A tale told by an idiot
For better or for worse, and I dare say worse, America now at last has its 118th Congress. The question before us all is, what can it do? That is to say, how much damage to the country and the American people can this new Congress do, because I think you’ll all agree on what it won’t do. It won’t do any actual good at all.
This new Congress certainly won’t attempt to fix whatever problems America may or may not have at the border. Nor will it try to ease inflation or bring down the national debt. Those aren’t things the new Republican majority plans to fix, those are just things they used to disingenuously beat President Biden over the head with. As usual, now that they have a majority and the power to fix those things they won’t. Because they don’t really give a crap about any of those things.
First expect lots of noise. Noise from the shouty gang like Mr. Yellow Tie Jim Jordan, the twin banshee hags of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, the angry sexual predator Matt Gaetz. Boy are those guys going to get angry about lots of things. They’ll let you know what they’re all so angry about just as soon as they can think of some things to actually get angry about.
Since Republicans don’t really care about inflation or the national debt, and since they don’t believe in global warming, the new Republican Congress is instead going to try to put Hunter Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci in prison. If they can’t provide bread then they certainly will try to provide some circus. A three ring circus, to be sure.
The 118th Congress is probably going to cost Hunter Biden and the good Doctor Fauci hundreds of thousands of dollars each in legal fees. They will create all sorts of drama for television. It will also piss off a lot of people. It will piss off Republicans because they’ll mistakenly believe that Congressional Republicans actually have something substantive. It will piss off Democrats and the mainstream media and every sane human being everywhere because they’ll know they don’t.
They’re also going to prefer numerous articles of impeachment against Joe Biden. That will be their revenge for Donald Trump’s two legitimate impeachment trials, trials in which so much breathtakingly conclusive evidence of Trumpian wrongdoing was brought before them that any jury anywhere not composed of inmates from a lunatic asylum would have found him guilty.
Thankfully, all of the articles of impeachment and evil legislation the Republican majority will concoct in the next two years will go to the Senate to die and never be heard from again. But the show trials and government shutdowns and draconian budget cuts and havoc they can cause will be real and extremely damaging to the American government and the American people. Those are the things we can’t do anything about. And they very well could happen.
The new Congress is also going to “investigate” the DOJ and the FBI. That will be another big folly and waste of the taxpayer’s money. As an act of petty, childish revenge they will attempt to subpoena Merrick Garland, Jack Smith and Christopher Wray. Those subpoenas will almost certainly be successfully fought in court and thrown out.
They are also going to shut down the government because they can. They will cause as much disruptive evil as they can think of because that’s what Republicans are: disruptive and evil.
The worst part is, because new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is so weak, he has agreed to allow Republican radicals to leverage the debt ceiling increase later this year. They will allow the debt ceiling increase only if McCarthy agrees to a massive spending cut, which could include gutting social security and Medicare. Republicans want that money for themselves and for their greedy and rich friends, not for average Americans who have earned it by working their whole lives for it.
So get ready for the 118th Congress. Get ready to see what evil, stupidity and greed looks like in action. Their performative outrage means nothing. They couldn’t care less about the average American and they brazenly parade their indifference out in the open. Their counterfeit indignation is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.