By Terry Manning
I apologize if I’ve mentioned him before, but a long time ago a former co-worker gave me some really good advice. Noting how happy he was in his second marriage, I asked him what was different from the first time.
“I learned to listen with my eyes,” he said. “People can say anything, but what they do means more.”
I’m still taking L’s in the romance category, but I have been able to apply his advice to other areas of my life. I try to make sure my actions match my words, and I pay close attention to others’ behaviors more than I do to what they say.
On that front, I cannot for the life of me understand Republicans’ adoration of people who hate America, whether that be the country, what it stands for or both.
A visit last week by Congressional Republicans to the D.C. jail where Jan. 6 defendants are awaiting trial is a perfect example. Led by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a contingent of GOPers heaped praise and support on those accused of participating in the insurrection against the U.S. Capitol.
California Rep. Robert Garcia and a few other Democrats went with the group to try to offset an expected effort to mischaracterize what the group observed. Greene has consistently described the detainments as unjust and the conditions in which the defendants are kept as cruel and unusual.
Garcia told MSNBC host Michael Steele many of the detainees were moving freely within the newest portion of the jail, had access to tablet computers and other means of connecting with the outside world and enjoy round-the-clock medical care.
He decried his GOP colleagues’ behavior as celebrity worship, with pats on the back and passing notes back and forth. The Associated Press reported Republican lawmakers “handshaking and high-fiving the prisoners, who chanted ‘Let’s Go Brandon!’ — a coded vulgarity against President Joe Biden — as the group left.”
That fits with attempts to make a martyr of slain insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt. Babbitt was an Air Force veteran and QAnon follower who was shot and killed Jan. 6 by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to climb through a window of a door into the House chamber. The Justice Department investigated the shooting and ruled it was warranted, but Trump supporters – and the former president himself – have called her death a murder.
In October 2021, Trump recorded a message of support for Babbitt calling her “a truly incredible person” whose memory would “live on in our hearts for all time.” In January of this year, he called the officer who shot her a “lunatic,” said Babbitt was shot “for no reason” and threatened “We’re not going to let this go on.”
Speaking of the former president, he held his first 2024 campaign rally last weekend in Waco, Texas. It will soon be 30 years since the confrontation between federal agencies and self-proclaimed messiah David Koresh ended in flames for the cult leader and may of his Branch Davidian followers.
Trump officials said it was mere coincidence the former president chose the location to launch his campaign, and not the appeal to anti-government sentiment others interpreted it as being.
More overtly anti-government was the call Trump made earlier last week for protests on the occasion of his indictment and arrest for hush payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before his 2016 presidential campaign. Ever faithful, his followers — including Congressional Republicans — deluged the offices of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with threatening phone calls and letters, including one containing a mysterious white powder.
How does the “law and order,” “Blue Lives Matter” crowd reconcile itself with its leader advocating mob violence against a law enforcement official?
Or with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is turning his state into a fascist’s wet dream? Anything he thinks it will benefit him politically to attack, he attacks. Targets range from CRT and diversity and inclusion measures to gay and transgender citizens to Black fraternities and sororities to Mickey Mouse himself!
DeSantis would eradicate the teaching of Black history in the classroom and forbid faculty, staff and students from even talking about any topics he and his desired supporters find offensive. Or “woke,” as they like to call everything they hate. I guess the First Amendment doesn’t matter as long as it’s your people in government.
I could elaborate on Republicans’ idolizing Vladimir Putin, their embrace of the autocracy of Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and their pursuit of Christian nationalism like that espoused by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.
I’ll just conclude by saying: Republicans promote “America First” and call themselves “patriots,” but in everyday matters and in their day-to-day actions, they demonstrate they want no part of truth, freedom, justice or the American way.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
