How the Conway family imploded

| 12:01 pm EDT August 25, 2020
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Kurt Vonnegut wrote of his 1962 book, “Mother Night,” that it was the only book he’d ever written whose moral he knew, which was, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” George Conway married a woman who turned out not to be careful about what she pretended to be, and the recent crisis that has descended on his marriage and his family is the consequence.

Together they had a daughter named Claudia, who may very well be smarter than both of them put together. I’m not saying anything defamatory of George and Kellyanne, by the way. I think they’d both agree with me.

Claudia, as they say, doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Her mother does so for a living, and therein is Claudia’s problem. Claudia is a young woman of intelligence and principle, who recently tweeted that her “mother’s job ruined my life to begin with. heartbreaking that she continues to go down that path after years of watching her children suffer. selfish. it’s all about money and fame, ladies and gentlemen.”

Claudia finally reached a crisis point where “i’m officially pushing for emancipation. buckle up because this is probably going to be public one way or another, unfortunately. welcome to my life.”

This drama in the life of the Conways is one that has played out entirely on Twitter. Claudia hates what her mother does for a living and says so. George hates his wife’s boss. Kellyanne, until recently, hasn’t been careful about what she pretends to be. The culmination happened when Claudia finally decided to “push for emancipation.” The straw that broke the camel’s back, as they say, was Kellyanne’s decision to speak at the Republican National Convention. “i’m [devastated] that my mother is actually speaking at the RNC,” Claudia tweeted, “like DEVASTATED beyond compare.”

In response to his daughter’s crisis George Conway is taking his leave of Twitter. Or a provisional one. Unlike other social media addicts he left himself a loophole, just in case, when he tweeted, “I may be taking a Twitter hiatus soon.” This tweet was followed by a stunning catalog of brilliant opinion pieces for the Washington Post by Conway himself, each one elucidating why Donald Trump is a narcissist and a sociopath, a rapist and a sexual assailant, an arch criminal out for himself, and so on. I recommend them. George is also dropping out of active participation in The Lincoln Project, of which he is a founding member.

Kellyanne’s comment was the least transparent of the three. “I’m Leaving the White House. Gratefully & Humbly.” It was followed by a link to a statement that required that I sign in to Drop Box in order to read it. I declined. I’m closed minded about Kellyanne Conway. I doubt there are any revelations in her statement. In any case, don’t be surprised if her gratitude and humility change over time into regret and mortification, once she’s been clear for a time of the toxic waste dump that is the Trump White House, once she’s started being careful about what she pretends to be again.

This is what happens when lives intersect with the pestilential malignancy that is Donald Trump. People go to prison, lives get destroyed, families are thrown into turmoil. There are a million reasons why Donald Trump is unfit to continue as president of the United States, this has been another one of them. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.