Talk about rats fleeing a sinking ship.
Actually, the exodus in Washington after the storming of the Capitol yesterday is more reminiscent of the heady days of the French Revolution or the fall of the Nazis, where collaborators switched sides just as their necks looked vulnerable.
Transport secretary Elaine Chao became the first cabinet member to resign this morning after various low level administration figures jumped soon after the riots began.
More resignations are expected throughout the day.
They almost seem to think they’re doing something principled — even though there are only 13 days to go before they would be out anyway.
It seems a bit late to be suddenly growing a spine or a conscience.
The fact is, they’re only taking action after their loyal troops stormed the barricades and got far too close for comfort. They got to see close up that these “Trump supporters” are an ugly rabble at best, and domestic terrorists at worst.
In one video filmed inside the chamber during the siege, terrified officials are seen cowering under the seats and being told to take off their congressional pins so they could not be identified as politicians.
It didn’t matter if you were Team Red or Blue — the baying mob was after them all.
Their fear was well founded given the sickening pictures of at least one protester inside the building holding a swathe of cable ties which presumably were to be used to take hostages.
There had been plenty of warning.
CNN interviewed one young Republican congresswoman who had only been sworn in on Sunday but was so scared for her safety after being threatened and abused on the streets that she sent her children home on Monday for their safety.
The irony of the Chao resignation, claiming she was “deeply troubled in a way I cannot put aside”, is that she’s the wife of Mitch McConnell. Yes, that Mitch McConnell — the soon to be Senate minority leader, chief congressional enabler to Donald Trump and the politician who has singlehandedly wreaked so much havoc on democracy.
The nepotism and cronyism that made them all so smug for the past four years is now turning into fear for their future. McConnell’s late conversion to defending democratic institutions should not mitigate his treachery.
Ditto that brown-noser extraordinaire Senator Lindsay Graham, who finally announced he was done with Trump yesterday. “Count me out. Enough is enough,” he declared in his usual flamboyant style as he voted to certify Joe Biden.
Other hypocritical resignation speeches that rivalled Chao’s yesterday included that of former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Most hadn’t realised he was even still there after being sacked by Trump some time ago. In fact he had been given a non-job as envoy to Northern Ireland, so his time was well and truly up.
Among the other flunkies rushing the exit are the first lady’s chief of staff, the White House social secretary and the deputy White House press secretary. A more important departure was long-time deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger.
You don’t even have to resign — apparently you can still be fired, as State Department official Gabriel Noronha found this morning when he was dismissed for an overnight tweet calling the president “unfit” for office.
Nor is it just officials belatedly finding their balls. Facebook has finally banned Trump from the platform indefinitely — which is as useless as Fox News now desperately trying to look fair and balanced.
As other cabinet members contemplate the rodent route off the Trump Titanic, it’s worth remembering they might actually be needed to invoke the 25th amendment to remove him.
But as if they are now going to put the good of the country before themselves at this late hour.
“It didn’t matter if you were Team Red or Blue — the baying mob was after them all”.
Trump in the USA and Brexit in the UK can be seen as the long coming backlash against the neo-con economic policies which have transferred wealth from the lower 80% of society to the top 20% and in particular the top 1% over the past 40 years.
For many years now political systems in western democracies have been the best democracies money can buy rather than the best democracies. Focusing on the needs of donors, special interests and mates whilst the majority of the population faces an increasingly harsher reality.
The Trump and Brexit phenomena can be seen as throwing a bomb into the establishment. The throwers don’t care what damage is done – they just want to ‘do unto others what has been done to them’. They judge ‘democracy’ for what it has delivered not for what it is supposed to or should be.
When democracy fails people look to alternatives such as communism and fascism. Clearly the current situation is providing fertile conditions for fascism.
Western democracies have now reached the end point of the neo-con political and economic experiment. Continuing further in the same direction looks like ending up with fascism. Instead, policy makers need to swing the policy pendulum back to the center so that the concerns of the majority instead of being ignored, are considered at least as or more important than the need for the rich to get richer.
