Crooked Line

 I imagine the battered, twisted soul of Richard Nixon wandering the beaches of San Clemente muttering in a ghostly whisper: "In my day, I was the bad one. I was the king. I was the worst of the worst."

I have also been thinking a lot about this word "conservative," and what it used to mean. Stay the course, don't rock the boat, straight as an arrow. Now that word seems to have gone the way of "literally." The line that used to drawn by a party that called itself "law and order" has shifted to the point where there are plenty of voices insisting that it would be perfectly fine to elect a president of the United States of America who would serve from jail. The powers and pundits that be have become blase enough about the looming legal troubles of their favorite son that they have begun to accept that they have a felon on their hands. 

This is a man who was elected back in 2016 with a truckload of dirty laundry, and did nothing over the course of his term to mitigate any of it. He finished it off by redefining "poor loser" by calling for the overturn of an election in which his slathering followers showed up in droves to invade the Capitol to wrest the democratic process from the people and give it to their Fureher. 

And just like so much of the awful things that he did, it was done in plain sight, and often recorded on audio or video, but those in the red ball caps continue to change the story to fit the outcome they so desperately need. 

Now, to absolutely no one's surprise, the Epstien List has placed a (checking the list twice) Donald J Trump on and around Pleasure Island. The "literal" crowd on the right are quick to point out that Bill Clinton is also on the list. And neither of those men have been accused of any wrongdoing. 

But here's the deal: Bill Clinton was impeached for his improper handling of an extra-marital affair. Mister Clinton is not currently running for any office. Nor is he under indictment for any other crimes or misdemeanors. Most significantly it should be pointed out that as awful as Bill Clinton's time in office may have been, he did not incite insurrection to hold onto power. Not for him or his Vice President who had issues with the ballot count way back in 2000. Eventually, he packed up and made room for the next guy and his puppet master vice president. 

And for the past two years Congress, which has fallen into the clutches of these "conservatives," has been moving the goalposts and suggesting different ways in which they might be constructed in order to compensate for their dear leader's ongoing malfiesence. So busy, in fact, that they have been mired in their own leadership struggles to the degree that they have the distinction of being the least productive group of legislators since the Great Depression. They seem to be most content when flinging mud not just at the current administration but at each other as well. This leaves quite a void on both the law and the order.

Which leaves the ghost of Nixon, standing on the beach looking east, and moaning softly as each fresh revelation and crime is made painfully clear. "If I was a crook, and I'm not saying that I was, I could have served from jail? Maybe I should have fooled around more on Pat."