“I never thought the leopards would eat MY face”, sobs the woman who voted for the Leopard Eating Faces party.
Tim Miller is a former Republican strategist and current Bulwark contributor and podcaster I follow regularly. Several years ago I read his book Why We Did It, an attempt to explain the GOP’s turn toward irresponsibly whacky and yes, the road from whacky to literally being a danger to our democracy, a.k.a. DJT. I admire Miller’s willingness to admit his culpability in the elevation of this vastly unserious narcissist, which has, at this juncture, led to Leopard Eating Faces party winning the White House, Part Two.
Tim addresses what was, for him, a talent for compartmentalization, for denial, for pushing the ugliness of reality away to serve a higher good he realized later wasn’t very good, possibly not even a little. But as a kid and teen, he joined the young Republicans because the cool guys, the ones on the winning side, were Republicans; who doesn’t want to be a part of that?! We all like winning.
He was also very skilled at ignoring the (racist, sexist, homophobic) elephant in the room, because he grew up gay in a very conservative Republican, Catholic family, attending a Jesuit private school in his predominantly white, Republican community in Colorado. Hide much? He had been conditioned to deny his own, authentic self, as well as to being a part of a system that included men and women whose careers he helped promote – fellow Republicans who thought being gay was evil, worthy of punishment or at least worth denying basic human rights, by way of policy and law. In America.
As Miller sees it, the GOP adapted and ultimately accepted DJT because even if he was a monster, he was their monster after all, their leopard – although he uses alligator as a stand in, and for me, they both work. But in 2015 the common GOP wisdom was that the alligator they let into their pond wouldn’t take their arms off!! And then it did, beating all (was it 19? 12?) of his fellow contenders in 2015-’16 despite the quite common belief among many in the GOP that it’d never happen. And now, he’s chewed off quite a few arms, ended a number of careers, led to tens of thousands of deaths during Covid and in the wake of the Capitol riots, and – hold onto your socks – part 2 yet ain’t official for some time. Oops. Ouch. Dang. At least we’ll be prepared? Maybe.
Tim left the party, or the party left him; he’s been jumping up and down screaming on the sidelines – and anywhere else he can – ever since. He has also married and adopted a child with his husband. You’ve come a long way baby, but Tim Miller (no relation, by the way), was always going to be okay. He’s a college educated white man with money in the bank and a high profile politically; once the hypocrisy and cowardice of his fellow Republicans was finally, incrementally, revealed over the course of the last decade (feels like a century), he was done.
Other supporters of the alligator or leopard party (you pick), however, they ain’t gonna be okay, I’m afraid. We’re officially in the FAFO phase of the experiment that is DJT 2, although yes, he’s not in office, yet, just picking weirder and weirder and less and less qualified persons to lead essential agencies. Some believe Dems should let these crazy picks be confirmed, help usher in the chaos and crazy – but I hope we won’t. People actually depend on government services to protect and serve them – particularly the person in charge of the Department of Defense – no, no, no, no, no, no, no – Pete Hesgeth? No. But RFK Jr. is almost as bad.
And as for Matt Gaetz? A prominent conservative commentator might’ve put it best: I realize that we are occasionally given to hyperbole about the untoward nature of politicians, but let me be clear: Matt Gaetz is a sex trafficking drug addicted piece of s**t. He is abhorrent. His eyes are permanently rimmed with the red rings of chemical boosters. In person, he smells like overexposed Axe Body Spray and stale Astroglide.”
“The fact that he boasted on the floor to multiple colleagues in the House of Representatives of his methods of crushing Viagra and high test Red Bull to maintain his erection through his orgiastic evenings is perhaps the least offensive of his many crimes against womanhood and Christian faith. The man has less principles than your average fentanyl addicted hobo.”
“He is a walking genital, warts included as a bonus. If I was merely attempting to count the number of women I know who have had bad experiences with Matt Gaetz, I would run out of fingers and toes.”
There’s more – all from Ben Domenach. Look it up on sub stack. I don’t think that particular Florida alligator – Matt-A-Gator? – is gonna fly. Or whatever.
Deep breaths. I, too, will be okay. I am a white lady in her 60s who has money in the bank and elsewhere. Yet, as a non-compartmentalizer, I fear for my Latinx friends, and family. I fear for women everywhere but especially in states that don’t allow for abortion-care access, and all those who may have dangled their arms in the pond thinking the water had to be better than Biden’s water.
Come January 21st – we’re all gonna find out, after one of the worst electoral fuck ups, ever.
Fingers x’ed.