The Defining Ethos of MAGA

It’s ‘never admit fault.’

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388

Dear Reader (Including those of you who didn’t know we needed more Muppet Show theme song pumped into American life), 

A guy falls off the edge of the Grand Canyon. As he’s falling, he sees this little twig on the edge of the canyon and grabs it. But then the roots start coming out, and he realizes he’s going to fall again. He looks heavenward and says, “God, why me? I’m a good man. I work hard, I pay my taxes, I take care of my family, I’m a good citizen. Why me?” 

And then a thunderous voice says, “Son, there’s just something about you I don’t like.”

By Bill Clinton’s own account, it was his “favorite joke.” 

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  1. Avatar photo
    David Burke

    “The progressive base’s capture of the Democratic Party has been bad for America and the Democrats. It’s also been bad for the Republicans, because it has fueled the right-wing base’s capture of the GOP (and vice versa).”

    Jonah. Brah. Gawdluvya.

    Progressives’ sometimes nutty/sometimes not, stand on policies may be just that, but blaming progressives for the odious cretins the elected GOP are now is simply ridiculous. You can’t put trump, Greene, Gaetz, Cawthorn, Brooks, Boebert, and the rest of that gathering of pustules on Ocasio-Cortez.

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  2. Avatar photo
    David Burke

    “The progressive base’s capture of the Democratic Party has been bad for America and the Democrats. It’s also been bad for the Republicans, because it has fueled the right-wing base’s capture of the GOP (and vice versa).”

    Jonah. Brah. Gawdluvya.

    Progressives’ sometimes nutty/sometimes not, stand on policies may be just that, but blaming progressives for the odious cretins the elected GOP are now is simply ridiculous. You can’t put trump, Greene, Gaetz, Cawthorn, Brooks, Boebert, and the rest of that gathering of pustules on Ocasio-Cortez.

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  3. Avatar photo
    David Burke

    “The progressive base’s capture of the Democratic Party has been bad for America and the Democrats. It’s also been bad for the Republicans, because it has fueled the right-wing base’s capture of the GOP (and vice versa).”

    Jonah. Brah. Gawdluvya.

    Progressives’ sometimes nutty/sometimes not, stand on policies may be just that, but blaming progressives for the odious cretins the elected GOP are now is simply ridiculous. You can’t put trump, Greene, Gaetz, Cawthorn, Brooks, Boebert, and the rest of that gathering of pustules on Ocasio-Cortez.

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  4. Ben I.

    If I could, I’d give this a second like for “Zoe, Destroyer of Worlds”.

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  5. Daniel

    Now that's the caustic shit I love

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  6. Milo

    I humbly submit the Confederacy to the contest of the greatest sore loser in American history.

    They couldn’t deal with losing the election of 1860, and then they couldn’t deal with losing the Civil War and their abominable way of life. They started a war that killed half a million Americans in response to the first loss, and spent the next century after the second loss trying to undo its consequences and rewrite history to glorify and deny their loss.

    Let’s hope Trump and Trumpists don’t start a civil war, and that Republicans can back off from their current “Lost Cause” rhetoric about the greatness of Trumpism.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    You know, if you let Zoe eat the fox you wouldn’t have to worry about its yelping keeping you up at night anymore.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Jeanne A

    The problem with comparing Bill Clinton’s presidency with Donald Trump’s just highlights the difficulty with choosing our leadership rationally when we are an irrational culture. It’s not possible. If we say Bill Clinton did some bad things and he did some good things, which is true, that would make him EXACTLY like every other president in the history of ever. If we say he was a womanizer, also true, that would ALSO make him like an uncomfortable number not only of presidents but of the entire Congress. Apparently power is the best aphrodisiac. It would also make him just like Donald Trump.

    We have to look at outcomes, and not just did he (or she, hopefully someday) do what they said they would do, because that didn’t work out so well for us with Trump, but what exactly was accomplished and of those things what was good for the country. Are we better off or worse, both individually and collectively.

    If a president left the country better than he found it, he’s done a pretty good job. Worse than he found it, not so much? The same as he found it, maybe that’s a wash, or maybe that’s exactly we we needed. Our present polarization forces us to judge a person’s performance on subjective issues like whether I agree with whatever he’s done, whether or not I find him personally repugnant, and whether or not he has sufficiently pissed off the other side. These things just keep us wrapped around the axle, accomplishing nothing.

    I personally don’t think much of either Clinton’s or Trump’s moral fiber, however, there are degrees. Clinton has some redeeming qualities and some crappy ones, but I think a tally of his accomplishments shows he did better than Trump. Trump, on the other hand, I think did some really bad things to the country.

    David French is absolutely right, we need to work on getting candidates with the kind of character we want to represent our values and beliefs, but they also have to have the courage to do what’s right for us as a country, and not just what’s best for their careers, egos, or base.

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  9. Joseph E

    Excellent gfile.

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  10. Keith Blank

    If I made it to congress, or made a billion$, or became president, it's obvious that I am a genius and what I do overall is right. My success and past actions prove I am supreme. If I am supreme, everything I do has to be right, simply because I did it. I cannot make mistakes so why would I ever admit one? I cannot lose so clearly the system is wrong.

    Is "hubris" a good word to put in the mix here?

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