I don’t normally dip my toe into the political waters, but since we live in an age where the current administration views Scientists as the enemy, and evidence based Climate Science as a myth, it perhaps becomes inevitable. While many at the time of the election did support him, much has happened since then and so there are those that do regret such support. However, I do have to wonder about the population demographic who still think that voting against their own best interests and basic principles is still a great idea.
One specific demographic that still very much supports him is the religious right. To illustrate the calibre of the administration that they happily support, we have now perhaps all read Ryan Lizza’s rather jaw-dropping interview with the White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci within the New Yorker.
Just in case you missed it, here are a few small extracts. Now remember that this is an interview with the Director of Communications for the White House …
“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.”
… “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ”
… “They’re trying to resist me, but it’s not going to work. I’ve done nothing wrong on my financial disclosures, so they’re going to have to go fuck themselves.”
… “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.”
… “What I want to do is I want to fucking kill all the leakers” …
… “I nailed these guys. I’ve got digital fingerprints on everything they’ve done through the F.B.I. and the fucking Department of Justice.”
To be blunt, this reads more like the dialog given to some street thug within a Godfather movie.
As Trump debases the presidency, the religious right looks away
Even Jennifer Rubin, a conservative columnist within the Washington Post, is now prepared to call a spade a spade and criticise this administration.
Within her column on 28th July she highlights the raw unadulterated hypocrisy being exercise by the religious right …
No group has been as blindly loyal to President Trump as Christian conservatives. They have not let religion or values get in the way of their support. Consider the “Access Hollywood” tape, the attack on a Gold Star family, a mass of inexplicable ties between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials (and the president’s open invitation to Russia to continue hacking), the firing of the FBI director, the humiliation of evangelical-favorite Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the politicization of the Boy Scouts, the threats to the special counsel and now an interview with Trump’s out-of-control, potty-mouthed communications director. What about Trump, exactly, reflects their values? (Taking Medicaid away from millions and separating families to deport law-abiding immigrants?)
However, it is this following gem of a one-liner that she deployed that really does sum it all up beautifully …
The Trump administration is a clown show — but it’s the evangelicals who supplied the tent, the red noses and the floppy shoes.
… and then finishes with a question along with the most probable answer.
is there any point at which the religious might put country above tribe, morality above partisanship? No, I don’t think it will do so ever.
I do believe that is correct.
When the Trump administration fails and falls, and it is perhaps now inevitable that it will do so, then the one big benefit it brings is that as this train wreck descends into political oblivion, it carries with it the religious right who have very firmly welded themselves to it.