To be clear: a rapist of young girls is a selling point for mainstream Republicanism this point. That’s not hyperbole. That’s simply a clearly observable pattern. It’s an Abuse Party.
White conservative Christians have weaponized the concept of “forgiveness” to mean “a transactional status restoration between unrepentant abusers on one hand, and on the other unharmed third parties who have without consent appointed themselves proxies for victims.”
Brent Bozell would like you to know that he—who was not wronged by Bouchard—has forgiven Anthony Bouchard.
Bouchard gets to continue to pursue a congressional seat with America’s Fascist Party.
Bozell gets to be the person who decides who is worthy of forgiveness.
Forgiveness!
The girl is dead. How many white Christians have forgiven Bouchard on her behalf since she died? Her death needn’t have slowed down the spectacle of forgiveness. She was never a part of the transaction.
Just saw the “Romeo and Juliet“ quote and that can only be a line he’s told himself thousands of times over the years. My god.
Anyway we know what it is that Brent Bozell worships and calls “God” and whatever rough beast that is smiles wide at the prospect of a 14-year-old rape victim being forced to marry her rapist.
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"What Trump voters think" should be reported, but it shouldn't matter.
Their beliefs and opinions should be covered like those of the members of any suicide cult. We should be told what the beliefs are. They shouldn't be lent credence or framed as valid drivers of policy.
The New York Times is making me tap pretty hard on the sign this weekend.
And: it's no longer necessary to report on what Trump voters think. We KNOW what they think. We know we know we know we know, we never stop getting told what these people think.
When exactly do we insist they engage with what everybody else thinks?
The other thing that makes Republicans bad is that increasingly they don't *win* elections, they just damage the mechanism of election until the election no longer reflects the will of the people ... which is the quality of elections that makes the permission they bestow valid.
When Democrats are in power, increasingly it means an *overwhelming* victory, so much that it overcomes the anti-democracy mechanisms Republicans have put into place.
When Republicans achieve power, increasingly they do so despite, not because of, the will of the people.
Don’t scale it back to placate. Double it to show them you mean business and ram it the fuck through, and then send through another one that’s THREE times bigger to teach them not to fuck with you. People want a real solution, nobody cares that Lisa Murkowski didn’t vote for it.
Name the bill the “Republicans are insurrectionist traitors act” and then make unblinking eye contact with them as you vote for it.
Like Andrew Sullivan, I don't want to see some voices elevated while I do want to see other voices elevated.
Unlike Andrew Sullivan, the voices I want elevated are diverse, vital, and challenging to existing hegemony, while the voices I don't want elevated are toxic and bigoted.
Also unlike Andrew Sullivan and the rest of these "anti-woke" "cancel culture" substack social injustice warriors, I'm honest about my position.