The Confessions of Bea McCrabbie
Here's what I thought on November 9, 2016:
That Donald Trump would begin to "act presidential," at least to some degree. I believed much of his despicable campaign schtick was conscious performance & that he had a second act in him: playing president.
That Trump would not be completely irresponsible.
That Mitch McConnell & the House leadership team would push through its horrifying right-wing agenda in record speed & Trump would sign every bill. (I didn't count, of course, on some madman shooting & disabling whip Steve Scalise, but I don't think there's much Scalise could have done to alter what happened in his absence.)
That Trump, although not interested in details, would insist that some legislation he signed would attempt to adhere to some of his more populist campaign promises, & that Congressional Republicans, at first, would at least pretend to accommodate Trump's campaign rhetoric.
That about half of the country would be pleased & impressed with Republicans' "progress."
That Trump would be totally unethical.
That the inevitable scandals surrounding Trump would be fairly small-bore & predictable (like Price's & Munchkin's travel extravagances), and & that most Americans wouldn't care what a sleazebag Trump was because, after all, he would be performing as what many Americans believed was an "effective leader."
So I was right one time. Everything else I got completely wrong.
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Reader Comments (5)
At least you were able to THINK, Mrs. McCrabbie. I was in total despair for months. It was so obvious that this so called person was going to do terrible destruction. Now, based on seeing his puffy face and ballooning body, my only hope is that he will soon be physically disabled from doing his job. There seems to be no other avenue of removing him from office.
Bea, you should turn this op back to Marie, she is much less credulous.
Mrs. B.,
Prognostication is a tricky thing. I remember when I told all my friends that the Panama Canal was a waste of money, not to mention all that yellow fever!
Alexander Graham Bell once offered control of his entire operation to Western Union, for a pittance. They declined. When's the last time you sent a telegram? Can you even do that anymore?
My parents used to tell me that I was wasting my time playing in rock bands, that rock and roll was a fad and would be gone any day. They said I could make more money playing in wedding bands. Well, they were right about one of those things. I just could not stomach playing the "Funky Chicken" fifty times a year. Jesus.
If you look at most winger pundits, they are wrong about almost everything almost all the time. Look back at all the predictions of doom once a horrible nee-groe came into their White House. There's a reason I used to refer to Bill Kristol by the nickname "Always Wrong". And Our Miss Brooks? Puh-leese. Hippies just can't be at fault for as many things as he suggests. I mean, hippies to blame for credit default swaps? The fact that they're still all promoting Trickle Down, a theory that has been proven wrong more often than phrenology, is exhibit A in the case against wingnut judgement and reason.
On the other hand, liberal pundits are right more often than not. Someone like Paul Krugman is a good example. For one, he is not weighed down by ideology to the point where facts must be bent and twisted to fit a preconceived world view. Critical thinking, a skill not much in evidence on the right, does not guarantee that the thinker will hit the mark every time, but at least the thinking itself will be rational and conclusions within a reasonable distance of the mark, and if not, some essential bit of data was perhaps not immediately in evidence.
Still and all, there are things out there beyond not only our control, but our ability to foresee.
I don't think anyone was prepared for just how bad Trump would be. I had no faith in his ability to even act presidential, but I didn't reckon on just how evil right wing perfidy had become. Same as you, I expected a raft of legislative "wins" for the thugs, and even though I was fully aware of their rank incompetence, I thought they'd surely ram through some bullshit bills. What I didn't count on was that the idiots to the right of the McConnells and the Ryans were even crazier than expected.
If the establishment Confederates took a hard right stance, the loonies said "NOT HARD ENOUGH!" If the establishment sent up what seemed to be absurdly crazy bills, the loonies screamed "NOT ABSURDLY CRAZY ENOUGH!"
And that's how it's gone.
This tax "overhaul" shell game will be telling. But now here's a problem. If they don't get this through, I'm tempted to say that they'll be in trouble. But I've thought that before and they keep coming back for more. They're talking about revisiting the TrumpCare option very soon. I wouldn't put it past them. At least until the mid-terms, they'll have the keys to the car and a press always willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Whether they can get that car to go in one direction is another thing. But making matters worse is the possible arrival of a complete loony jackass like Roy Moore, and maybe a few more like him, at least if StormFront Steve Bannon has his way.
So, in the Age of Trump, predicting the future is more than a bit of a crap shoot. Don't feel badly. Not even the idiots in charge know what's going to happen.
All we can do is keep on keepin' on. And hope for a little yellow fever in their ranks.
Dear Akhilleus: I must inform you that Mrs. Mac does not "feel badly" since she appears to be able to type quite spectacularly on a regular basis therefore one could conclude her digits do serve her well. On the other hand she may very well feel BAD for not anticipating the absolute asininity of the buffoon in question.
For you it's the "couple of's––for me it's the "feel badlies"–––we all have our little irritations, although minor when dealing with the biggie one that's sitting on the throne.
I thought that they would have dismantled a lot more by this point ... of course, there's a lot we can't see yet. Rebuilding crucial agencies and departments will be Job 1 in 2021.