"Shadow Government"

So I saw a while back that Tim Walz, who would have been a great VP IMHO, has urged Democrats to form a shadow government to “emphasize the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's actions.” (That’s according to a story in Just The News.)

There’s nothing wrong with the proposal, even though the Magrat Government jumped on it as fast as their little hobnailed boots could manage. Unfortunately, there is a conspiracy theory, popular among knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, GOP troglodytes that a (liberal) “shadow government” is doing Torrible Things to ‘Merica and the world.. 

In fact, of course, there is no such sinister Shadow Government. The term simply means the organization of the party out of power as it attempts to oppose the policies and actions of the party which is in power. It’s what happens in democracies. We’ve done it for years, even though we Americans don’t call it a “shadow government.” That's more of a British thing, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t adopt the term here in the Benighted States of (Trump’s) America. 

In fact, the more I think about it, the more important it seems to me that we have such an organization…something beyond a simple opposition group. That’s because Trump and the G☭P are going to screw up the country. They are a disaster waiting to happen. Or, rather, are happening now. 

And I notice that one definition of “Shadow Government” listed on Wikipedia is “a term for plans for an emergency government that takes over in the event of a disaster.” Well, guess what. That’s exactly what we’re going to need.

Someone to pick up the pieces…

And maybe, hopefully, this time…

Put a few bastards in jail.

~mjt

Tim Walz

Tim Walz's church...and its enemies.

I was appalled to discover that Tim Walz’s church has come under attack by the Right. It seems that he is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which is a perfectly normal, mainstream, Protestant church. 

But not according to the Right and MAGAheads everywhere. One “conservative” publication went so far as to say that ELCA is “a Trainwreck of Heresy and Blasphemy” -- this, I think, mostly because the ELCA talks about things like feeding the hungry and healing the sick.

There is no little irony in this. We have here enemies of Walz, that goodly man, unable to attack the man himself, and instead pillorying his Church for the crime of actually practicing what Jesus taught.

References:

Tim Walz’s Lutheran Church is a Trainwreck of Heresy and Blasphemy, Protestia,  https://protestia.com/2024/08/07/vice-president-pick-tim-walzs-lutheran-church-is-a-trainwreck-of-heresy-and-blasphemy/#google_vignette

“Political Attacks on Walz’s Church? Good Grief,” Brian Kaylor, Word&Way, August 8, 2024. https://wordandway.org/2024/08/08/political-attacks-on-walzs-church-good-grief/

“Attacks on Tim Walz’s Lutheran Denomination are Undermined by Reality — I Mean, Is ELCA Even Exciting Enough for Controversy?” By Daniel Schultz, Religious Dispatches, August 13, 2024, https://religiondispatches.org/attacks-on-tim-walzs-lutheran-denomination-are-undermined-by-reality-i-mean-is-elca-even-exciting-enough-for-controversy/