Coward’s Gambit

February 26, 2017

Hide! When the going gets tough, run and hide. That’s the coward’s gambit.

In the modern Trump era, trying to reach your Republican congressperson or senator is like playing Where’s Waldo while high on cheap red wine and Colorado medical grade. (Not that I know anything about either.) You know he or she is in there somewhere, but it’s hard to focus with so many distractions and, besides, the game is tedious and makes you thirsty. So, the longer you play the less likely you are to win.

The Trump Times are riddled with these little self-contradictory features. Much like a taste for self-medication, I choose to embrace them. We may never get to experience the insanity of another, this intimately, again. Every day an adventure. Just like this paragraph, that goes nowhere.

Drifting back…
The Town Hall Meeting, made popular during the Koch brothers financed Tea Party uprising, would seem like a natural place to contact your representative. But alas, due to scheduling conflicts, headaches and lack of backbone nearly all our reps won’t bother with town-halls this year. After all, Marco Rubio says people “get rude and stupid” at town hall meetings and he gets enough of that in the Senate.

But what about the Donald? He has public conversations all the time, doesn’t he?

Well, no he doesn’t. Trump prefers the, post feedback-loop, one-way conversation. (Yeah, I know one-way conversation is a contradiction. Please refer back to paragraph three and embrace.)  It’s important to note that, when speaking, the Donald does just fine until others speak – clearly indicating the problem is with someone other than the Donald. This may be why he excels at Twitter, a platform designed for one-way conversation.

Unlike Twitter, the White House Correspondents Dinner is more of a traditional venue, where the president is roasted then given an opportunity to respond. But witty two-way conversation is not part of the Trump brand. So, he respectfully declined.  The Donald offered no reason for his absence.

I assume he had a previous commitment with Paul Ryan and a few other Republicans – they were planning on hiding under a blanket with their flashlights, reading Ayn Rand out loud and talking about how brave they are.

The republic is entitled to watch the clowns she hired – come out and play!

In Peace and Justice,
osv