Burning the Forest Down

It has been obvious for several years that a lot of people don’t understand what kind of Joker we have.

We don’t have Cesar Romero’s Joker, suave, sophisticated, with an air like he was a little better than everyone else in the room, and many days he was right.

We don’t have Jack’s Joker, a goofy, avuncular uncle who’s gone a little seedy but still retains his old panache.

No, we have Heath Ledger’s Joker, who claimed to be a better class of criminal and an agent of chaos and was only one of those things.

Michael Caine knows.

With respect… perhaps this is man that you don’t fully understand, either. … Some men can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. They just want to watch the world burn.

In the aftermath of our Joker trying to burn everything down, several people in the administration have jumped ship, saying in various ways, “I don’t want to be a part of this!” Which is not only disingenuous but a bit farcical. First, they’re out of jobs in less than two weeks anyway, they don’t get to claim the high ground because they quit a few days early. But most importantly, they’ve all been part of this from the very beginning, because this isn’t new, this wasn’t something that came out of the blue, this has been a part of the Joker’s persona from the beginning. If you didn’t see this coming, you either weren’t paying attention (unlikely), you ignored it (equally unlikely), or you wanted to ride it while it was hot (dead certainty).

This Joker is a liar, a bully, a weapons-grade narcissist whose picture should replace Narcissus’ on Wikipedia, a sociopath, and has been from the beginning. You could see that thirty-plus years ago on Letterman, and you could certainly see it five years ago during the primaries. Three-hundred-and-fifty-thousand people are dead because of his willful incompetence.

The end of the conversation quoted above:

“How did you catch him?”
“We burned the forest down.”

So here’s the deal. I’m burning the forest down. If you haven’t completely and absolutely repudiated the Joker and all of his ways, including and especially his latest pants-on-fire nonsense about the election, then you’re not getting another vote from me. You can’t claim to “abhor” the violence and still give credence to the Joker that brought it about. House, Senate, state House/Senate, local, doesn’t matter—if you try to keep hold of the Joker’s coattails, you’re gone as far as I’m concerned.

Your empty claims of “representing the people’s wishes” fall on deaf ears. The Joker and you his henchpeople are the cause of the “people’s wishes,” which have no grounding in reality. It’s unfortunate that a large percentage of the population don’t understand the difference between baseless accusations and evidence, but as an elected representative, you either do, or you aren’t qualified to be an elected representative. And if everybody in the group wants to start a bonfire in the living room, someone needs to stand up and say that’s a really stupid idea. Your first obligation is to the Constitution, to the country, to our democracy. If the “people’s wishes” run counter to that, then too bad. Or, again, you’re not qualified to be an elected official, and you’re gone.

Don’t bother trying to scare us with what might happen. First, it’s nothing compared to what has happened with you and the Joker in charge. Second, you’ve already done everything you’re trying to scare us about. (Laugh out loud moment today—one of the far right-wing idiots scare-mongering about the other guys’ “spending” after the Jokers’ party passed the largest spending bill in history and promptly gave the money to all their rich pals.)

Yep, I’m only one vote. But methinks I’m not the only one saying this—the Georgia runoffs might be instructive.

It is way, way, way, W-A-Y past time for our elected representatives to put what is right above the party line. This is true on both sides of the aisle. But only one of those sides is trying to burn things to the ground right now.

Someday soon maybe we’ll talk about the First Amendment and what it means and doesn’t mean.