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The Leopards Eating People's Faces Party

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JoinSign inShare this postThe Leopards Eating People's Faces Partymorningshots.thebulwark.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailDec 3, 2020Share this postThe Leopards Eating People's Faces Partymorningshots.thebulwark.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailfrom 2015ICYMI: Trumpist activists are now telling Republicans to boycott the January 5 senatorial run-off, because…. leopards.Really, people, marvel at the four-dimensional chess here.This is, however, what you get when you bring cranks, grifters, crackpots and hacks into your inner circle and elevate their national profiles. Sometimes it does, indeed, come back to eat your face.But this is also what you get when you elect someone as president, who is himself both a crackpot and a fabulist, a chronic liar who has his own fascination with conspiracy theories. When the GOP embraced the candidate of Birtherism, what did they think would happen? When they looked the other way when he spun made up tales about hidden wiretaps, mysterious servers, and deep state plots, where did they think this was going?Newt Gingrich, for one, appears to be very, very shocked.Did they really think the face eating leopards wouldn’t come for them?The Most Important Presidential Speech Evah.But at least he didn't declare martial law. So, hey, there's that. Married to a lie. Indeed, Trump’s insistence that he was stabbed in the back could shape right-wing politics for decades. In the short term, there is no longer any easy exit strategy for Republicans. Trump’s denialism won’t end with the certification of the state votes; it won’t end with the counting of the Electoral College votes; and it won’t end on Jan. 20 with his departure from the White House.After four years of Trump, the habit of ignoring reality is no longer simply a reflex; it is now at the center of the right’s political culture. Indeed, ignoring the reality of the coronavirus was a dress rehearsal for ignoring the reality of an American electionAnd like clockwork:Exit take: Is it possible?“The vice president doesn’t want to go down with this ship…and believes much of the legal work has been unhelpful.” Some thoughts on Hope. When I was young I thought of Hope as a parti-colored bird; elusive but filled with joyful portent. Now I think of Hope as a guy in a rusty Chrysler Imperial trying to sell me the same cut-rate crack he conned me into buying last week.Sometimes, I worry that I’m getting too cynical.But after the last five years the cynicism is hard won. All I have to do is look at the photos on the wall of my office — all of the politicians and “friends,” who once represented the future. And we know how that turned out. Spend enough time in this business and disillusionment becomes your constant companion. After the long soul-crushing slog of the last four years, you learn to be leery of putting your hope in princes.“Could America deal with this crisis by peacefully ushering out the old era and shaping a new one,” he writes, “one that renews the institutions of liberal democracy, that restores a decent civil life, that revives a healthy liberalism and creates a sound conservatism, that enables a new governing center in the midst of a reasonable and deliberative politics?”Sounds good. Won’t happen, right? I find myself struggling against going there again, because I’m not optimistic.Optimism and hope are not the same. Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for the better; hope is the belief that, together, we can&nbsp;make&nbsp;the world better.”Hope actually requires courage. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope an active one. It needs no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to hope. The Hebrew Bible is not an optimistic book. It is, however, one of the great literatures of hope.Elsewhere he wrote: “Hope is not costless in the way that optimism is. It carries with it a considerable price. Those who hope refuse to be comforted while the hoped-for outcome is not yet reached. Given their history of suffering, Jews were rarely optimists. But they never gave up hope. That is why, when the prophets saw evil in the world, they refused to be comforted.”It would not be unreasonable to expect pardons of a slew of other Trump loyalists, including:In what might prove to be his last significant act as attorney general, William Barr appointed John Durham to be a special counsel, in order to continue the Trump administration’s investigation into the Obama administration even after Trump himself leaves office. Critics immediately recognized a legal glitch in Barr’s memo appointing Durham, but that glitch will not negate Durham’s appointment. In that respect, the glitch is less significant than it might seem. Yet, at the same time, it is also more significant than it seems.“Cowards”This went well.I had some thoughts.annuallyLike this postShare this postThe Leopards Eating People's Faces Partymorningshots.thebulwark.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailNo posts© 2022 The Bulwark ∙ ∙ &nbsp;is the home for great writingThis site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please or unblock scripts

JoinSign inShare this postThe Leopards Eating People's Faces Partymorningshots.thebulwark.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailDec 3, 2020Share this postThe Leopards Eating People's Faces Partymorningshots.thebulwark.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailfrom 2015ICYMI: Trumpist activists are now telling Republicans to boycott the January 5 senatorial run-off, because…. leopards.Really, people, marvel at the four-dimensional chess here.This is, however, what you get when you bring cranks, grifters, crackpots and hacks into your inner circle and elevate their national profiles. Sometimes it does,...

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Charlie Sykes

Political analysis and reporting free of tribal prejudices. Sign up for our newsletters here https://plus.thebulwark.com/subscribe

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