This is SO BRILLIANT. Too bad the people (especially the hacks in the media) won't read it. Or if they do, they won't admit their complicity. THANK YOU.
Thanks, Cat. As a child I remember my news junkie parents watching Iran/Contra - and everyone still talking about how Watergate proved our govt. worked and journalists were heroes… I can’t believe we are here and I’ve really I’ve lost heart though I vote and call and try to listen. I wonder if, instead of an abused child, America is the friend who repeatedly enters abusive relationships and calls you to say “but what can I do?” because tyranny is what we grew up with (and what the community and media assured us was strength) while kindness and respect feels like weakness. (I’m not taking these calls anymore for my own sanity)
It's truly astonishing how wholly forgotten Iran Contra has ended up. It's a phrase without meaning to young adults now, and a lot of regular adults. It was fucking evil, and the hearings were broadcast, and Reagan got to say "I don't recall" and get away with all of it, yet no one questioned his mental abilities the way they did at Biden's slightest stutter. It's grotesque.
I was really young and very much not politically aware when Iran contra was happening but I do remember all the scandalous shit with Oliver North and how he did the "I do not recall" like hundreds of times and it was just obvious how guilty they all were
note: I should have used patriarchy instead of tyranny as I was referring to cultural norms/social structures not the government. I try to avoid hyperbole along the lines of “it’s just like [fill-in-the-blank-autocracy]”
I cried while reading this. I just left my husband, and your extended metaphor about Cool Dad and Uncool Mom was my actual life before I finally said, "Enough," and stopped playing the peacemaker and left him to the consequences of his actions. You're exactly right that that dynamic is being writ large in American politics, and hopefully in November enough people will say, "Enough," that Uncool Mom gets to take the reins for a little while.
I have been screaming this exact same rant at family and friends since I was 16 and easily saw that the Vietnam War was a scam. It has cost me relationships with almost all of them. It’s nice to know at 65 that I haven’t been imagining it all. While I appreciate the fact that the former Republicans may help save us from Trump. I can’t trust any of them. I support Harris. But it hurts a lot to watch her bend over backwards to become a liberal conservative. I fucking hate the fact that she has to result to bragging about her gun to make her seem acceptable to all the abused voters out there that are scared out of their minds and just want the abusive dad to take control/care of them. This election is still a coin flip. I can’t look at any two people in my life without seeing that one of them is a fucking psycho and the other is sane. And unfortunately for my relationships I can’t tell which one is which.
Well written and well put. Humanity's perpetual delusion of the omnipotent father, the omniscient parent, the Savior who will make it all better and do it all for Us and We won't have to think and We won't be afraid and We will get more than They do has arisen again, and Conservatism is preying on it.
GodDAMN that was a great read! When most of our fellow citizens have the memory of a goldfish, historical truth is absolutely essential. Keep em coming, and thank you!
This is so damn good. It felt like we're riding along with you, cathartically exorcising the demons of enduring decades of right-wing treachery, criminality, abuse and gaslighting. It's a purge of the spirit. Like others, you put words to many of my own arguments, with others or while alone consuming sanitized reporting of the daily pillaging. I felt like an empath tapping into your senses reading it.
Everything you’ve written echoes a post of mine from yesterday. I went back to McCarthy because it seems to me the path is the same: ruin lives and gain power. I used fewer words though. I’ve been around for a very long time and lived through much since I was born in 1940. Republicans have always been counter progress because they are only concerned with controlling everyone’s lives, from single cell to coffin.
I thought about going back to FDR but felt I'd already both gone on too long, and probably gone past common knowledge for people younger than me and you by talking about Iran Contra, a phrase that has virtually zero meaning for those under 35, unless they are VERY political and historically-minded. FDR managed to combine both archetypes (mainly due to WWII allowing him to appear tough and in control of a crisis while reshaping the entire domestic apparatus) and conservatives have NEVER forgiven him for it. So much of Project 2025 is just clawing back the last dregs of the New Deal. That's been the overarching goal for almost 90 years. It took that long, but they're on the brink now.
History doesn't start or stop anywhere, strip off the Republican and Democrat labels and just call it conservatives and liberals (or progressives, but that actually has a specific meaning in American politics and it's always bugged me that the taking up of the term has erased that history) and we can keep going back to the dawn of civilization. The fight goes on.
Yikes! Scary view of our recent political history (Iran Contra was just yesterday for an old coot like me). I have always maintained that the extremists on both sides have controlled our political dialogue and your eloquent “rant” may explain why. I hope this election will finally awaken the “silent majority” who will shout from their windows “I’m pissed and I’m not going to take it anymore!” And then they’ll swarm the ballot boxes and throw Trump and his minions on the ash heap of history. Hope!!
I know that. Never mind that FDR saved the capitalist economy. My parents were lifelong Republicans, so I grew up with that. They both died in the early 1990s so they didn’t live to see DJT. I don’t know how they would have handled him. I like to think they would have listened to Liz Cheney, but I don’t know.
Thee most fabulous fact rant I’ve ever read, and I’m am Old who remembers Iran-Contra. Thank you.
This is SO BRILLIANT. Too bad the people (especially the hacks in the media) won't read it. Or if they do, they won't admit their complicity. THANK YOU.
this may just be one of the best damned things I have ever read!
