Too Close

 Have you ever been censured? Have you ever tried?

Forgive, but the strains of that old Olivia Newton John song just came tumbling out as I sat down to write this. I apologize for its lack of connection to what follows, but it was on my mind, so I figured I should share it.

Back to censure. It is the formal, public condemnation of an individual by a group. The group involved here and the public condemnation is dropping on Arizona Representative Paul "Monkey D" Gosar. In case you missed it, because you aren't on Twitter or aren't a fan of anime or would prefer to believe that public displays of stupidity do not emanate from the halls of Congress, Representative Gosar (rhymes with "gross are") posted a doctored up clip from Attack on Titan that depicted a character with the congressperson's face pasted on it killing another character with Alexandra Ocasio Cortez's face pasted on it. With swords. Then turning to yet another character with President Joe Biden's face cut and pasted on it with those same weapons. The tweet was introduced, "Any anime fans out there?"

Let's start with the low hanging fruit. If you believe that this dentist from Flagstaff spends any of the time he has left over after opposing gun control, immigration, and the Affordable Care Act while supporting groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and the amorphous blob known as "Trump" watching anime, then maybe you don't fully reckon on the posse of wingnuts he employs on his social media team. Imagining Gosar laboring over the thirty-six seconds of video to get it "just right" is exponentially more amusing than the content of the clip. 

For his "efforts," Mister Gosar was stripped of his committee positions in the House and became the first member of the House to be censured since 2010, and a member of a group that numbers over history at twenty-four. He is also proud to be one of the five dentists currently serving in the House of Representatives. He is also standing firm on the assertion that he did nothing wrong.

Which is pretty awful, when you consider what would happen if someone who worked at Target did a similar thing to a co-worker and his boss. Or maybe a dental hygienist in the employ of a Flagstaff dentist. Hypothetically. Two hundred twenty-three members of Congress felt this was worth noting. For another two hundred three those images of death and dismemberment were "just kidding around."

Who'da thought it would be that close.

Sleep tight, America.