Political Masturbation

July 26, 2017

Surely, others must be frustrated too.

Yesterday, the Senate voted to open debate on the healthcare issue. Their method was a tad unusual in that there was no real bill to be debated. For the sake of legal form, there were a bunch of words printed on Senate letterhead with a bill number, but those words held no meaning – hell, no one’s actually read them, and no one plans to vote on them. The bill’s just a placeholder, a blank canvas so to speak; the authors plan to build legislation from scratch by passing amendments to a fake bill.

The first “amendment” proposed, The Better Care Reconciliation Act, had the proverbial snowball’s-chance-in-hell of passing. It was a retread of a 2016 Republican attempt to trash Obamacare and would have required 60 votes to pass – it got 43.

Next up, they say, is a smaller “skinny” bill that promises to kill the individual and employer mandates and, go figure, the Obamacare taxes. Of course, given that the “skinny” bill amendment hasn’t been written yet it’s chance of passage is undefined – kind of like division by 0.

And to keep things interesting, the Democrats have over 100 amendments ready to offer on any defined or undefined legislation the Republicans drag to the floor.

So, to summarize, the Republicans opened debate on a bill that has no substance and can’t pass; they hope to create something, anything, substantive on the fly. They just don’t know what. Their first try was a bill that, again, had no hope of passing – 9 of their own voted against it. They knew it was unpopular, but acts of desperation are in style this year.

Now, they’re talking about another try, but haven’t provided any detail other it will be skinny. They know the Democrats are ready to amend skinny till it starves to death. Again, no one expects skinny to survive.

It’s like they don’t actually plan to pass anything. They’re just going through motions meant to make themselves feel good. It’s as if they pine for to the good old Obama days, back when they could pass anything without consequences. Back when political masturbation was their only tactic; yeah, back when they repealed Obamacare over 50 times and it felt really good, each and every time. I suppose that’s when they developed a taste for it.

And why not? Their leader, the Donald, does it all the time. He’s been holding campaign rallies once, sometimes twice, a week – and there’s no election. Trump’s obviously campaigning simply to make himself feel good. It’s just political masturbation. Shit, yesterday he said he belonged on Mt Rushmore – talk about stroking one’s… ego.

Please understand, I’m a child of the sixties and honestly feel whatever one or more consenting adults care to do, in private, is fine. Even Republicans should be allowed, even encouraged, to get their freak on – but privately.

After two-hundred-sixty post-election days of public Republican self-gratification it’s time for the republic to insist that they get a room and leave us out of it.

Some things are best left unseen,
osv

PS-
The Trumpster, just announced he will ban on all transgender people from serving in the military. Can similar treatment of our gay sisters and brothers be far behind? Lest we forget, while Trump’s willing to go with self-gratification, he really gets off by screwing others.

PPS-
I apologize to any reader who, like me, thinks in pictures for the unquestionably ugly imagery offered today. You deserve better.  We all do.