ENOUGH

There's no reasoning with MAGA; shun them

When I started Afterword several weeks ago, I said I wanted a way to express my dissent on the record, and I promised to aim for well-edited rage. One month and four days later, I feel like something important has changed.

Today, I have to believe that decent Americans can be understood to dissent from what this sick president is doing. What once appeared, alarmingly enough, to be an ultra-right, un-American politics run amok has evolved into mean-spirited, traitorous insanity. I mean that literally, which is why I’m convinced it’s time to disengage from this garbage.

Backed by his I-got-mine hangers-on and the henchmen who take pleasure in doing the cruel stuff – all as a cowed Congress trembles – the Felon’s rap sheet has grown so long, its crimes so egregious, what else makes sense but a deliberate, disciplined shunning of those propping him up?

Just as America says it won’t negotiate with terrorists, the American people have no business negotiating with fascist bigots.

These people aren’t simply bad; they’re white supremacists bent on making sure people of color will never run this country, despite the fact that white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (Remember WASPs?) will soon find themselves in the minority. (Paul Ingrassia is a timely example of the slimy opportunists among them, the withdrawal of his appointment notwithstanding, and Emil Bove makes the case all by himself. And don’t get me started about Stephen Miller.)

The rage, the disgust, the heartache in many cases, hasn’t disappeared for me. I think what triggered my change in outlook was the Felon’s infantile AI response to last week’s “No Kings” protests. Something one might normally characterize as childish and trashy becomes, given the context and the source, both evil and pathological – yet another reminder the president is a genuine, ongoing threat to national security.

It’s too much, and it has gone too far. Until the status quo changes, there should not be a scintilla of engagement with the president or his supporters outside of a courtroom.

Bear in mind that any deal Republicans offer to end the shutdown will be worthless without ironclad guarantees, as lying is the principal M.O. of this criminal administration.

Don’t hold your breath for an offer including any such assurances. After all, the U.S. government is shut down because opening it could expose the president as a pedophile.

Enough of these people! Nothing good will come from dealing with them.

Until enough Republicans come to their senses, or discover they have backbones, especially a few in the House of Representatives, their shutdown will continue.

Most importantly, let’s make sure the shutdown includes Democrats’ steadfast refusal to make worthless deals with liars and cheats, not to mention child rapists.

No one is giving up, but we can’t serve our endangered nation’s interests by legitimizing an administration that rejects the Constitution and the rule of law. Shun the bastards.