The Fragile Egos of Fascists and Seditionists

When this blog first began years ago and I had verbal and email encounters with virulently anti-gay far right "Christians" - the only group from which I have received numerous death threats (i.e., the reason I moderate comments left on the blog so as to not provide them with a platform) - I would tell the falsely pious and self-righteous that I would continue to tell the truth about them as long as they continued to lie about LGBT individuals.   This past Thursday Joe Biden told the truth about the MAGA Republicans and the result of that truth telling has been wailing and shreiks of hurt feelings and claims that Biden "insulted millions of Americans," with apologies demanded.  Sometimes the truth hurts but that pain or perceived insult doesn't make it any less the truth.  Among those whining and claiming insult are Trump, Lindsey Graham (Trumpmust have some really revealing photos or videos of "Lady G" a/k/a the Palmetto Queen), peddlers of the "Big Lie" and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (pictured above) , a man I truly believe would sell his own mother into prostitution for pocket change if he thought it might further his lusting for the House speakership.  A column in the Washington Post takes aim at these liars and hypocrites falling on their fainting sofas (as does one in The Atlantic).  Here are highlights:

Who knew strongmen were so fragile? The insurrectionists of Jan. 6 busted into the Capitol, hit police with fire extinguishers, flagpoles, bats, stun guns and pepper spray; they threatened to kill the vice president and tried to overthrow the 2020 election. And now, they want an apology.

MAGA Republican leaders have fomented violence, attacked the rule of law and deceived tens of millions of people into rejecting the outcome of free and fair elections. And now, they, too, want an apology. . . . . former president Donald Trump called for reparations for those who assaulted democracy on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump told a right-wing radio host that, if he returns to power, he plans “full pardons with an apology to many” who attacked the Capitol.

Kevin McCarthy, in Scranton, Pa., gave a prebuttal of Biden’s democracy speech in which the House Republican leader demanded that Biden apologize to MAGA Republicans for calling their ideology “semi-fascism.” “The first lines out of his mouth should be to apologize for slandering tens of millions of Americans as fascists,” McCarthy said.

Of course, Biden’s semi-fascism remark was directed at MAGA leaders such as Trump and McCarthy — not the masses they’ve hornswoggled with their anti-democratic lies. But McCarthy used a classic fascist tool: casting the powerful in-group as the persecuted.

McCarthy has tried this move before. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called McCarthy a “moron” last year over his objections to pandemic mask-wearing, he tried to sell T-shirts that said “Moron” in big letters and (falsely) claimed Pelosi had applied the label to all “freedom loving Americans.”

Is there no limit to the authoritarians’ hurt feelings? Insurrectionists are victims. Fascists are victims. Even right-wing fashion victims are victims. A new outlet calling itself “The Conservateur” just published an equine-themed fashion spread of Lara Trump, showing her atop a horse, barefoot, wearing a "gauze gown belted with clustered pearls.” Complains the Conservateur: “Despite her beauty and accomplishments ... Lara was never interviewed by Vanity Fair, Elle, Marie Claire or any of the other fashion and lifestyle magazines.”

[H]ere’s an apology to the semi-fascists, as McCarthy demanded:

I’m so sorry you’ve convinced millions of people to believe the egregious lie that the 2020 election was stolen. I’m sorry you are making heroes of the criminals who attacked our seat of government. I’m sorry you’re currently fomenting violence against the FBI and the IRS. I’m sorry you’re passing laws giving yourselves more power to overthrow the 2024 election results if you lose, and I’m sorry you’re nominating candidates committed to doing so. I’m sorry you don’t like it when the Justice Department enforces the law and protects national security. I’m sorry you’ve lionized Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban, and I’m sorry you say that the Democratic Party, not Vladimir Putin’s Russia, is the real enemy. I regret that you’ve taken away women’s rights. I regret that you’re banning books and censoring history lessons. I regret that you are shunning science, expertise and the truth. Above all, I’m truly sorry that, because of such things, Biden called you semi-fascists. There’s really nothing “semi” about it.

Amen to that apology.