If there were a single theme underlying all the political nonsense of last week, it would be that at times politics can be pure farce. Given last week’s inanities, one could be pardoned for thinking that either the “leaders” of our parties had collectively lost their minds, or each party sent secret agents, or moles, into the other to elicit the most stupid behavior possible from their targets.
I’ve written in the past that I’ve had a long-running joke with a moderately liberal Democratic friend concerning moles. During the 2016 presidential campaign, we began attributing Hillary Clinton’s more dubious appearances and stupid decisions to Republican-placed moles in her campaign: A mole advised her not to spend so much time in Michigan, Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania: Those states would vote Democratic as they had for decades (Trump campaigned extensively in all three states, winning their electoral votes and hence the White House). Another mole told Hillary to give Trump’s supporters a fearless tongue-lashing, calling them “deplorables;” that certainly made them feel bad—bad enough to vote for Donald in stronger numbers than they may have planned, while strengthening his narrative that Hillary was an out-of-touch elitist. Yet another mole followed Hillary around, spiking her drinks, nudging her off balance, and thereby raising questions about her physical fitness for the presidency. You get the picture: Perhaps last week’s epidemic of boneheadedness could best be explained as caused by the return of the moles. Consider:
Say what you will of President Trump, he’s undeniably a master showman. He proved as much when he addressed Congress last Tuesday night. At one point, he arranged for a thirteen-year-old boy suffering from brain cancer to be made an honorary Secret Service Agent in a ceremony conducted on the floor of the House as the Acting Director of the Secret Service presented him with a badge. And how did the Democratic members of Congress in attendance respond? They simply sat there in stony silence refusing to react at all. I can understand them not wanting to credit Trump with any act that may indicate—heaven forbid!—any degree of compassion or humanitarianism, but to glare in silence during what will probably be a very high point in a boy’s very short life is bizarre. They could have shown at least some humanity in acknowledging the boy’s ordeal. All they did was supply talking points for Fox News. Were the Democrats simply being sullen and stupid? Or did a GOP-placed mole convince them to refuse to along with Trump’s little show, lest Trump score a public-relations triumph, and that nobody would care if they snubbed some kid with brain cancer anyway?
And then there’s the decision of a group of House Democratic women, led by AOC, to participate in a video wherein they would strike combative poses to the tune of “Choose Your Fighter,” from the 2023 movie, “Barbie.” The video’s got to be seen to be believed (check it out on YouTube). Whose idea was it to get House Democrats to pretend as if they’re the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or the teenage mutant ninja Barbie Dolls? Could another GOP-placed mole have struck? By the way, Trump (of course) countered with his own video wherein he reminded its viewers that last November the voters had already chosen their fighter. Guess who.
But lest you think the Democrats had a monopoly on last week’s lunacy, it must be admitted that Republicans produced their own share of inanities as well. For example, Donald Trump’s speechwriter (a Democratic-placed mole?) had Trump denouncing federal spending on research involving “transgendered mice” when he should have said “transgenic mice.” Transgenic mice are mice genetically engineered to model human responses to diseases and probable human responses to experimental drugs developed to treat the diseases. This makes research into the effectiveness of experimental drugs to someday treat humans both safer and easier. Whether the federal government should be financing this sort of research may be a fair question. But as far as anyone knows, the government is not financing research into how to turn Mickey into Minnie—at least not yet.
Also making the news are Defense Department efforts to eliminate any trace of DEI-related material from its numerous websites. These efforts have so far produced some pretty bizarre results. For example, the Chicago Sun Times reports that “The Air Force briefly removed new recruit training courses that included videos of the Tuskegee Airmen.”
Now the Tuskegee Airmen were black combat pilots, other airplane crew members, and support staff trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama during World War 2. Their presence was not due to any silly DEI initiative but to the need to find and train as many combat pilots and auxiliary staff as possible despite the rigid racial segregation in the armed forces. These men who risked, and frequently lost, their lives in segregated America’s service must be honored and remembered, not erased from memory and forgotten. When President Trump learned of plans for obliterating their record, he promptly reversed the decision, branding the plans as acts of “malicious compliance,” thereby indicating a possible effort to make the DEI purge look worse than it is. Were Democrat-placed moles behind the “malicious compliance?
And are Demomoles behind the plans to eliminate references to the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress from which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima? The Enola Gay was named for the mother of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr., its pilot. “Enola” is “alone” spelled backward, as well as a Cherokee word meaning “black fox.” Gay, used in this context, is an English name which meant “happy” or “merry” long before sexual connotations were connected to it. It is generally assumed that a computer program created to ferret out DEI references was instructed to flag anything “gay,” but who programmed the computers? And how soon will it once again be okay to remember the Enola Gay and men and women in the Armed Forces whose first or last names are “Gay” and who are currently being slated for a one-way trip down the memory hole?
Last week’s inanities have their amusing sides, and contemplating them can be a welcome relief from thinking about Ukraine, or tariffs, or DEI. But honestly, our “leaders” have to be more humane and rational in studying, implementing, or eliminating public policies, whatever those policies may be. And if they can’t become better, then we must become better in selecting new leaders ourselves.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville
Economic Development Authority since 2018 and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
Be the first to comment