Tag: Rep. Louie Gohmert

Louie Gohmert And Government By Gesture


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Something that political Twitter is too often oblivious to is how all these dumb comments that MAGA politicians utter aren’t nearly as stupid as you might think. Things have gotten so tight and divided in our political system that honestly all people like Louie Gohmert want to do is somehow get the words “cancel culture,” “critical race theory,” “BLM” and “Antifa” in a sentence, any sentence so they can bait the MAGA base into hysterics.

MAGA policitains honestly don’t care about anything they say. Most of them aren’t nearly as stupid as they seem — craven, yes, stupid, no. Ideas like “cancel culture” and “critical race theory” are the clit of the MAGA base. Just the mere mention of them — even if the result is ostensibly word salad — is enough to get the MAGA base hyperventilating in hate-fueled pleasure.

In the end, of course, the question is once the politics of gesture succeeds in handing Republicans power again, do they ever let it go? And if they don’t do we simply slip into autocracy or we do we have a civil war? I’m beginning to believe that we’re just going to peacefully slip into autocracy and that will be that. MAGA Republicans will, at last, achieve minority control of the country and that will be that.

But while we wait for that to happen — we need to stop giggling at how stupid people like Rep. Gohmert appear.

The Abstract Rage Of Rep. Louie Gohmert


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let’s look at what’s going on with Rep. Louie Gohmert’s lawsuit against Mike Pence of all people. It seems to me there are a few reasons — in his mind — for the lawsuit.

  1. Catch Pence’s Attention
    Gohmert’s suit is about, in part, simply catching Pence’s attention and reminding him of what he might be able to do if he was so inclined. While Pence could be a dick and throw the nation into chaos, up until fairly recently, he was a pretty traditional — if far Right — politician. So, for him to do something crazy on January 6th would at least appear to be out of character.
  2. Remind Pence of his Duty
    By bringing attention to what Pence’s responsibilities are, Gohmert is attempting to put pressure on Pence to fuck things up. Again, Pence came up through the ranks as a pretty “normal” politician, so it would really be wild for him to do what Gohmert and others want.
  3. Make Everyone Talk About What Pence Could Do
    Another aspect to the suit is to get everyone talking about what Pence may — or may not — do when the opportunities arises. This is where the suit has been the most successful, by far — I mean, I’m talking about it right now.

    Now, let’s talk about how bonkers all of this is to begin with. Gohmert is definitely ahead of the curve in the whole fascist take over of America. And, if he would just fucking be patient, he would definitely get what he wanted. America is a center-Right nation and obviously had Trump in 2016 been the “guy from The Apprentice” then we would be an autocratic, managed democracy right now. Our democracy would, at last, be dead and we would just have House Trump in power for the foreseeable future.

    But there’s a problem — Trump.

    Trump is just a very lucky ding-dong — and now a very lucky DERANGED ding-dong — and so it’s possible that Trump could do something so fucking insane between now and January 20th that we don’t just punt Gohmert’s fascist dreams down the road one election cycle, but for a generation.

    I don’t know. Everything is still very much up in the air. Not until around January 6th will we have a better understanding of what, if anything, is going to happen with all of this.