That may all be true, but the greatest irony for those apparently seeking to wreck the establishment is that they are supporters of Trump and Johnson, both firmly part of the establishment and moneyed elite that they rail against. Trump has never, and will never, give a shit about a laid off steel worker. All he ever wanted was lower taxes for himself and his cronies. They were duped.As for Johnson, all he ever wanted was to be PM by whatever means necessary.
Yes. My thoughts exactly.
Oh come off it. These folks are all neoconmen. They are simpl self serving wealthy elitists who do not give a toss and whose ilk created the problems.
I assumed this was obvious so neglected to labor the point.
Disagree, wrong way round, regarding:
‘Trump in the USA and Brexit in the UK can be seen as the long coming backlash against the neo-con economic policies…..’
These events are the delivery systems required to implement further libertarian or neo-con economic policies, produced by Koch related think tanks and promoted by media e.g. NewsCorp, by using sociocultural issues to e.g. immigration, LGBT rights, white nationalism etc., to inflame and/or deflect; Australia is the same (we don’t vote for policies but US style ‘leadership’ PR constructs)
This is possible through catering or pandering to the sentiments of ageing monocultural electorates and struggling workers (plus many comfortable middle class), especially in regions, targetting retirees/pensioners with (mostly) guaranteed minimum income, at the expense of workers wo are being constantly squeezed…..
Democracy or ‘fairness’ Drew? We can’t have it both ways for a given electorate. Ask Fitzgibbon.
Sorry I’m only reading this now—- well said!!
Yes, this whole article and everything I read from Janine is all about identity politics. There is nothing with an ounce of balanced insight. Had the police committed to do there jobs instead of taking selfies they would have been stopped at the gate.
This article is so overblown, you could see on the face of these dullards they had no plan, most of them looked like they were saying S**T what do we do now. They will be locked up for a long time because of police ineptitude and stupidity.
Nancy Peloci passed very war bill and extension of surveillance powers for a man she called unhinged, so who is the criminal the enabler or the criminally insane???
‘Trump in the USA and Brexit in the UK can be seen as the long coming backlash against the neo-con economic policies which have transferred wealth from the lower 80% of society to the top 20% and in particular the top 1% over the past 40 years.’
That’s a joke isn’t it, like uprising of Brexit’s working class heroes who are mostly midde class and/or retired?
Neo-cons or radical right libertarians have had Trump and more importantly, Koch’s ALEC guy Pence as VP, implement same economic policies against the interests of their own supporters intoxicated by white nationalism, Christianity and conspiracies, real or imagined.
As a rat with a long, proud and consistent record of abandoning, I wish to register my disdain for these pathetic Johnny-come-Lately rats.
Yeah! SSR.
Your disdain is worthy, and does you credit.
Most of these ultra rats have probably just jumped into their own private luxury lifeboats anyway.
BTW where do you stand on that Brit “women and children first” nonsense?
In practice it’s a fairly safe bet that “women and children first” actually works out as “every man/rat for himself”.
There’s a good article about the myth at history(usual site suffix)
Remember our W. Churchill, when he was asked why he always chose Italian ships to cruse on?
He replied, “the service is the best, the food is the best and there is none of that women and children first,nonsense.
It was only the American male passengers, ineptly disguised as women, who abused it. Then there was the Italian ferry captain who was FIRST off the vessel after a collision some years ago.
Abused what ?…the myth ..
The convention (if it is not apparent).
The convention you refer to is historically rather unconventional. If fact downright as rare as women &(especially)children out surviving every man for themselves..
I believe it was a cruise ship, la Costa Concordia se mi ricordo bene
Thanks for the the reply Jenny. I do seem to remember something about a ferry also; I will get around to checking.
The ‘mi ricordo bene’ turned out to be a something of a misnomer.
Don’t forget the Greek Capt. off South Africa, He and his dog were first off.
There will be others.
he he he even the rats are revolting!
Y’mean those flunkies ‘contemplating the rodent route? Them? The ones doing a last minute check of which side the butter is on their bread.
Points very well made Janine, thanks for a great article! Reading de Vos’ resignation letter one can’t help but wonder: would T’s rhetoric have been OK if it *hadn’t* led to an insurrection? Presumably she has been well aware of what he has been saying for all these weeks, and *now* it becomes unbearable?
I attempted to read her resignation letter, but I didn’t get past the first paragraph or so, of smug, self-congratulatory garbage.
