TRAITS OF REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP PART I - THE WHINE CHRONICLES

By Ruth A. Sheets

In the past half-century, Republicans have decided that having positive personal character traits hinders their success.  They no longer try to hide their lack of positive qualities:  integrity, caring, empathy, competence, or skill with governing.  In fact they are proud of it.  I will go into Republican whining first as I believe it is their most potent means of communication which they use in all media, on every issue,   without self-critique.

I just finished reading an article from June 22, 2023 by a Republican columnist for “The New York Times,” David Brooks.  NOTE:  I am not current because my braille magazine is always a few weeks behind and an additional week or so till I get to it.  Anyway, the article is entitled, “The Age of Spectacle Is Upon Us.  I often find Brooks interesting even though he is a staunch conservative.  He usually explains his point clearly and it makes a kind of sense even if I rarely agree with him.  This article was a whine, nearly from the beginning, not what I expected. 

The issue, the Los Angeles Dodgers planned to honor at a game, a community service group in LA that does a lot of work for people of the city and beyond.  The group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is an LGBTQ drag group that regularly mocks norms.  Brooks’ whine involves him telling the Dodgers that a baseball team shouldn’t be honoring anyone that mocks religion in any way.  The group wears elaborate nun costumes and each member has an outrageous, let’s say suggestive  name.

It’s OK that he stated his feelings about the outrageous nature of the group’s performance, but he went on to say that each area of “culture” should have its own sphere and never the twain shall meet.  That’s a problem.  He says that baseball should do baseball, as should each individual entity and not host the antics of members of another culture, LGBTQ service folks in this case because they are a spectacle.  He cites a rabbi and a philosopher to try to prove his point, but as far as I am concerned, he was not successful.  It is OK to have “Pride Night” or “Hispanic Night,” but clearly not honoring a group whose outrageous presentation he finds objectionable.

A baseball team and other sports entities are part of the larger community, a community that helps support them, provides roads to get to the venue, adds trains, buses, and other public transportation for fans the days of the games, etc.  The team should be and usually is an integral part of the community.

Probably everyone in LA and beyond is aware of just how outrageous the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are and appreciate them for that.  Since reading the article, I learned something more to the story.  The first time the Dodgers invited the Sisters, there was so much whining among a certain group of conservative Angelinos and others that the invitation was withdrawn.  The backlash was so intense, the uninvitation was withdrawn and this  June, the honor was given them at the ballpark.  The other area baseball team, the Angels also extended an invitation which was not withdrawn. 

Brooks hinted that some “religious” folks like nuns wouldn’t bare anyone spoofing their religion, and whined, threatened, and whined some more to get the Dodgers to take back their invitation.  That may be true for some, but, having lived for a summer in a convent with amazing nuns, I suspect Brooks is wrong.  Real nuns of whatever religious tradition would probably find the Sisters humorous and want them to keep going with their good works, even likely to work with them in some of their projects, and that is what happens.

The whine continues, claiming that the boundaries among the cultural spheres are falling and that’s a truly terrible thing.  “An evangelical megachurch sounds like a political rally,” college professors “now see themselves as political activists, and “corporations are taking political stances on issues that have nothing to do with their core businesses.”

I honestly don’t understand what Mr. Brooks is stressing over.  He sounds as though he is saying crossing cultural boundaries is a new, but bad  thing.  It isn’t!  But, conservatives do need a way to whine about the changing culture as though what they knew previously is the way it always was.  Sorry!  Medieval clowns, jesters, and others mocked religion at times, corporations have regularly openly contributed to political candidates, even ones that wouldn’t benefit their business (in fact, donating to get legislators to support their businesses should be illegal).  Many college professors for at least the past 60 years have been activists at times.  For example, the Vanderbilt Divinity School professors threatened to quit if the student civil rights worker, James Lawson whom the university had kicked out for his activism, was not reinstated.  That was back in the early 1960’s. (interesting story) 

Why should we separate spheres when so much of life has intermingled?  Yes, there should be a separation of church and state because we are a democracy with no established religion.  That does not mean one’s religion should be jettisoned or hidden if one is elected to office.  It is that one’s personal faith or lack of it should not make laws that could seriously negatively impact others’ faith or lack of it.  Our own Supreme Court, though has broken that boundary of law, tradition, and practice by handing down awful decisions that are religion-based, religion enforcing:  overturning Roe v. Wade, letting business people with a certain set of values, refuse to serve people they claim their religion doesn’t like. 

