Civil Commotion

There is so much to like about Pete Buttigieg: He is smart, personable, accomplished, and left-ish but not cancel-culture crazy-left.

If he weren’t a gay man married to another man, he’d be a formidable opponent. But, because he is, there are some people who are never going to vote for him, even though they might under different circumstances. There are people who wouldn’t bother to vote who will make a point of getting to the polls just to vote against him.

We not only must declare the word of God, but we must give warning to our fellow Americans that continuation in perversion will eventually result in God’s intervention. That intervention is called judgment, whether it is summary or selective depends on the scrutiny of the Sovereign God, but the surety of it is never in doubt.

By its nature perverted behaviors raise perverted questions, that being much more than common conundrum or enigma, cannot be answered and tend to mock the perversion that gives it rise.

For example, since Pete Buttigieg claims he is “married” to his gay partner Chasten Buttigieg, and that Chasten is his husband – what would we call Pete if he happened to become the President of the United States?

Would he be Madam President and not Mr. President. Would we say he was the first “woman” to become president?

Granted, this is found on the Renew America web site, and malicious and crazy — but it is mainstream Christian thought and not far removed from what will be preached in thousands of pulpits every Sunday morning for the few months preceding the election if Buttigieg is the nominee.

I think there is no more important business before the country than getting rid of The Donald, so I’m voting for the Democratic Party nominee, whomever it is; hell, the Democrats can dig-up and nominate Karl Marx’s bones if they like, and I’ll vote for those. If they nominate Buttigieg, I’ll vote for him, and do so with real pleasure. But, also … anxiety, because he comes with some characteristics that a lot of America isn’t yet ready to accept.

I’ve noticed several allusions to Edward R. Murrow’s famous takedown of Joseph McCarthy the past few days; they’ve been inspired, I imagine, by the shameful and cowardly behavior of the GOP Senate last week — an ugly counterpoint to Murrow’s challenge to McCarthy. McCarthy was unable to cow Murrow, who had reported from London during the Blitz and had faced down more than one cheap bully, and it was Murrow’s confrontation of McCarthy that ended his reign of terror.

I’m unable to locate the original See It Now episode that triggered McCarthy’s downfall; the video above is Murrow’s final commentary on McCarthy, by which time McCarthy had been ruined and turned into an impotent cartoon.

They wrap themselves in the flag, professing love of country, saying Democrats hate America. But it’s Trumpers themselves who seem to hate (or maybe never understood) the principles, values, and ideals America stands for.

Frank S. Robinson

Most, I am convinced, are simply incapable of the ideations that undergird Enlightenment ideals, and a great many others are guided by some incoherent pastiche of notions about a cosmic monarchy headed by an Invisible Friend. It all puts me in mind of Bertrand Russell’s famous remark: “Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.”

Feel the love-love-love, et cetera (take a close look at that pic).

Like everybody else with a properly functioning mind, I’m grateful that at least one Republican stepped-up to do the right, obvious thing and vote to convict Donald Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors.

But how low and sad has the Republican Party become when it’s a source of public adulation and marvel that one — just one — man was willing to step forward and do the right, obvious thing? After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Barry Goldwater went to the White House and told Richard Nixon to resign because he would lose in the Senate. Think about that: For vastly lesser crimes, Senate Republicans told Richard Nixon to go, but contemporary Senate Republicans turned a blind eye to the crimes of a grotesque carnival barker — knowing full well that, having successfully humiliated them, Trump’s excesses will inevitably, necessarily, grow more egregious.

The Republicans were once the party of the educated, the accomplished; today, it is the party of the Deplorable One-third — and they have successfully recreated the party in their own image: ignorant, malicious, smarmy, cowardly.