This year’s World Series did not feature my hometown Milwaukee Brewers, who failed to reach the Fall Classic for the 40th consecutive season.
Just thought I would point that out.
In any case, the Cleveland Guardians had a good playoff run, but fell short. It would have been tremendous to see the Guardians in the World Series just one year after dropping their old name, the Indians, a moniker that was antiquated, offensive, and bizarre.
According to conservatives, when the Cleveland team changed its name, it unleashed all the satanic powers of political correctness and destroyed every tradition that this country held dear.
Wait a minute… They didn’t say that. In fact, nobody seemed to mind the name change.
This is odd because, for years, conservatives insisted that dropping the team’s name was a vile suggestion that appealed only to idiots, snowflakes, and anti-American zealots. And then Cleveland adopted the Guardians name, and no one canceled their season tickets or boycotted baseball or caused the nation to implode.
The woke mob won, but conservatives were indifferent about the loss.
Is it because they realized that fighting to uphold ethnic stereotypes was a misguided and pointless crusade? Did they come around to the liberal way of thinking?
Hell no. It was because they were on to the next outrage.
You see, for decades now, conservatives have made outlandish predictions that never came true. Republicans have implemented disastrous policies and instigated misguided wars, and we’ve come to just accept that they will never apologize or acknowledge their errors.
But we seem slower to recognize the insane cycle of conservative fear-mongering.
Think of how immigrant caravans just happen to “invade” America in election years, and then go away. Consider how the teaching of critical race theory was the biggest threat to the nation just a few months ago, but now seems as relevant as Squid Games.
Both crazes are past their peak.
However, perhaps the GOP’s biggest failed prophecy of the century is Obamacare. Years of legal maneuvers, angry rallies, and midnight political shenanigans failed to deter “socialized medicine.”
You would think that Republicans would be furious, or at least distraught, that death panels now rule the nation. But, no, Republicans are “abandoning their long crusade to repeal the Affordable Care Act, making the 2022 election the first in more than a decade that won’t be fought over whether to protect or undo President Barack Obama’s signature achievement.”
Oh, sure, the occasional right-wing nut will float the idea of repealing Obamacare, but these are the same sociopaths that mock elderly people who have been viciously assaulted, and, honestly, who takes those lunatics seriously?
In general, Republican “candidates scarcely mention the 2010 law or health insurance policy in general, [and] key GOP lawmakers said the desire for repeal has faded.”
How can the desire have faded?
Back in 2010, Republicans insisted that the soul of the nation was on the line. If Obamacare wasn’t repealed, actual death and destruction would follow. And now they just say, “Eh, forget about it”?
It’s almost as if the GOP knew it was bullshit all along, and they just riled up their base in a cynical ploy to gain political power, with no interest in following through on their promises.
What are the odds?
So all that screaming about repealing Obamacare was just for show. And, today, the law is both popular and effective, which is the exact opposite of what Republicans said would happen.
Yes, like Republican plans to “lock her up“ and “make Mexico pay for the wall,” all the furious debate over the ACA amounted to nada. And conservatives have moved on as if they did not waste our collective time and spike the nation’s blood pressure for absolutely no reason.
The GOP has already focused on the next faux outrage as if this were not a hellish circle that we’ve seen a thousand times.
According to conservatives, the latest threat to America is election fraud.
Two-thirds of Republicans think Biden was not legitimately elected, and this massive level of voter fraud—which has inexplicably escaped all detection—is the ostensible reason why 19 states have passed 34 laws restricting voting access, along with more than 400 bills to limit voting access that have been introduced in a full 49 states.
It’s why armed vigilantes are monitoring ballot drop boxes in Arizona.
It’s why Florida is allowing people to vote but then sending in heavily armed cops to arrest them when they actually vote.
It’s why it has suddenly become illegal to give water to voters standing in line in Georgia.
It’s why election deniers are running for office and putting themselves in position to rig future elections.
It’s why right-wingers are literally going door to door to harass voters.
It’s why Republicans are launching criminal investigations of election procedures.
It’s why right-wing conspiracy theorists have forced election officials to resign in fear for their lives.
The death threats and jettisoning of democracy will all be worth it, Republicans say, to maintain “election integrity.”
Of course, within a few years, the GOP will no longer care about election fraud. Granted, that might be because they have seized power and ended democracy altogether.
But if we still have a functioning country, the day will come when Republicans are fine with mail-in voting and screaming about ballot harvesting, They’ll deny their former election denials, once the base has grown bored with it.
Everything is a progressive plot that will destroy your family… until it turns out to be no big deal after all.
By the way, the NFL’s Washington franchise also recently changed its team’s name, which formerly was a flat-out slur. Yes, conservatives spent years defending the old name, but when the Washington Commanders took the field, the world didn’t end.
The conservative bluster was all just sound and fury.
Featured image by Elena Penkova/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
