As Jeff Flake joins Bob Corker in America’s political gimp box, perhaps our betters in the Grand Old Party should reflect on how two of their own came to this sorry end. Well guys, there’s this thing called “loyalty,” and out in America we kind of expect it. You DC dwellers should investigate that concept in depth, not only in order to improve your characters – you guys love babbling about “character,” right? – but to save your useless hides from the electoral accounting that’s coming.
Let me break it down in simple terms so you don’t have to go get one of your minions to explain the big words. Stop taking sides with the enemy against us or we are going to throw you out of your nice, comfy offices. Clear enough for you?
Let’s understand what “loyalty” is and isn’t when it comes to our elected officials. Loyalty is not a requirement for slavish agreement or utter acquiescence – those who either don’t want to be loyal or wish to excuse it in their favored pols will often try to tell you that’s what we normals expect in order to evade the real issue. But that claim is baloney – used baloney after having been eaten by a male cow. Debate and argument are vital. Criticize Trump’s actions if you feel they deserve criticism; criticize the man if you think he falls short. Ted Cruz does, and we dig him. But you need to be loyal to the people who sent you to Washington. We’re not going to tolerate you taking sides with people who hate us.
What is inexcusable are alleged Republicans going onto liberal media outlets to trash the base by sanctimoniously adopting lying liberal narratives about us and then basking in the loving liberal limelight their new liberal buddies temporarily bestow upon them. McCain pioneered that move, though he’s kind of the Sideshow Bob of maverickry – he’ll go through a period of liberal love then do something remotely conservative, like run for president, and his lib lovers will turn on him and he’ll stand there with hurt feelz and a rake mark on his sad face wondering, “What happened to all my new friends?”
“I don’t think I can be part of a party like this,” Flake essentially says, wiping away a figurative tear. What he’s really saying is that our interests and desires should be ignored (as they have been for decades) because we don’t meet his high standards. Fair enough, Jeff – but why are you now shocked that we decided that you don’t meet ours?
Flake is always ready to wag his finger at us normals for any leftist outlet that offers him a mic, but he never seemed to get that digit dancing for Obama. Iran Deal enthusiast Bob Corker tried to do it on Twitter, a hilarious fail on par with Little Marco’s pathetic attempt to go slam for slam with Trump during the primary. Rubio at least seemed to learn his lesson; Corker didn’t, and when he called on his Tennessee supporters they answered, “New phone who dis?”
Loyalty is important, but people in the Beltway Bubble just don’t seem to get that. Yet in those horrible, backward states that elected these guys, normals kind of expect it. You don’t stick your buddy in the back. If you get into a jam in a bar, for example, your pal doesn’t start whacking you with a pool cue. That’s just not done. It is, as you might say during a cocktail party on one of Conservative, Inc.’s cruises, “Bad form, old chap.”
I recently had this discussion online in the context of sanctimonious Senator Ben Sasse, who never met a conservative he didn’t feel compelled to lecture (I won’t link it directly because of my ample swears, but you can review my Twitter timeline if you wish). Sasse, as was observed, always votes our way. Gee thanks, Ben! That’s supposed to be a given, the baseline. That’s not an achievement – that should be an assumption. And it’s not enough. Sasse goes on with Bill Freakin’ Maher and, when not giggling at Maher’s disgusting racial epithets, proceeds to wow his host and the commie crowd with a discussion of how the people who elected him suck. Unacceptable.
We demand loyalty, like it or not. You don’t get to cavort with the enemy and still get our votes. It’s infuriating, and it’s intolerable – meaning we refuse to tolerate it. It’s the liberals’ approval or ours – choose one.
In my Twitter discussion, I observed that those of us who are or were in the military and law enforcement in particular get particularly aggravated when someone purporting to have our backs takes that opportunity to plunge a Ka-Bar in. If the guy in your foxhole starts playing for the other team, you’ve got problems – just ask the loyal heroes crippled looking for that useless waste of meat Bowe Bergdahl. But my measured insights on that issue in the context of Sasse, leavened with appropriate profanity, were dismissed as mere “macho posturing.” This is wrong. They are neither “macho” nor “posturing,” though if I’m going to posture, I prefer macho posturing to the wussy alternative we have seen far too often among the weakhearts left jilted by the voters who chose Trump.
No, it’s not “macho” to despise those who give aid and comfort to the enemy, who go onto the enemy’s media to chastise the normals of the conservative base by adopting libelous liberal narratives about our alleged racism, sexism, and overall uncouthness. Simple loyalty to your own side is a base-level expectation of manhood. You stand with your buddies. And it’s not “posturing” either. While not betraying your allies might be just another pose among many one might adopt within the DC/NY axis, sticking up for your own side is standard operating procedure among the rest of us.
The loyalty issue is just one component of the massive cultural/political upheaval we’re all living through. Normals are tired of being deceived, disregarded, and disrespected by those in power. Now we’re demanding loyalty, not asking for it. And we’re going to ruthlessly purge everyone who presumes to represent us who actually holds us in contempt, because the feeling is mutual.
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