It seems to me the difference between what the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are doing and what white evangelicals and Roman Catholics are doing with their laws that mock Christianity are in the same ballpark, so to speak.  They both make up presentations of Christianity that are exaggerated and selectively pick and choose what they will “mock.”  And, yes, the Christian right does mock Jesus’ teachings by ignoring the most caring and inclusive ones to push those that can be twisted to hurt and devalue their fellow human beings while proclaiming their own personal righteousness.  How is that less offensive than the shenanigans of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence?   A whole lot of people are and will continue to be harmed by the right-wing pseudo-christian actions , while the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will continue to serve struggling people in LA and other communities around the world.  

Republicans are expert whiners, knowing just how to pitch their voice and select their words to try to focus people’s attention on a group or issue they don’t like.  They claim they are doing god’s work or at least “righteous” work; it isn’t.  Then the whining continues as they wheedle compliance from their friends, families, supporters, leadership, and rich donors.  Instead of being the member of Congress or senator for all the people in one’s district or state, Republicans who are elected get away with serving only those who either voted for them or share their religious values, if they do anything to help anyone.

What David Brooks and his partners in this article fail to see is that conservatives today (as in the past) have very little to offer anyone as far as an honest platform is concerned.  They don’t want to pass laws to help anyone but themselves and their donors.  Tax breaks for the rich work so very well; don’t help people who are poor, or workers who are regularly exploited and underpaid.  They won’t affirm our right to:  read what we want, control our own bodies, attend quality public schools available to everyone, vote in every election if we are an American citizen 18 years of age and older, have health care that is affordable and decent, to receive the Social Security and Medicare we paid into during our work lives, and more.  These are under nearly constant attack from the right-wing pseudo-christians who whine constantly about how continuing these costly programs will break our economy and our nation’s budget.  They forget to mention the military’s super budget.  Of course!  So, those conservatives whine about a community LGBTQ service group mocking religion.  It is a nothing issue because they and their whining don’t effectively address our real challenges.

Republicans, you know, the white ones, whine without evidence, that they are the ones being denied their rights, and that they value “law and order.”  To prove it, they are OK with dumping people in jail for possessing small amounts of drugs, prostitution, letting their middle-school kids play in the park without constant adult supervision, firing a gun at the ceiling to startle and stop a physical abuser, protesting a police training center designed to militarize police more than they already are, and so much more as they fill the private for-profit  prisons with as many people of color as they can.

On the other hand, those “law and order” Republicans whine that they can’t imagine their cult leader in jail for inciting insurrection, stealing secret documents, trying to perpetrate a coup, witness tampering, trying to get other Republicans to cheat to overturn an election, rape, bribery, and more.  They whine, “It isn’t fair!  Democrats are making this a political issue.”  Republicans see their Donnie above the rest, and not a criminal like those other guys, the ones who deserve to be in prison.  That does not make it true.

So, let’s see if I have this right:

• - possessing a small amount of marijuana, jail, inciting a coup attempt, no problem.
• - prostitution by choice, bad, inciting insurrection, OK
• - getting an abortion or helping someone to get one, murder, bribing public officials, necessary.
• - protecting one’s Black family by having a gun around, bad, lying to protect yourself, good
• - stealing a small nearly worthless item from a store, jail, stealing top secret documents, acceptable!
• - mocking religion while doing quality community service, bad, forcing people to bow to someone else’s personal religious beliefs, holy.

It has been said that it is by their works that they are known, including their willingness to cheat, their proficiency at lying, and how well they whine about how put upon they are, while  “putting upon” everyone else.  If folks were paying attention they’d see that if conservatives and MAGAs are going to whine so much, they should have a legitimate cause, just as parents tell their whiny toddlers.  They don’t!

I say, “you go Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence!  Keep doing your good works and ignore the whining!  And LA Dodgers, better late than never, keep honoring the groups in your city who are actually doing the work of making life better no matter how outrageous they appear.”  Doing just what is expected does not get people to appreciate our diversity.  It puts people in the box that makes the white establishment comfortable.   What does that get us:  a lot of whining child-leaders like Trump, DeSantis, and their emotional clones who care about no one and nothing that does not keep them comfy.  As the Dodgers and Angels have shown us, we can do better.