From 7/13/-7/17, Quinnipiac University polled Dems’ Presidential preferences. Meanwhile, a new video clip appeared. In it, a dour scion of Camelot smarms (in the pseudo-authoritative passive voice), “There is an argument that….Covid 19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people….[and not so much] Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
Whoa. Let’s get real- and riled. The specter of mad scientists concocting ANY killer germ (let alone ‘smart’ ones that choose among ethnicities) may float Q-cultists’ and RFK, Jr.’s boats. But come on. Given no shortage of real-world concerns and issues, must our attention, energies, imaginations, and psyches be assailed by what StopAntisemitism’s Liora Rez calls sheer “lunacy?”
Sanely as you please, journalist/lawyer/kleptocracy scourge Kyle Herrig leads the Dems’ Congressional Integrity Project. He calls Kennedy “a total whack job whose views...would be completely ignored [outside Trumpworld] but for his last name;” no wonder Herrig implored the House Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government to rescind its weaponization of Kennedy (to testify at a 7/20 hearing, ostensibly on censorship).
Gosh. What could there be to censor? Late last year, Bobby reportedly accused Anthony Fauci of “orchestrating fascism”- and put out a video that ‘orchestrated’ Hitler-style whiskers onto Dr. Fauci’s face. (With no trace of compunction or remorse, Kennedy thereby smears our long-time National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head/Medal of Freedom laureate as closely akin to the dictator whom my late father called “the worst person who ever lived.”)
At that hearing, US Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) read some of Kennedy’s oddest harangues. Donning the GOP-woven mantle of “deny, deny, deny” and “attack, attack, attack,” he not so much talked as roared over her; his conniption culminated in smearing her as slanderous.
It gets worse. Swiping pages from the hard right's playbook, Kennedy has scorched the terra firma where President Biden tends to excel. No matter Mr. Biden's outstanding leadership on infrastructure; Kennedy flays him for manifold longstanding woes. (In truth, he may as well pin the Lindbergh kidnapping on Julie Andrews, or the breakup of The Beatles on Ringo.) Not only is Bobby's toxic bilge absurd; it's chillingly on par with Donald Trump's.
Not to mention how Kennedy plays politics with the violent deaths of what he calls "Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian youths." In effect, he goes so far as to blame Russia’s latter-day blitz not on the Trump-touted Vladimir Putin, but on the Trump-smeared Biden. (Sad.)
The good news: said poll shows Ordinary Joe leading Ornery Bob (among Dems) by a 5-1 margin. Epitomizing such discernment, US Rep Gerry Connolly (D-VA) pegs the latter a GOP “enabler” and “prop.” Jack Schlossberg (JFK’s grandson) calls Kennedy’s demagoguing delirium “an embarrassment.” Plainly enough, most donkeys have yet to fall at the feet of the master-in-name-only.
The not-so-good: to unify the nation sufficiently to bode basic survival, our sole remaining non-despotic major party must functionally unite itself. We’re on thin ice. On borrowed time. Our body politic is on life support. Facing a red, meaty base that stamps and ramps on a “There are no rules in war” footing (quoting Ginni Thomas), wonky donkeys must resolve the fact that there can be no future to speak of if we let the cult of “get rid of the ballots” continue to run amuck.
For all his flaws, Kennedy may serve to spotlight the need for bluer, fact-friendly heads to prevail. Granted, a big blue tent can be a thing of beauty. But some would ‘redecorate’ to make it red as a fire truck. They need to be called (if not tossed) out. (Let it be stressed: such self-inflated swells as Kyrsten “Almighty Dollar” Sinema, Joe ‘Old King Coal’ Manchin, and the vaxx-averse, dynasty-driven, GOP-deployed interloper-without-portfolio deserve to be shunned, and then some.)
No matter how much we may love to scold “alarmists,” business-as-usual is gone with the windbags. Like it or not, report it or not, we face serious-as-a-heart-attack foes who smear-and-define fact-steeped moderates as commies. Fascists. Cannibals. And yes, as false flag raiders, ransackers, and would-be destroyers of our Capitol and our country.
Better late than never, let’s declare zero tolerance for querulous, truth-averse, not-so-charismatic quislings of all stripes. With Trump calling for everything from “do a default” to the impoundment of funds to (STILL) “take back our nation” a la J6, Dems, indies, and any disillusioned, decent tuskers who may exist will do well to stick to the facts at hand, while standing whatever ground may be left. On guard. On cue. On Q’s seditious throat. With no quarter for DINOs. Political predators. Or elephants of another color.