In the larger scheme of things, Trump's refusal to apologize or make his staffer apologize publicly for the slap on John McCain is not at the top of my list of concerns today. But it sure is for Chuck Todd and Katy Tur, who have suddenly discovered that civility and human kindness are things Donald Trump and Republicans generally do not care about.
Here's the problem. Donald Trump went to Capitol Hill today and ducked the question of whether McCain should receive an apology. Instead we have Amy Kremer serving as surrogate on CNN suggesting that it was really, really MEAN of McCain to tweet Harry Reid but not Melania Trump, because we are all apparently in high school and pissy about the cool kids dissing the dorks or something.
Republicans are just cowardly and codependent, but really, worrying about the lack of an insincere apology seems stupid and petty, particularly when Palestinians are dropping like flies after being shot on the battlefield of their border, immigrant children are being warehoused at military bases like chattel while their parents are carted off to military prisons, Paul Ryan wants to gut the food stamp program so Americans can starve in the streets, and we're facing elections in a few months with no idea about whether or not the systems themselves have been compromised by hostile foreign powers.
In light of all that, are we really going to worry NOW that a guy who bragged about "grabbing her by the pussy" is unapologetic about a crack made by a staffer against John McCain?
Apparently Chuck Todd and Katy Tur are, because they see this as a disease that will spread like a cancer throughout our body politic. AS IF THAT HASN'T ALREADY HAPPENED.
Here comes Chuck Todd, voicing his "greatest fear." Mine is that we're all going to be nuked in the span of my lifetime and maybe before Trump leaves office, but his is more wide-ranging.
"Look, my greatest fear is that Trump is setting an example that will be borrowed," he worried.
After noticing that it really isn't working for Republican candidates, most notably the ones in Indiana last week who lost to the other guy, Todd restated his concerns. Is he worrying liberals will start behaving like Trump?
"Look, he is who he is," Todd said with resignation (but no revulsion) as if we just have to accept a pussy-grabbing, Nazi-loving guy in the White House. Pointing out Missouri Governor Eric Grietens' refusal to back down as evidence, he voiced yet more worry that it would be a thing, once again failing to acknowledge that it IS ALREADY A THING.
"Donald Trump's great strength, and I think it's frankly Kryptonite...is if you don't feel shame about it, then the press coverage doesn't bother you, in fact it may empower you, and it's empowered him."
Listen up, Chuck. This is what happens when you aim a camera at an empty podium for well over a year and call the guy a rock star. This is what happens when carcinogenic Fox News poisons the atmosphere and normalizes hate. We are far beyond the days where an apology is something that matters. Those days are long gone as long as we have Tomi Lahren and Sean Hannity using their lily-white privilege to kick brown people around.
Everything Trump touches dies. And now he's got the controls for the whole country. Accept the fact that civility is dead. It's dead. The "president" killed it along with his party. IT IS DEAD FOREVER.
And there's a better than even chance he kills the country too while Chuck Todd clutches his pearls about "civility."
As Rebecca Solnit wrote today, the coup has already happened.
It happened on November 8, 2016, when an unqualified candidate won a minority victory in a corrupted election thanks in part to foreign intervention. Any time is the right time to pour into the streets and demand that it all grinds to a halt and the country change direction. The evidence that the candidate and his goons were aided by and enthusiastically collaborating with a foreign power was pretty clear before that election, and at this point, they are so entangled there isn’t really a reason to regard the born-again alt-right Republican Party and the Putin Regime as separate entities.
Civility is probably not the right tactic to overcome a hostile takeover of our government right now, Chuck and Katy, nor is it really much of a concern for people struggling to survive from one day to the next. So maybe stop worrying about that and spend some bandwidth dealing with the totalitarian takeover of our country instead.