Thanks, Cat. As a child I remember my news junkie parents watching Iran/Contra - and everyone still talking about how Watergate proved our govt. worked and journalists were heroes… I can’t believe we are here and I’ve really I’ve lost heart though I vote and call and try to listen. I wonder if, instead of an abused child, America is the friend who repeatedly enters abusive relationships and calls you to say “but what can I do?” because tyranny is what we grew up with (and what the community and media assured us was strength) while kindness and respect feels like weakness. (I’m not taking these calls anymore for my own sanity)
It's truly astonishing how wholly forgotten Iran Contra has ended up. It's a phrase without meaning to young adults now, and a lot of regular adults. It was fucking evil, and the hearings were broadcast, and Reagan got to say "I don't recall" and get away with all of it, yet no one questioned his mental abilities the way they did at Biden's slightest stutter. It's grotesque.
I was really young and very much not politically aware when Iran contra was happening but I do remember all the scandalous shit with Oliver North and how he did the "I do not recall" like hundreds of times and it was just obvious how guilty they all were
note: I should have used patriarchy instead of tyranny as I was referring to cultural norms/social structures not the government. I try to avoid hyperbole along the lines of “it’s just like [fill-in-the-blank-autocracy]”
America's problem has always been we hate hippies worse than we hate Nazis.
It's amazing to me how much people have forgotten Iran-Contra. Thank you for mentioning it!
I cried while reading this. I just left my husband, and your extended metaphor about Cool Dad and Uncool Mom was my actual life before I finally said, "Enough," and stopped playing the peacemaker and left him to the consequences of his actions. You're exactly right that that dynamic is being writ large in American politics, and hopefully in November enough people will say, "Enough," that Uncool Mom gets to take the reins for a little while.
I have been screaming this exact same rant at family and friends since I was 16 and easily saw that the Vietnam War was a scam. It has cost me relationships with almost all of them. It’s nice to know at 65 that I haven’t been imagining it all. While I appreciate the fact that the former Republicans may help save us from Trump. I can’t trust any of them. I support Harris. But it hurts a lot to watch her bend over backwards to become a liberal conservative. I fucking hate the fact that she has to result to bragging about her gun to make her seem acceptable to all the abused voters out there that are scared out of their minds and just want the abusive dad to take control/care of them. This election is still a coin flip. I can’t look at any two people in my life without seeing that one of them is a fucking psycho and the other is sane. And unfortunately for my relationships I can’t tell which one is which.
Everyone seems insane to me as they go about living their holiday laden lives while the sociopaths have their way.
Well written and well put. Humanity's perpetual delusion of the omnipotent father, the omniscient parent, the Savior who will make it all better and do it all for Us and We won't have to think and We won't be afraid and We will get more than They do has arisen again, and Conservatism is preying on it.
GodDAMN that was a great read! When most of our fellow citizens have the memory of a goldfish, historical truth is absolutely essential. Keep em coming, and thank you!
Oh yeah, the George Conway bit was super enlightening. It’s also why I don’t trust these Lincoln Project phoney’s any farther than I can throw them.
The trumpgop does check each box on the abuser profile.
Gaslight✅
Isolate (you and me against the world)✅
Belittle✅
Threaten✅
Take away freedom✅
Physical violence✅
This is so good and so true! Best rant I’ve read in a good long time - worthy of Hunter S. Thompson.
Now THAT’s what I call a hellrant! You are absolutely right, this dark longing for authority goes back to the fucking cradle. Well done!
Outstanding. More of this and less of everything else. Thank you
This is so damn good. It felt like we're riding along with you, cathartically exorcising the demons of enduring decades of right-wing treachery, criminality, abuse and gaslighting. It's a purge of the spirit. Like others, you put words to many of my own arguments, with others or while alone consuming sanitized reporting of the daily pillaging. I felt like an empath tapping into your senses reading it.
Everything you’ve written echoes a post of mine from yesterday. I went back to McCarthy because it seems to me the path is the same: ruin lives and gain power. I used fewer words though. I’ve been around for a very long time and lived through much since I was born in 1940. Republicans have always been counter progress because they are only concerned with controlling everyone’s lives, from single cell to coffin.
I love your art, btw.
I thought about going back to FDR but felt I'd already both gone on too long, and probably gone past common knowledge for people younger than me and you by talking about Iran Contra, a phrase that has virtually zero meaning for those under 35, unless they are VERY political and historically-minded. FDR managed to combine both archetypes (mainly due to WWII allowing him to appear tough and in control of a crisis while reshaping the entire domestic apparatus) and conservatives have NEVER forgiven him for it. So much of Project 2025 is just clawing back the last dregs of the New Deal. That's been the overarching goal for almost 90 years. It took that long, but they're on the brink now.
History doesn't start or stop anywhere, strip off the Republican and Democrat labels and just call it conservatives and liberals (or progressives, but that actually has a specific meaning in American politics and it's always bugged me that the taking up of the term has erased that history) and we can keep going back to the dawn of civilization. The fight goes on.
Yikes! Scary view of our recent political history (Iran Contra was just yesterday for an old coot like me). I have always maintained that the extremists on both sides have controlled our political dialogue and your eloquent “rant” may explain why. I hope this election will finally awaken the “silent majority” who will shout from their windows “I’m pissed and I’m not going to take it anymore!” And then they’ll swarm the ballot boxes and throw Trump and his minions on the ash heap of history. Hope!!
I know that. Never mind that FDR saved the capitalist economy. My parents were lifelong Republicans, so I grew up with that. They both died in the early 1990s so they didn’t live to see DJT. I don’t know how they would have handled him. I like to think they would have listened to Liz Cheney, but I don’t know.