Dangerous is sweet for GOP as MTG praises Pentagon leaker
If Cruella de Vil, the evil, dog-fur-coat-craving heiress within the novel “The Hundred and One Dalmatians,” hadn’t been featured in a Disney film, she’d possible be a hero to present-day Republicans.
They appear to have a factor for villains. The 2 front-runners for the GOP presidential nomination are Donald Trump – an election-denying, insult-hurling and completely indicted former president – and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – a bully whose major targets embrace lecturers, LGBTQ youth and, as he clearly demonstrated late final week by signing a draconian six-week abortion ban, ladies who need management over their very own our bodies.
However alas, Cruella can’t be a part of the fold of favored fiends. The Disney connection dooms her. That firm, in keeping with DeSantis and different Republicans, is “woke.” And woke, you see, is evil.
It is complicated, however in right now’s GOP, ‘unhealthy’ is ‘good’
I can already hear your confusion. Aren’t I premising this column on the concept Republicans are embracing villains? And in that case, shouldn’t evil really be good?
It’s difficult. Somebody “unhealthy” is simply “good” when that particular person matches completely, like a laser-cut jigsaw piece, into the puzzle that’s the right-wing ecosystem.
For instance, a 21-year-old Air Nationwide Guardsman, Jack Teixeira, was arrested final week and charged with leaking categorized navy paperwork on-line. In regular America, this is able to be thought of “unhealthy.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene offers suspected categorized doc leaker Jack Teixeira a giant ol’ hug
Enter one Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s the face of Home Republicans, whether or not they prefer it or not. After the suspect’s arrest, she tweeted: “Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he advised the reality about troops being on the bottom in Ukraine and much more. Ask your self who’s the true enemy?”
I did ask myself who the true enemy is – the truth is I requested myself a number of occasions, simply to make certain – and the reply at all times got here up: the man charged with an array of crimes regarding the leaking of categorized paperwork.
However once more, that’s in regular America. In a lot of right-wing-echo-chamber America, nevertheless, the alleged actions Teixeira took have been embraced. He matches proper into the puzzle, partly as a result of, as Greene famous, he’s “white, male, christian” and his case may be twisted right into a grievance towards the Biden administration. Welcome residence, Jack.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott needs to pardon a convicted assassin
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott introduced he’s going to do all he can to pardon Daniel Perry, an Military sergeant who was discovered responsible this month of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020. This got here after Fox Information’ Tucker Carlson hollered about Perry’s conviction, calling it “a authorized atrocity.”
Within the right-wing fever swamps, anybody related to Black Lives Matter is at all times the unhealthy man. And that previous Republican tough-on-crime thought? That solely applies if the crime matches the puzzle, and this one clearly didn’t.
Oops! Seems the convicted assassin additionally despatched a bunch of racist messages
However it will get worse. Shortly after Abbott went to bat for the convicted assassin, extra courtroom paperwork from the case have been unsealed. They included an array of personal messages from Perry which are wildly racist. So now Abbott and Carlson and all who’ve tried to make Perry a trigger célèbre on the suitable have their arms round a racist assassin. Dangerous is sweet, good is unhealthy. What a world.
Talking of crimes and unsavory characters, former President Trump has not solely been indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise data, he’s dealing with an array of different investigations starting from election interference to a doable violation of the Espionage Act.
He’ll additionally go on trial later this month in a civil lawsuit alleging defamation and sexual assault. That each one sounds downright villainous, however many Republicans nonetheless love him, and he stays the favourite to win the get together’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Perhaps it’s as a result of he additionally loves unhealthy guys.
Donald Trump clearly has a factor for tyrants
In a latest interview with Carlson on Fox Information, Trump described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “high of the road.”
Of Chinese language President Xi Jinping, Trump mentioned that he “is a superb man. Should you went throughout Hollywood to search for someone to play the function of President Xi, you couldn’t discover – there’s no person like that. The look, the mind, the entire thing.”
The brutal North Korean dictator? Trump mentioned: “Kim Jong Un is wise too. , whenever you come out and as a younger man at 24, 23, regardless that he type of inherits it, most individuals after they inherit, they lose it. And that’s straightforward stuff. He took over a rustic, a really good folks, very, very energetic folks, very robust folks at a really younger age. And he has whole dominate management. That’s not straightforward.”
Have Republicans met a tyrant they don’t like in recent times? (I welcome your emails saying “BIDEN IS A TYRANT AND YOUR AN IDIOT!!!” Thanks for proving my level.)
And lest we neglect, the ‘heroes’ who attacked the U.S. Capitol
Don’t neglect all of the violent MAGA mopes in jail for attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Carlson, Greene, Trump and different notable noisemakers routinely body them as patriotic victims of an unjust system.
So those who beat up all of the law enforcement officials and expressed a urgent need to hold Vice President Mike Pence are actually the great guys in the event you’re a part of the pro-villain wing of the Republican Get together.
It’s a wierd time to be alive. I’m telling you, if Cruella hadn’t been in that Disney flick, she’d most likely be a GOP-vice-presidential-candidate-in-waiting, making a killing promoting faux-dog-fur coats at MAGA rallies.
Comply with USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Fb fb.com/RexIsAJerk
Extra from Rex Huppke:
Elon Musk is taking away my blue examine mark on Twitter. Who am I if not notable?
Would right now’s GOP attempt to ban Mister Rogers for being woke? In all probability.
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