More Embarrassment
Noting Couple of Shameful Events in the Last Week
Jonah Goldberg sometimes says that the mark of a conservative is the ability to be comfortable with contradictions. The world is a messy place and things don’t always fit neatly into one category or another. Or, as I like to say, we have to take the good with the bad.
The good is that this administration is pursuing a course of action in Iran which I think was necessary. The bad is that Donald Trump remains as embarrassing and shameless as ever, and many figures in his administration and in Congress remain dishonorable or downright cringeworthy.
Two recent bits of news put this back into my mind. Donald Trump putting his signature on a run of dollar bills being printed. And Speaker Johnson awarding Donald Trump the inaugural “annual” America First award. If you’re one of those people who struggle to watch comedy movies because you feel bad for the characters, you’ll probably have trouble not cringing when watching Johnson announce this award. I can’t believe he isn’t embarrassed; I was embarrassed for him and for the country hearing him.
Donald Trump is incapable of being embarrassed, and he has a pathetic need to be patted on the head at every moment by everyone around him and to constantly draw attention to himself, so I can’t say I’m surprised by the whole signature-on-the-dollar-bill thing. I would be disappointed, but after ten years anyone who is disappointed by Donald Trump is someone who is foolish enough to have high expectations for him. How, at this late date, could anyone expect anything more of Trump? If I’m surprised, I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to remove Washington’s face (or, more likely, Franklin’s - I’m sure Trump would rather have his face on the hundred than the single) to replace it with his own. This is a man who needs to have large banners on federal buildings with his face on them.
His supporters like the trolling. They think it’s funny. They think objections to this stuff are about Resisting Authoritarianism or about feeling personally offended. I don’t feel personally offended at all. What amazes me is that so many of Trump’s supporters lack any feeling of embarrassment themselves. There is such a thing as carrying yourself like a man. Having some dignity and a sense of honor. A man doesn’t act like a child. He has a sense that there are certain things which are beneath him. Trump lacks all of that. Sometimes his shamelessness is quite funny. But at other times, it’s just childish. Johnson and the others must know this. They’re being quite pathetic themselves. I don’t understand what they could possibly get out of any of this which is worth debasing themselves in such fashion. Nobody looks up to them. Nobody is impressed by them.
Another example is J.D. Vance. He recently claimed to be the “coolest” vice president. I may have a post entirely devoted to that question coming soon. I laughed when I heard that. Vance has never been cool. If I knew him, I would tell him, “No, J.D., they’re laughing at you, not with you.” He’s the kid who isn’t in on the joke. The joke is on him.
I can’t believe more people aren’t embarrassed themselves by this crap. Sometimes you have to laugh, but other times you can’t laugh because of how stupid it all is.
Oh well, three more years I guess.
Coda:
None of this is to say the Democrats don’t have their own embarrassments. Kamala “brat” Harris. Tim “Man Enough” Walz. Joe “He’s Not Too Old, We Beat Medicare” Biden.
It would be nice if this country ran a serious presidential candidate for a change. Maybe in 2032.
What becomes a norm breaker because a norm with the next guy. POTUS Newsom will have HIS signature on our currency no doubt. This brings me to something that was a common parental refrain when I was a kid, especially with two brothers! "Two wrongs do not make a right."
Can we put THAT on our currency instead?
Take the good with the bad indeed. It is difficult to imagine the other more conventional Republican presidential hopefuls having the political courage to do some of the things that needed to be done that Trump did. We agree on what those things are. Even Cruz and Cotton probably would not. Maybe DeSantis. But a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down. And politics can be practiced with grace, class and style and be effective. Take care.