Strange isn’t it (not) that they seemed happy/ proud/blinkered about the 4 years until now. While Covid is ravaging the population in ever-increasing numbers on a daily basis, the people are increasingly unable to feed their families, Trump continues to ignore these appalling statistics.
Not accurate at all. Prior to the lurgy talking hold Trump created, literally, millions of jobs albeit on the minimum wage. Had the virus NOT appeared your hero would have had a 2nd term for the asking.
Trump’s base, for gods sake, *is* that sector of society that Hillary deplored. ALL females that voted for him knew that he he was a self-confessed tit, butt, and pussy patter.
Excuse me? “My hero”? I apologise profusely if I have given anyone the notion that I admire this creature. I have despised him for years. My point, which I obviously failed to put across clearly, is that since the Covid virus came about, that Trump has deliberately not taken it seriously and as it has surged, he has refused to accept scientific and medical expert advice, leading to huge numbers of avoidable deaths. As the nation’s President, he has failed miserably in the role. Things might have gone his way if Covid had not happened, but it did and he has been unable to face up the truth. I also have contempt for liars, bullies, racists and narcissists in positions of power such as his. It’s been a long day, Erasmus, but I hope I have disabused you of any idea about any admiration of Trump.
Sorry : my inept social skills and attempt at humor.
Agreed and, believe it or not, joyful Jonny Howard made the same point over New Year. Older women supported him (his strength in Florida – for example) but his idiotic quack cures annoyed anyone with a pretence to literacy.
As an aside, (my sense of humour and your social values) is there a PM, President, parliamentarian Royal or CEO that you do admire? I’d have to say that I think that you have eliminated everyone!
I’ve been having a bit of a ponder re your question and have come up with no-one for whom I could express unalloyed admiration.
Gillard could have met most (of my) criteria had she not succumbed, so easily & swiftly, to the blandishments of the Right.
There are a number who never achieved primus inter pares so may (!?) have been found wanting once in the Siege Perilous.
Rather than yield to a louche & world weary claim that none merit acclaim, I’ll have to suggest Mutti Merkel.
Reluctantly.
You might take into account Gillard’s capacity as a solicitor and the advice she offered (coordinated) to membership which was clearly against their interests.
Neither side has said anything over her dismissal from Slater and Gordon but some creditable stuff has been written. Make your own assessment.
Just an hour prior to the coup of 2009 she was in Rudd’s office with an agreement to hold off for the remainder of the year. Upon receiving a call from her mobile phone she excused herself. About a dozen minutes later she returned and said to Rudd “sorry Kev but it’s on”.
Then, the champion of wimins rights screwed over mothers on welfare. I would not trust her in a padded cell with video surveillance.
Merkel has earned her points; likely short of narcissistic tendency (a GF criterion) but, equally, as the Wigg Charles Fox pointed out” the office of a parliamentarian being one of nature’s lowest callings.
Well, you certainly had me going there, Erasmus! Full marks to you.
I’ll have to think about your list of possible candidates for admiration. I’ve looked at Agni’s reply and would have both Gillard and Merkel on my starting list. Some of our GGs will probably make the cut. Think, think, think. ,,,,,,,,
I ought to check I think it was in a letter to Chesterfield that Fox, early in his career, expressed the sentiment that “there are some gentlemen who have an interest in their country but most intend to line their pockets”. Clearly, not a lot has changed!
Not to mention the likelihood of additional Covid numbers from all the close contact and spit and drivel.
Another recent rat is Betsy de Vos whose brother ran the war criminals of Blackwater. Of course she left it until after Trump had pardoned her husband’s murdering thugs.
Also the DeVos family and others of the right have foundations for significant donations to white nativist and/or libertarian causes, often ‘dark money, that dwarf those of Soros, Gates and Clintons (of the centre right not left).
One thing that hasn’t really been mentioned, in regards to the spate of resignations, is that in this period of the political cycle, there is usually a lot of work to be done in preparing for the transition between administrations. So by resigning now, these people are perhaps relieving themselves of that responsibility and effort. And looking at it a touch more cynically, all the deserting ideologues, are now no longer obliged to cooperate with their incoming political opponents; who they may despise.