FOX propagandist Laura Ingraham at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Image: Gage Skidmore, Wiki Commons
FOX propagandist Laura Ingraham at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Image: Gage Skidmore, Wiki Commons
Let's face it, the Republican "law and order" party does not really care much for either these days. But they are overjoyed to accuse others of crimes, day in and day out.
There has been a meme floating around for a few years now that pops up frequently with a picture of cartoon character Lisa Simpson saying, “An accusation from a Republican is a confession.” This meme probably persists so well because it has the unshakable ring of truth to it.
Obviously not endorsed by FOX/Disney, but it has a certain je ne sais quoi that makes it persist.
So what are Republicans doing that they are accusing others of? Well lots, actually.
1. Accusing Democrats of Lax Border Security
The constant shout from hard-right politicians is the lie that we are being invaded at our southern border. They make it sound so horrifying that you’d think hordes of zombies—the fast moving kind from the Brad Pitt movie—are coming to eat our brains.
But in the meantime Congressional Republicans have refused any and all requests from the Biden Administration for additional border security funding. Granting the White House requests would of course nullify one of the most-used GOP talking points. So that’s off the table.
But underlying their craziness is their abject hatred of the people who are coming here to find work and seek asylum—a Constitutionally protected right.
The whole America First theme of the far right is a signal to the far right’s total dedication to the idea of white supremacy. “America First” has been the motto of the KKK for over 100 years. So you know who you’re really talking to with organizations like Steven Miller’s America First Legal. You remember Miller—the guy who bears a disturbing resemblance to Josef Goebbels—Trump’s steadfast strategist who came up with the idea of stealing kids from immigrant parents and promises to do it again, along with setting up huge internment camps.
2. Attacking Freedom of Speech
Another continuous talking point from the far right is how the White House has exercised censorship on social media against Republicans. This one is rich, since the Biden White House never actually did this, but Republicans did. During the first—and hopefully last—Trump administration, Twitter and Facebook received many requests from that White House to take down posts Trump did not like.
The screams from the right reached a fever pitch when both services suspended specific people for blatant lies, calls for violence, virulent disinformation and violations of terms of service and rules. People like Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Alex Jones and even Donald Trump were tossed off of these services because they were incapable of doing anything but lying and were proud of it.
Of course since then, Elon Musk bought Twitter (to hell with calling it X) and reopened the sluice gates of garbage that these folks and their fanboys, like Neo Nazis, love to send out. Elon doubled down by amplifying antisemitic insanity on Twitter. This earned him the loss, or at least pauses, of some of his biggest advertisers, Apple, Disney, IBM and others. Since he has already cut the value of his investment of $44 billion by more than half, what does the loss of a few more high-ticket sponsors matter.
What has come into sharp focus is Elon’s complete—perhaps intentional—misinterpretation of Free Speech. To him, all speech is equal to all speech and should not be regulated. But that is not even close to being true. The speech of a psychotic agent provocateur, trying to incite hate, violence and insurrection is not the same as one who speaks out in favor of something or against it in reasoned debate.
3. Financial Crimes and Irregularities
Every single day on Twitter, and far-right “news,” brings a new crop of over-the-top accusations trying to paint Biden and his family as some sort of pay-for-play crime family. Of course it is a pure smear. The loudest voices—James Comer and Jim Jordan, backed by FOX propagandists line Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters, have not produced any evidence or actual facts. Oh, there have been documents—that actually told a different and non-criminal story. There have been “whistleblowers”—who testified to the fact that there were no crimes and that they never said what the accusers stated.
The purpose was two-fold: trying damage Biden’s reelection campaign and to distract attention from the fact that their treasonous top candidate is under indictment for 91 felony charges against the United States—for which there is voluminous evidence.
Three years after he was elected Republicans finally got around to acknowledging that George Santos is a criminal and they finally got him to take a decisive step, of not running for reelection. Sure he’s been indicted by Federal prosecutors but he is still stuck to Congress like a tick on a hound dog. Of course, Santos is not alone as a member of Congress engaged in financial shenanigans.
Financial crimes are not exclusive to Republicans, Bob Menendez is a case in point. But the GOP has other sterling crooks and grifters like Rick Scott, Ken Paxton, Mitch McConnell, Tommy Tuberville, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito—the fact that the last two are jurists matters not. And let us not for a moment forget the millions upon millions made by Trump and his family during his tenure in the White House and the $2 billion that arrived with Jared Kushner from Saudi Arabia.
In a nutshell, these guys have a lot of distracting to do and their lack of facts in accusing the Biden family and others will never deter them.
4. Sexual Misconduct
One of the most virulent rivers of accusation and hate from Republicans is leveled at the LGBTQ+ community. The gist is that Repubs are “protecting” society from predatory gays trying to “groom” children to their “perverted” way of life. Turns out the “grooming” is really being done by right wingers. For example, Rolling Stone just published a piece about an organizer for Moms for Liberty (aka the Minivan Taliban) that it turns out is a convicted sex offender.
That’s just the tip of that weird iceberg though. An account on Threads called “Antifaoperative” has been publishing almost daily accounts of right wingers being busted for sex offenses with minors.
Law and Order
Let’s face it, the “law and order” party does not really care much for either these days. But they are overjoyed to accuse others of crimes, day in and day out. Why is this?
It comes down to this: criminals accuse others of their own crimes. The idea is to divert attention and make people doubt what they are seeing. The vast majority of people are basically good and don’t really want to think ill of anyone. They naturally believe that everyone around them has the best intentions. Criminals play on this. And when people start to finally get suspicious, crooks cast the blame elsewhere.
Some criminals do this strategically. This is what earned Trump his first impeachment—trying to manufacture the talking points of a crime that did not exist—some sort of scandal in Ukraine. The fact that this crime did not exist meant nothing to Trump, or Rudy Giuliani or any other person in Trump’s orbit. All he wanted was the distraction talking points.
In summary, if you are at all curious about what Republicans are really doing, just read up on what they are accusing others of doing. It may give you a headache, but you’ll know where to look for the real crimes.
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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