The dregs of Congress

PLUS: Kari Lake amplifies Donald Trump's lies, Kevin McCarthy's cynicism exposed (video commentary)

The Freedom Caucus criticizes the debt ceiling deal at a press conference on May 30, 2023 (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Our American way of life is being vandalized, assaulted and threatened by out of control extremist politicians. They believe that they are insulated from accountability and majority opinion because our broken system allows them to pick their voters and ensconce themselves in cocoons where delusion, insanity and imbecility are no obstacles to political power.

The result is what we see all around us. America’s unstable political system has become utterly unresponsive to the overwhelming will of the American people on a multitude of issues from gun safety legislation, immigration reform, women’s rights and a dozen other issues. The simple truth is that extremism is incentivized, rewarded and stoked at an alarming and unprecedented level from within the institutions that are designed to temper passions, as opposed to inflame them because the concept of representation has become unmoored from the business of representation.

Who exactly is it that gets represented in Congress? What faction and powerful interest is able to muscle itself into a position of dominance against every other interest in the nation from the most worthy to the most unworthy? What is America’s preeminent special interest? What small group has the power to burn it all down in the name of the truth?

Of course the people we are talking about hold Kevin McCarthy’s leash. They are the dregs of Congress. They represent vice and other low qualities. Concepts like honor, decency, integrity, sacrifice, love, duty, obligation don’t exist and never will. They are a cabal of ludicrousness seasoned by sprinklings of malevolence, racial malice and a bottomless well of conspiracy theories. Their disgraceful membership revels in their collective addlement and weirdness to such a degree that a man as bizarre, clueless, swarmy and treacherous as Mark Meadows rose easily to become their leader. Among them are some of the greatest louts of American life and the strangest people amongst us. Consider their proclamations and associations. Among them are Nazi sympathizers, anti-semites, racists, fascists, and incandescent idiots.

Let’s consider some of their greatest hits:

1.  Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, on Jewish space lasers:

The idea is clean energy to replace coal and oil. If they are beaming the sun’s energy back to Earth, I’m sure they wouldn’t ever miss a transmitter receiving station right??!! I mean mistakes are never made when anything new is invented. What would that look like anyway? A laser beam or light beam coming down to Earth I guess. Could that cause a fire? Hmmm, I don’t know. hope not! That wouldn’t look so good for PG&E, Rothschild Inc, Solaren or Jerry Brown who sure does seem fond of PG&E.

2. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, on why he decided not to hear the Pope address Congress:

Media reports indicate His Holiness...intends to focus the brunt of his speech on climate change. If the Pope plans to spend the majority of his time advocating for flawed climate change policies, then I will not attend. The possibility of the Pope discussing climate change is troubling because this climate-change talk has adopted all of the socialist talking points, wrapped false science and ideology into 'climate justice' and is being presented to guilt people into leftist policies...If the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one.

3. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, defending Donald Trump’s remark about some African countries, El Salvador and Haiti being “shithole” countries:

I would not pick those terms but I would say that the conditions in Haiti are deplorable, they are disgusting. Everywhere you look in Haiti it’s sheet metal and garbage when I was there.

4. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, on high prescription costs:

I left a prescription at a pharmacy once. I went to get birth control. The price was very, very high…And I said, “It’s cheaper to have a kid.” And I left it there, and now I have my third son.

5. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, endorsing a conspiracy theory that the government was hoarding ammunition:

Americans are purchasing a record level of firearms and ammunition. I think it points to just the lack of trust they have in this [Obama] administration and this administration’s attack on our Second Amendment liberties and our Second Amendment rights and Americans are justifiably concerned about that.

6. Chip Roy, R-Texas, on wanting to thwart Democrats’ legislative goals so Republicans can win the 2022 midterms:

Eighteen more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done. That’s what we want. I plan to oppose almost everything that Congress does, and I pledge to fight with every ounce of my being to stop the radical left – and weak Republicans. For the next 18 months, Republicans’ job is to do everything that we can to slow down and block the Democrats’ radical agenda, and then win the majority and lead.

7. Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, on blaming guns for the Covenant School shooting that left three adults and three children dead in Nashville in April 2023.

The government is being weaponized against the political right. This clearly is someone who was deeply troubled. The idea that guns are the problem here is ridiculous. This individual had mental illness and [was] a murderer.

Each Freedom Caucus imbecile is a perfect specimen of sedition, treachery and corruption in their own right. Each is the perfect proverbial boogeyman from the darkest recesses of our founders’ imaginations when they worried about the toxic detritus of democracy that could poison the society like carbon dioxide can kill in a closed garage. The Freedom Caucus is a gang, and it is much more dangerous than the Bloods, Crypts and MS-13. Like them, it fetishizes violence, but unlike them, it can actually topple the society. It thrives and feeds on cynicism, cowardice, cruelty, avoidance and a lack of character amongst its opposition. They are nihilists who celebrate their malignancy as virtuous because they are cheered in their destruction by their fellow travelers who seek chaos for the purposes of taking power.

What is happening is clear. Do you see it? 

Soon the 46th president will be impeached by the aforementioned vandals in a kangaroo court of absurdity where the “lock her up doctrine” first enunciated by MAGA Generalissimo Mike Flynn at the fascist convention of 2016 was born.

This is important to understand. There is no evidence of misconduct, no evidence of wrongdoing, no evidence of corruption whatsoever on the part of President Biden.

We should all be able to agree that the son is not burdened by the sins of his father, as the father must be free from the sins of his son. At this point, there is no mystery in this country about Hunter Biden’s lowest moments. His dignity has been stripped by the cruelty of his father’s opponents. They want blood. Period.

Please also understand this: the only person in our nation of 330 million people who would ever be prosecuted and incarcerated for what Hunter Biden did is Hunter Biden. That’s not justice. It’s an example of how cowardice warps justice. I promise that any investigation into the multitudes of congressional spouses, children, siblings and cousins of members of Congress striking gold everyday as lobbyists would yield much more fruit than the Hunter Biden persecution that had lasted for five years of investigation at the cost of millions of our taxpayer money. Yet, there will be no investigation because for those people they are still protected from being politically prosecuted.

It is a profound mistake to look at the McCarthy witch hunt as an event disconnected from this era’s other constant assaults on democracy. It is part of an escalating seven-year fight that is getting hotter and more dangerous. It is expanding.

Impeaching President Biden is another front in the insurrection that caused death and violence on January 6. This action is part of an assault on the rule of law that has been continuous, sustained and ongoing for seven long years.

During the Second World War there were hundreds of thousands of battlefields across the globe. Each battle was distinct, but part of a greater whole connected to the bigger war. So is it the case with this moment. Kevin McCarthy is impeaching Joe Biden without cause, facts or evidence because he can. I suspect he would kill if he could for power. I suspect he would kill me and you. Power justifies it. Right?

Look at the edge we are on. This country is, and has been, under assault. It will continue to be under assault.

I ask you to rise. I ask you to stand. I ask you to perceive what is happening around you and renew your commitment to tolerance, pluralism, compromise, virtuous disagreement and patriotism. It will be needed. America is under attack by vandals claiming to defend what they wish to burn. The fight is on. We must win.

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Video commentary: Kari Lake amplifies Donald Trump's lies, Kevin McCarthy's cynicism exposed

I break down Kari Lake's lies about Donald Trump regarding his actions on 9/11. I also discuss Kevin McCarthy's cowardly action of bringing an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden: