands as the absolute antithesis of Nancy Mace, who is a physical and moral coward in the extremis.
His name was Master Sergeant Roderick Edmonds from Knoxville, Tennessee. He was captured by the Nazis five days after arriving in Belgium in December 1944 as part of a wave of replacement troops for the final push into Germany.
Incredibly, Master Sergeant Edmonds found himself at Stalag IX-B at the head of a formation of almost 1,300 American POWs, where he was the senior soldier. The 26-year-old master sergeant was in charge. There was not a single officer in the camp.
The Nazi commandant demanded that Sgt. Edmonds call the Jewish Americans forward and separate them out. The Nazi position was that they had impure blood and needed to be enslaved or incinerated. Coincidentally, all of this occurred on the same day that Soviet Red Army forces overran a series of concentration camps that beggared description called Auschwitz-Birkenau in Eastern Poland, outside of Krakow.
Master Sergeant Edmonds refused.
The Nazi commandant held a gun to his head.
Edmond did not blink. He refused.
He said that they were all Jews.
He then invited the Nazi officer to execute all of them as Jews, and become a war criminal who would be hunted down when the war was lost.
The Nazi commandant walked away.
There were more than 300 American Jews in the prisoner ranks.
They were not betrayed.
E Pluribus Unum.
Roderick Edmonds came home from the war, and never said a word about any of this to anyone before he died in 1985.
His secret did not hold.
Today, he is remembered as “righteous among the nations,” and is a recipient of his nation’s gratitude and esteem because he was an American hero grounded in Americanism.
Americanism must be defended by all of us who treasure liberty, freedom and justice. Each are different things and none can exist without the other. They are all threatened.
The skies are darkening, and there is trouble ahead. Americans do not run from trouble. They move towards it.
Everyone should remember Sergeant Edmonds. His life and its meaning refutes the smallness of Nancy Mace, whose conduct is desecrative towards the United States Congress.
Let me also suggest to the leadership of the Democratic Party, starting with Hakeem Jeffries, that this is a fight worth having because fighting a bully is always worth it, and Nancy mace is a bully.
John McCain was a complicated man, but also a fairly simple one. His contradictions made him both deeply human and great.
He once looked me dead in the eye in a private moment, his fists clenched as they were wont to do when he was ready to fight. His jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed and his stance lightened as it floated forward just a bit into a position of imminent aggression.
He was talking about Rush Limbaugh, whom he despised.
He said, “I hate f@#king bullies.”
So do I.
So should you.
So should every American.
Nancy Mace is a disgrace.
Sergeant Edmonds, among so many real American heroes, should be the guiding light for The Resistance. Stand tall; stand upright; never give up hope for the promise of America.
Ms. Mace's cruelty is especially disappointing considering her background. Not so very many years ago, she was one of the first females admitted to the Citadel in S.C. The male members of the Corps of Cadets did not want those women there. The great majority of the alumni did not want those women there. Most of the people of S.C. did not want those women there. So Nancy Mace knows what it is to face hostility and abuse related to her gender. She knows what it is to be told "You are a freak and you don't belong here." What a shame she has no compassion for Ms. McBride.