Well, Greg Gianforte won his Montana house seat. He also apologized. I’m unimpressed.
“Sometimes, hard work is borne out of hard lessons.”
Sounds fancy, and may impress Gianforte’s base, but means nothing and makes
absolutely no sense. “Borne” is the past
participle of “to bear,” (as in to give birth).
It should be the other way around.
The way he has it, it means that hard lessons result in hard work. Anyway…sorry about that. No matter what order Gianforte arranges his
verbs – This doesn’t, by a longshot, make up for physically attacking someone
who did nothing physical to him.
“Made a mistake.”
Right – but a 56-year-old, stable, sensible, educated adult
doesn’t make these kinds of mistakes – Or shouldn’t. Jacobs asked Gianforte a question that he
himself promised to answer once the CBO report on the administration’s health
care plan (AHCA) came out. Instead of
answering, Gianforte reacted like a giant, petulant two-year-old who doesn’t
get his way.
“I should not have treated that reporter that way.”
He’s right. Now he should step down.
Whatever happened to honor in politics and public
service? Yeah, yeah – I get that there
have been shitty people in politics for a couple of hundred years, but come on
now – Political wannabes assaulting a member of the free press for asking a
simple question is crossing the line in what’s supposed to be a civilized society
and first-world country. Hell, we demand
more out of pop stars and collegiate/professional athletes!!!
Apologies shouldn’t be enough to atone for irresponsible,
rash behavior like Gianforte’s. At a
minimum, people should be astonished that someone with as little self-control
as Gianforte is now an elected member of the Congress of the United States. Someone who makes these kinds of decisions as
a result of simple questions should not be making political decisions at the
national level.
If Gianforte had even a minimal sense of honor, shame, and
responsibility he would decline to take office.
We all know that would never happen in today’s political climate but wouldn’t
that be refreshing? “Ladies and
gentlemen – I acted irrationally and wholly inappropriately when I attacked Mr.
Jacobs. While I feel confident that I can
execute the office to which I was elected I cannot, with clear conscience, take
office while I have even the slightest worry that some of you lack confidence
in me because of my actions. The State
of Montana and our country as a whole should, without fail, expect and demand their
elected officials’ behavior be above reproach.
Breaching that trust and expectation, or even giving the appearance of
having breached it should always be construed as reasonable cause to step down
from office or to decline election/appointment.
Thank you very much.”
Okay. I’m awake
now. Wow. That was a weird dream.
- When do you suppose we’ll grow up and stop
yelling at each other?
- When do you suppose thoughtful, respectful, and articulate
disagreement will replace what we’re doing now?
- When do you suppose we and our elected official
will realize that compromise is critical to the maintenance of our democracy?
- When do you suppose we’ll insist our public
servants be honorable, intelligent, and interested in serving everyone, not
just their particular party?
Make no mistake – Gianforte isn’t in this game for the sense
of service to country – He’s in it for himself and anyone that can do something
for him.
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