Oklahoma’s congressional delegation contains a number of apparent ideologues. Either that, or they are remarkably inattentive. Perhaps they are merely gutless wonders. In any event, they sit by, observing the behavior of President Donald Trump, ignoring it, and doing whatever they can to support him.
Perhaps they are afraid of alienating their constituencies, nowadays known as “bases,” and thereby losing the sinecures to which they feel entitled in consequence of being elected.
Perhaps they would justify their support by saying it is not the president they favor, but rather his agenda. And of course that is nonsense. Agendas have lives separate from those of human beings. It was our delegation’s party that nominated a bigoted sociopath for the nation’s highest office; and, like their nominee, they admit to making no mistake.
Well, maybe they’ve not spent enough time studying the situation or reading enough about the personality traits of sociopaths; which include admitting to no mistakes, blaming others for those mistakes, showing no empathy, lying constantly about everything under the sun, accepting no responsibility for anything that goes wrong…. To quote the King of Siam, “etc., etc., etc.”
And when you think about it, you have to wonder how our “family values” evangelicals can turn blind eyes to the racist, sexist behavior our president has exhibited during his first year in office. They’re not looking to the Bible for guidance, unless they stopped at the “judge not” part.
To say nothing of the Ten Commandments that our delegation to Congress would have nailed to every telephone pole in Oklahoma if they thought they could get away with it.
“Ah,” muses the collective mind, “we’ll put up with everything the man does, as long as we can control the government and keep the opposition powerless. We’d read the Constitution one more time if it didn’t contain so much unpleasantness.”
One should probably bear in mind that Oklahoma is a “red state,” not because of commies or our perpetual budget problems, but because it is full of conservatives. A conservative is someone who believes that government should not improve the lot of its citizens beyond infrastructure and the most basic services. Liberals, in contrast, believe that government can be of benefit to the people by enhancing provided services and limiting harmful behavior. Our few liberals are mostly holed up in colleges and universities, and if those institutions did not field football teams, they’d be torn down for parking lots and apartment buildings.
So here we sit, with a president who insults women and minorities, speaks of “fake news” (which may soon become a favorite phrase in the sociopathic lexicon), alienates our allies by dishonoring agreements and referring to some of those allies as “shithole countries,” and is a constant embarrassment on account of his poor language skills, his intricate comb-over and his neckties, worn long enough to serve as codpieces.
And then, of course, there is the Russia thing. Of what is our fearless leader afraid? One recalls Nixon’s “I am not a crook,” which might be a heartening thing to hear from the current, if part-time (think Mar-A-Lago), occupant of the White House. You know — the fellow who blasted his predecessor for taking too much vacation time.
Possibly, our congressional delegation is holding hands and treading water, waiting to see what the tide is going to do. Way to go, fellas. At least Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but Oklahoma’s congressmen are only twiddling their thumbs.
