Fight Club Comes to Congress

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A couple of days ago I wrote about the new low bar in the national GOP when it comes to offensive speech.  In more civil times politicians would have been very careful with their use of pejorative language - words like "scum" and "whore' - when publicly describing their political opponents, but now shock language seems to be the new normal, especially among Republicans who are trying to stand out in the vulgar wake of Donald John Trump.  The elderly and morbidly obese ex-president is, of course, the one who has ushered in this new age of incivility through his penchant for saying whatever he wants, whenever he wants.  

But not only are Trump-worshiping GOP politicians beginning to talk like Trump, they are also starting to act like him.    While the loud and vulgar politician never gets his own tiny hands dirty - or bruised - he is not bashful about inciting others to become physical.  (January 6th, 2021, is just one example.)   

Yesterday there were two extremely shameful incidents in the US Capitol in which Republican politicians bullied, and in one case, injured, others.  In the first instance Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee was walking down a hallway in the Capitol giving an interview to NPR reporter Claudia Grisales when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and members of his security detail walked by heading the other direction.  After McCarthy passed, the Tennessee congressman suddenly bent forward and stepped toward the reporter causing her the think that he had been shoved, perhaps as a joke.

But it wasn't a joke.   Burchettt, who had been one of the eight Republicans who had brought about McCarthy's removal as House Speaker, said that McCarthy had elbowed him in the back (a "sucker punch" to the kidneys) as he had walked by.  Burchett chased McCarthy down the hallway and confronted him, but the former Speaker denied the assault.  Burchett told his account of the incident to several news outlets yesterday, and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, the congressman who brought the original motion to remove McCarthy from the speakership, filed a formal complaint with the House Ethics Committee on Congressman Burchett's behalf.

And then the unfiltered Republican machismo showed up in a Senate hearing later in the day when Sean M. O'Brien, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President, was speaking at a meeting titled "Standing Up Against Corporate Greed:  How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families."  US Senator Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, a man with a propensity to get his own way, was present at that meeting as he had been at another senate hearing last March when the teamsters President had also spoken.  At the March meeting Senator Mullin had told the Teamster official to "Shut your mouth."  In the interim since the March encounter they had also exchanged comments and insults over Twitter.

But yesterday it went beyond insults when Senator Mullin challenged President O'Brien to a fight.  A back-and-forth dialogue developed and finally came to a head when the senator told the teamster, "You want to run your mouth?  We can be to consenting adults and finish it here."  To which Sean O'Brien replied, "Okay, that's fine, perfect.  I'd love to do it right now."  The senator then countered with "Then stand your butt up then!"  which brought a response from the teamster of "You stand your butt up."

And then Senator Mullin, who was jacketless and looked as though he had come prepared for a tough-guy photo-op, stood up.

A major crisis was averted when 82-year-old Senator Bernie Sanders, the chair of the committee, interceded and reminding the headstrong Mullin of his position.  "No, no, sit down.   Sit down!"  Sanders shouted.  "You are a United States Senator!"

Yes he is.  A United States Senator who sees bullying and trying to capture the spirit of Donald Trump as the way to move the political dial in America.  Of course, trying to bully a teamster official may not be the smartest way to prove your manhood.  

Politics in America is in the gutter, and Donald John Trump is the person primarily responsible for putting it there.  Trump likes to roar about "human scum," "vermin,' and "traitors," and those elements of society do exist - but by-and-large they rode in on his coattails!  

Congress should be populated by bright and thoughtful leaders who are committed to protecting our nation and moving it forward, and it should not be under the domination of loud-mouthed thugs who think they've died and gone to Fight Club!

Just sayin . . .