In another lifetime, when I lived in Queens, NY, I was a bicycle delivery boy for a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan. One cold night, with a blizzard blowing, I delivered $200 worth of Chinese food to Trump Tower. I delivered the food as promptly as I could. My tip–two bucks. I wish my first experience with Donald Trump’s people had been my last.
Now, more than a decade later, I have to write about not just him, but the snakes that continue to enable him.
My vipers list includes the following elected officials in Louisiana, who appear to currently reside in the state of Denial. They are: Senator John N. Kennedy; Senator Bill Cassidy; Congressman Steve Scalise; Congressman Clay Higgins; Mayor Josh Guillory of Lafayette. Trump enablers all, talking about “illegal votes,” encouraging the theatre of ridiculous lawsuits that are lies and silliness.
Look, no one expects sanity or integrity from Clay Higgins. Credible accounts of use of excess force against a black man while a policeman; a political ad filmed at Auschwitz; threats to “drop any ten” protesters that he triple dog dared to come to Lafayette; tweets that his wife has premonitions about an America where food and water are illegal, and red-faced hints that real Americans will violently stand up for a defeated President—these are his stock in trade.
Mayor Josh Guillory appears to fall into the same laughable category as Higgins. He has sued a comedian who suggested satirically that Antifa would pay a visit to the Acadiana Mall and River Ranch. Why the suit? Because he spent city money on increased police presence in response. Because, of course, Antifa always announces their plans on Facebook in amusing language. “Here’s your sign,” as comedian Bill Engvall says.
But it’s hard to be amused by the messages from Scalise, Kennedy, and Cassidy. These men are educated, worldly, politically savvy. Scalise is an LSU grad. Cassidy is a physician. Kennedy holds degrees from Vanderbilt, UV Law, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Whatever they may pretend, they are not your local yokels.
Scalise has spoken before a white supremacist group, EURO, founded by David Duke. He voted no on a bill suggesting Louisiana apologize for slavery. He’s a man whose plan to starve Obama Care would deprive eight million children of health care. And of course, such a godly man would be associated with homophobic hate group, Focus on the Family. He also once said at CPAC that climate change is a myth, because “He (President Obama) talked about global warming at his inauguration, I found it ironic that the President was wearing a trench coat it was so cold but he’s talking about global warming.”
Take Bill Cassidy, the physician. Like most Republicans, Cassidy has worked unashamedly to remove health care from Americans. Appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” he was asked if Kimmel’s son who has a congenital heart defect would be covered under Dr. Cassidy’s plan. Cassidy said it would. When called out later after this was proven to be a lie, Cassidy claimed his plan was misunderstood. Cassidy’s oath as a physician to do no harm or injustice apparently does not apply to children with pre-existing conditions.
Then there’s John Neely Kennedy. He is the Louisiana Senator referred to by The Washington Post as a “useful idiot” who spreads Russian disinformation like it’s gospel. Chuck Todd, moderator of “NBC’s Meet the Press, once said to Kennedy’s face, “You are doing Putin’s job for him,” when Kennedy claimed that Russia had not interfered in American elections, after our own intelligence agencies reported that they had. Kennedy famously spent July 4th, 2018, in Russia.
I’ll repeat, whatever these men may pretend, they are not your local yokels. Yet pretend they do. Political expediency and cynical calculations are bread and meat to them.
President-elect Joe Biden was called as the winner of the presidential election on November seventh, by the Associated Press, Fox News, CNN, NBC, CBS, and newspapers around the world. While Trump rage tweets and the Republicans file frivolous lawsuits, (Sharpies!) the simple math and the strict electoral process have shown that once all the counting is done, Joe Biden will have won both the popular vote and the Electoral College. After long days of vote-counting, the “red mirage” we’d been warned of, gave way to the blue that encompassed more than five million extra votes for Joe Biden.
While our electoral process can be complicated, there was a very simple explanation: Trump had been railing against voting by mail for months, despite our military having done exactly that successfully since the Civil War. So many of his supporters braved the COVID they don’t believe in, and on Election Day, cast their votes in person. With voting by mail expanded due to COVID, many cast Democratic votes for Biden by mail. With some (but not all) states counting in-person ballots first, Trump support showed up first, and fell away due to mail-in-ballots.
Now, Trump has had a few things to say about all this including accusations of fraud, of vote tampering, computer glitches, and some nonsense about observers not being allowed to observe. Including this pathetic tweet: “THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!”
THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
And what have we learned? Trump lies. The outstanding votes continue to be counted, the lawsuits will be accepted or denied by the courts, the system is working, and Trump lies.
We’ve come to accept that Trump will say and do anything expedient. But harder to stomach is that men who represent us here in Louisiana, will abet him; will humor his claims, and stand by silently while he undermines the integrity of our citizens and the election process. Trump is unhinged. Our representatives have no bottom. They will enable him to the last. In a time of volatility and pandemic, there are no profiles in courage here.
Clay Higgins says he has “inside information” about the election to show it was fraudulent. He doesn’t. https://www.bigeasymagazine.com/2020/11/06/clay-higgins-claims-election-compromised-has-inside-data/
Bill Cassidy is laying low.
Scalise has tweeted, “The election isn’t over until all legal votes are counted and certified. There are still serious legal challenges that have been made, and until that process is resolved, the election is not final.”
The election isn’t over until all legal votes are counted and certified. There are still serious legal challenges that have been made, and until that process is resolved, the election is not final.
The American people deserve a fair and transparent process.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) November 7, 2020
John Neely Kennedy tweets, “The media is not a court of law.
For the integrity of America’s democracy, all legal votes should be counted, and the courts must resolve all allegations of voting irregularities.” They all know full well there are no growing number of irregularities, no genuine legal challenges.”
The media is not a court of law.
For the integrity of America’s democracy, all legal votes should be counted, and the courts must resolve all allegations of voting irregularities.
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) November 8, 2020
Lastly, there’s my favorite, Lafayette Mayor-President, Josh Guillory. He says of the election: “The serious and meaningful questions being raised about the vote count in key states need to be answered. The hot spots of concern — Detroit, Philadelphia, greater Atlanta, etc. — are places where allegations of serious irregularities (casting and counting of illegal votes) are frequently raised (including in the Democratic primaries earlier this year).”
https://www.facebook.com/JoshGuillory2023/posts/1630883897115004
Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta are where there are high concentrations of African Americans. Surprise surprise, Guillory just blew his dog whistle.
So why the pandering? Why the pretense that there are widespread “illegal” votes? Why suck up to Trump and his unsubstantiated claims of fraud? I believe that they know Joe Biden has won. Senator Chris Coons, D-Delaware, has said that Republicans are coming to him with their congratulations privately. So, what gives? Power.
These men would put the integrity of our democracy on the line, rather than risk the ire of the Trump base and people like Q-Anon. Trumpism has helped them so far, and they’re counting on it helping them in the future.
These vipers would risk our democracy rather than upset Trump or a Trump supporter for a single day, a single tweet. It’s sickening.
History will not be kind to any of them. May they enjoy their thirty pieces of silver. They’ve earned it.