For years we have heard Republican Right-wingers lecture the rest of us on personal responsibility. We have heard that people who receive assistance are lazy and refuse to take responsibility for their own lives. We’ve been lectured repeatedly that Republican leaders are straight shooters who take responsibility for their staffs, for the government budget, for all they lead on.
Now we learn just how foolish this myth is with the ongoing revelations of the criminal malfeasance of the closest aides to Gov. Chris Christie in New Jersey and the nightmarish Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Both are self righteous bullies who’ve attacked and assaulted workers, unions, and our elders.
Walker allowed six of his aides to take the fall for illegally doing campaign work, and sending extremely ugly, racist memos in two different elections.
Christie went so far as to throw his closest aides and friends under the bus, firing them, and even going out of his way to criticize them. In the case of political appointee David Wildstein, Christie and the staff he has left went so far as to criticize Wildstein in high school while bragging that Christie was a popular jock. Of course Christie and his closest aides and friends intentionally threatened public safety by needlessly closing lanes on the bridge to New York City.
We all know of Christie’s antipathy to teachers. Now we learn that New Jersey police unions who endorsed Christie in his first election based on his promise to protect their pensions turned against him in his second election, because he broke his promise and cut police pensions along with other public sector unions. New Jersey police and fire unions now have nothing but the righteous anger of people who’ve had their retirement cut and their financial security damaged.
Ah, the myths of the American Republican right-wing break apart all around us. Christie and Walker were often mentioned as 2016 Republican presidential aspirants. Those aspirations have blown away with indictments, scandals, finger pointing, cheap and childish blame shifting.
We would do well to consciously break the other myths of radical right-wing Republicans such as family values, budget discipline, personal morality, efficient government, and all the rest of the crap they crow about.
Special thanks to DonkeyHotey for the amazing Christie and Walker caricatures (via Flickr CC BY 2.0)