Rand Paul Agonistes

So I read that Rand Paul is so aghast at Trump’s tariffs that he fears for the future of his party. He notes that each time the GOP has instituted tariffs in the past (as in 1850 and 1930) the result has been a severe economic downturn while the Republican party lost seats in the House and Senate. He fears, in fact, that the Party could be wiped out in Congress for “sixty years.”

I both fear and hope that he’s right. Fear, because I suspect that the tariffs will be every bit as destructive to the American economy (and society) as he says. But, also hope, because it would be lovely to think that the GOP was about to be expelled into the outer darkness for another half century or more.

Or…better yet…far better….

…be dissolved as the criminal enterprise it has so clearly become.

~mjt

Rand Paul Doesn’t Like Trump’s Tariffs

So I see that Rand Paul…right-wing poster-boy and Ayn Rand’s most fervent disciple…has come out and said that Trump’s tariffs are harmful and dangerous. He opposes them, in short, even though he worked like a champ to get Donald himself back into office.

Oh, the sweet irony of it all. This is a man who genuinely believes that Atlas is going to Shrug at some point in the near future. This is the man who thought Trump was going to be a great Libertarian hero. This is the man who wanted to prosecute Doctor Fauci for the heinous crime of trying to protect people from Covid rather than letting the ignorant masses die in the name of a smoothly functioning economy.

Yet, here he is…facing the consequences of his actions, and realizing that the Orange One stands for Free Enterprise only so long as it means he, himself, is Free to loot governmental coffers and pick the public’s pocket.

It must be hard on the poor chap. Like being five and finding out that the bearded guy down at the corner isn’t Santa Claus, but rather just a stinking drunk who has a regular weekly appointment with that syphilitic hooker who does business behind the dumpster in the alley around the block.

You almost feel sorry for Congressman Paul.

Almost. Not quite. But almost. 

Anthony Fauci, American Hero

 So I’m reading Dr. Anthony Fauci’s new book, On Call. It is fascinating, and reading it makes you realize that Fauci has quietly labored for decades, often against impossible odds, to keep people healthy and well all over the world. 

He’s fought against, AIDS, Zika, Ebola, flus of a hundred kinds, and, of course, Covid.

You would think that no one could object to that, yet, somehow, the Right tried to make him public enemy #1, and did their best to frustrate his work. 

That’s distressing, particularly when you compare him, and all that he has done, with his chief tormentors, such as Rand Paul and Marjorie Taylor Greene. You look at the lives and careers of people like Paul and Greene, and you know that they have done basically nothing.

They’ve feathered their own nests. They’ve gained power and used it, sometimes ruthlessly. They’ve hurt others when they could. And they’ve blocked progress wherever they could.

But otherwise, nothing. They’ve done absolutely nothing. They have helped no one. They have barely noticed their constituents, much less served them. They have introduced no important legislation.

For all that they have actually achieved, they might as well have never been born at all. 

And maybe that’s really why they hate Fauci with such passion. For they know, to their shame, that in his quiet way, he has achieved greatness.

Where-as they...are nothing. Mere voids in a vacuum. Just shadows in the dark.