The image is immortal - the Baseball Manager kicking dirt in the face of an Umpire who he believes has made the wrong call. Often, his beef is that the Ump called exactly the same play against his team but for the other team in the same situation. Dr. Fauci, a keen baseball fan (whose mask has the Washington Nationals on it) would be familiar with this iconic scene of the Greatest American Pastime. That situation is precisely what Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) was getting at when he questioned Fauci about his positions on congregate events AKA gatherings.
Since the good doctor has told us to stay away from bars and not fly (even though he has done the same things recently) and not go to church or funerals, would he also admonish people from attending protests?, he asked. The Doctor would not say yes. The Doctor does not seem to understand that many people cannot understand how the virus apparently may have chosen "favourites" as to which congregations it will infect and which not. In this case, it only affects law-abiding citizens who just want to live and mind their own business but not people who gather to hate on America or do worse. It makes many millions of people feel just like that baseball manager.
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Will the same Republicans who never predicted Trump would win; made fun of Reagan; believed we would never ever hold the Senate or the House or both or ever win the presidency again after 1996, 2008 or 2016; and never believed the conservative movement might come to win anything; and now counsel despair, surrender and retreat again at every turn, poll or soundbite, possibly take a deep breath and acknowledge that this is actually an historically great time for the GOP by any measure?
From 1930 to 1994, the GOP held the House for 8 years. From 1930 to 1980, it held the Senate for 8 years. After 1980, it held the Senate for 24 years and after 1994, it held the House for 20 years (of which it held both houses for 14 years). It has swept the South for the first time since the Civil War and taken over most state houses and assemblies for the first time since the 1920's. It has held the White House for 24 of the past 40 years. It is an historically good time for the GOP and conservatives.
SO why so much sturm and drang from the usual GOP suspects? The answer is "conservative idiots". A little background. I was once called a conservative idiot by a staffer at the then National PC HQ (who still didn't mind using my services as a volunteer). By that he meant that I put my principles (which I also think means my country, too) before my Party. I wore and still wear that title like a badge of honour.
However, I have discovered a different sort of conservative idiot altogether who should wear that title with shame. That is, the conservative who usually ends up in one of two camps. First, they call for conservative change like Trump has wrought these past few years more relentlessly, prolifically and checklist-like than any president in living memory, including many things that these self same conservative idiots have been telling us for generations needs to happen for the good of the Nation and the People, our allies and our posterity. But then, when it actually does happen, they decide that there's a "nice" way to do conservative change and a nasty way to do it. Or, they turn out to have not really believed in these things after all or thought they could never happen and are shocked and even resentful that an actual officeholder carried it out, get cold feet and turn on him. "It's all great 'on paper' but you really don't think I was SERIOUS about doing THAT?" By contrast, I know I am not the type of idiot who would ever look the gift horse of conservative policy actually becoming law in the mouth and would be too busy dancing in the streets to complain.
The second reason for conservative idiocy is more particular and personal and has to do with of course, the Donald. The Donald is not a real conservative. He never held office. He never went to the right schools or was in the right clubs. He's married to that woman. He's a sex fiend. He has that accent. He's got that hair. I wish he would STOP tweeting! I am SO embarrassed! Even though I never supported him anyway (at least not at any crunch time), I cannot bear the burden of supporting him anymore. No one from that nice thinktank invites me to their gabfests anymore, you know the one with 20 different wines and 100 types of cheese that Roberts always VIP's at? How dare those evangelicals support him, don't they see how unChristian that is?!, etc., etc. For my part, I could care less if my conservative saviour was a golf pro who wore loud pants, a grocer's daughter with funny teeth, a drunken inkstained wretch who fancied red cowboy hats or a second rate actor who used a lot too much brill cream wore ties that were much too wide: if they deliver the goods, I sign the bill of sale with pleasure and back them all the way. I backed Ted Cruz until May, 2016 when he had clearly lost the nomination fight and then backed Trump all the way.
The only thing that is good about conservative idiots is that they are a vanishingly smaller and smaller (although very loud) demographic of the electorate even in the GOP and (and this is another reason they hate Trump, Gingrich and others who have really built what success the practical and conservative movement has had these past 40 years) they have had little to do with or cannot claim the credit for the historic success of the movement they claim to lead.
From 1962, The Alfred Hiitchcock Hour tells us and the infamous Federal Hanging Judge Sullivan a parable of justice. Martin Landau plays a top criminal defence lawyer who just got Frank Gorshin off of a horrible murder rap only to be told by him that he is guilty. The tormented Landau wants to report the client to the DA but he is told by his senior partner and by the trial judge that, of course, he can't do it because of double jeopardy and a perjury case would go no where. Meanwhile, he would be reported to the ABA for breaching his solicitor-client confidentiality privileges. The wise and decent judge (who doesn't even break a sweat when told by Landau that he presided over this apparent injustice) also points out that, if you think he should get the chair, the accused would likely have been found criminally insane by the jury anyway and the judge would then send him to an asylum (and it turns out he is insane). Bottom line - the defence lawyer should have done and said nothing (sadly too late for the vigilante-style hit he calls down on his client!).
Now, Landau, the seasoned criminal lawyer, should have figured all of this out in the first act of the show. Similarly, Judge Sullivan should have saved the People, the Justice Department, Sidney Powell, the Appeals Courts and, above all, General Mike Flynn, a lot of trouble by figuring out from the start that, in our system, once the prosecutor decides not to proceed with a matter and no matter how bad the accused may be and even if he has already entered a plea of guilty (which Flynn has resiled against) and even if there was not ample evidence of prosecutorial and police misconduct and abuse of Flynn's rights, he must dismiss. He may rail for hours in open court about how bad Flynn is (although surely not as bad as the many accuseds Judge Sullivan dismissed for that he knew to be terrorists, druglords, mafiosi and other predators) and refer him for a perjury beef and the DOJ staff to the ABA. But then he must do nothing else or simply compound the injustice done to an American Citizen who, until this matter, served his country as dutifully if not more than Judge Sullivan.
Sadly, it would appear that the esteemed Judge's friends on the Appeal Court prefer to give us a Hitchcockian twist ending and make us and Flynn wait until the last frame of this too longrunning show to get justice.
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John M. Farant
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John M. Farant
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