Kakistocracy, Part The Millionth

I think there is an interpretation of Trump's phone call to the grieving widow that isn't awful.  He wanted to praise LaDavid Johnson's voluntary commitment to his country's security, but because he's Trump, he couldn't pull it off, because he lacks basic empathic ability.  Still, he was trying to do the right thing, but he can't because he's an awful person.  Typical of Trump is this nonsense where he writes checks with his big mouth than his even bigger ass can't cash.

I was listening to NPR's report of the godawful DEA bill that made it easier for drug companies to evade oversight and enforcement.  Quelle surprise!  Marsha Blackburn, the Trump of Tennessee, was intimately involved in its passage, as well as the guy Trump wanted to make Drug Czar.  If there is one issue that is having a calamitous effect on "red state America" it is the opioid epidemic.  Yet, here are Republicans - from Trump to Marino to Blackburn - actively taking measures to make it worse.

Some of this is the individual perfidy of the individual politicians. However, as I noted last night, this extends beyond any individuals.  Conservatism is improperly named.  To "conserve" is to preserve.  Conservatism is wedded to the status quo, because it inherently distrusts the ability of human reason to improve things.  Instead, true conservatism wishes to see things move slowly, so that they benefit from accrued human wisdom, rather than someone in a governmental office redesigning the nation's health care.

The "Conservative Movement" is no longer conservative.  It's deeply, deeply reactionary.  It embraces veiled and not so veiled appeals to racism.  It wishes to rollback the welfare state, including the parts that work.  It wishes to embrace a Gilded Age philosophy of governance.

Because it does all these things, it attracts a truly horrible group of people who simply do not care about their fellow human beings.  Selfishness is the essential ingredient of those Houstonians who enjoy their FEMA response while decrying their tax dollars being spent in Puerto Rico.  It's an essential ingredient in massive regressive tax cuts.  It's an essential ingredient in sending other people's sons and daughters overseas to fight in needless wars.

These are the worst people in America.  Sure, there are selfish, cruel liberals.  Hello, Harvey.  We routinely fail to live up to the best idea of ourselves.  My problem with Movement Conservatism is that its best version of itself is still fucking awful.  And so, when it is left unfettered, we get what we have now.  If Donald Trump is the walking personification of a Fox News Comment Thread, that's not just a reflection on Donald Trump.  That's a reflection on the entirety of the "Conservative Movement."

Reagan's political gift as being able to appeal to these fundamentally selfish people while maintaining a breezy optimism and positivity.  Today, his heirs embrace the anger and fear and resentment without providing any solace to the country.

What's more, Trump - and Kelly, for that matter - can't apologize, because to apologize opens the door to accountability.  If you can be wrong about what happened in the phone call or the FBI building dedication, why can't you be wrong about climate change or tax cuts or Muslims or walls or any of the other objectively bullshit things they believe in?

Trump failed to provide solace to LaDavid Johnson's family because he literally can't, any more than he can walk on water or speak Mandarin Chinese.  I don't know where we go from here.  Because of the nature of our incompetent political institutions, rural America is over-represented in government.  This has been a problem for over a century.  It might improve with the dying off of the generation that came of age in the '60s and '70s and hate what they saw in their youth, but will it?

Can we afford to wait that long?

UPDATE: Came across this from Wolcott:


This sentimentalization of the Loyal Trump Voter, whose rationale for standing by the president is often cradled in incoherence and plain, proud ignorance with a large chunk of stubborn pride, is the latest extension of the press’s centering of the White Working Class in the national narrative, no matter how much the demographics and the complexion of the country change. Every election cycle, eastern reporters ritualistically venture into caucus and primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire on Norman Rockwell safari to file copy from the diners and truck stops on “real Americans” in plaid jackets and tractor caps with heartland values and comfort-food appetites. It is time this romance with Ma and Pa Kettle was put out to pasture. Let journalists find other ways to pretend to be in touch with those left behind and clinging to their discredited articles of faith. Otherwise, dec­ades from now, if news outlets as we know them survive, reporters may still be tramping through the hinterlands searching for the last remaining Trump holdouts to interview as if they were Japanese soldiers hiding in the jungles long after World War II ended.