CSotD: Mistaken Identities, Perverted Ideals

Bill Bramhall marks the descent of Rudy Giuliani from “America’s Mayor” to a ridiculous — and now heavily fined — laughingstock, and it’s hard to argue with his assessment that Rudy has largely done it to himself.

It wasn’t a particularly drawn out descent.

In 2000, Giuliani was still mayor of New York City and involved in a tight Senate race with First Lady Hillary Clinton, who had never held public office, and who was moving out of the White House to a newly-purchased home in New York State, which quite naturally brought accusations of carpetbagging. The race attracted national attention and was considered a toss-up.

And then, within four weeks, Giuliani’s campaign and personal life fell apart. He not only announced his withdrawal due to a diagnosis of prostate cancer but also announced that he was getting a divorce and named the woman he was taking up with instead of his wife, who had not been informed of the decision prior to his announcement.

If the rest of America has seen a gradual loss of status, New Yorkers saw a cataclysmic tumble, but, either way, Bramhall is correct in saying Rudy did it to himself.

Asked and Answered

Dave Whamond points out the descent of the Republican Party, and then answers his own implied question: It may have come in stages, but, while it took more than four weeks, it was hardly gradual. Once the GOP chose victory over principles, the process was complete and how it proceeded was simply a matter of details.

Note, however, that the people in that Alien parody are not the GOP brass but, rather, the voters, and not all necessarily registered Republicans. The creature may be Republican, but we are the hosts.

Whamond puts a question mark after 2024, indicating that there is still time for people to come to their senses, but, in a media world of horserace coverage, where it’s more important to focus on polls than policies, voters will have to really dig to get beyond Who’s Winning to find out Who’s Promising What.

As Matt Davies suggests, deeds and accomplishments apparently have little to do with it. Perception seems to drive voting, and as long as campaign coverage is focused on how cost-of-living is perceived, the actual numbers will mean nothing, while there seems to be a general agreement — the news stories continue to remind us — that three-and-a-half years can divide a man who is too old from one in the prime of life.

Certainly, Trump was elected the first time because he was famous, though, by now, a lot of people also seem attracted to his anti-minority remarks and the America First isolationism he and his GOP colleagues preach.

It seems surprising that a conservative like Michael Ramirez (Creators) would offer such a critical view of GOP loyalties, but it’s evidence that there are true conservatives still out there.

You can argue over whether Nikki Haley or Chris Christie are genuinely good choices, but it’s hard to make the case that they wouldn’t be an improvement over the know-nothings of the Freedom Caucus or the “often in error but seldom in doubt” former president.

But not all conservatives agree with Ramirez. Dana Summers (Tribune) reminds us that the true meaning of Christmas and the message of Christ is that we should sit back and watch Ukraine and its people fall to the Russian invasion.

“As you do to the least of these …” and “If anyone should ask for your cloak …” and all that sort of stuff were simply metaphors. He didn’t really mean it.

As long as we’re parsing scripture, we might as well dip into the caption of Bart Van Leeuwen‘s commentary on the killing of Israeli hostages by the IDF, because depicting Netanyahu as a hostage in this war seems as much of a stretch as thinking that, if he did accept blame for the friendly-fire disaster, he would do it with a quote from the Roman Catholic mass.

Though there are Catholics in Gaza. We know this because the IDF has shot some of them, too.

Such tragedies are unavoidable in war, as Patrick Chappatte has the IDF spokesman explain to the press.

In war, in collective punishment, in a special military operation, whatever.

Martyn Turner points out that not only is the Middle East a war zone, but anyone hoping to escape death will find no welcome in Europe or in his home country of Ireland.

I don’t, admittedly, have any statistics on how many people who believe in closed borders also believe the Biblical account of Herod ordering the slaughter of babies and the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt.

But, then, we could ask the same question about people who think residents of chaotic South and Central American nations should stay there and take their chances.

They demand closed borders, yet you can still get a cheer from them by playing that clip of Ronald Reagan saying “Tear down this wall!”

Emma Cook has created less a political cartoon than a poster of poet and teacher Rafeet Alareer‘s final poem, written shortly before he and several family members were killed by Israeli bombs. They had been warned to escape, but there was no place for them to escape to.