At the risk of beating a dead horse or two, I am going to return to a subject to which I’ve alluded in my two previous posts: the way our local Republican candidates have danced around the question of whether they support Donald Trump. Something I haven’t highlighted is one rather incredible argument they are making: that it really doesn’t matter who is elected president. Here’s what Heather Somers, our local (R-Airhead) Senatorial candidate has to say:
“Umm, well I have to say I think the most important vote that you can make in this election is actually on the state level, because what happens on the state and the local level are where we are most intimately affected and quite frankly in our house I try to say ‘keep the noise of Washington quiet’, because it’s like watching the Kardashians as far as I’m concerned.”
(Transcribed from the audio on the New London Day’s website)
That’s right. Washington is so far away! Nothing that happens there has any real effect on us, so who really cares who the president might be! What really matters is who we elect to the 18th Senatorial District, so really, the think to do is to look the other way and pay no attention to the man behind the teleprompter.
John Scott (R-Conflicted Insurance Agent) attempts to make the same point in a slightly different manner. He tries to get away with arguing that it is entirely irrelevant who he may be voting for, because the president doesn’t run the Connecticut legislature:
Scott suggested the question was unfair, and said, “So I will not directly answer the question but I will say that my position is I’m a Republican, I’m socially liberal and fiscally conservative and I want a smaller government that the taxpayer of this state can afford.
In the two years I served in Hartford, there hasn’t been a day where the president of United State has had a say in day-to-day operations of our government,” he said. “I therefore feel that my endorsement or lack thereof or renouncement or whatever is not important.”
The mind boggles at the awesome amount of intellectual dishonesty loaded into that statement. Is there really any point to unpacking it? There must be a hundred ways, at the very least, that actions in Washington affect the state of Connecticut and the legislative choices state legislators have to make. I mean, John’s first act as a legislator was proposing a bill that would deprive students of federally available medical benefits so they would have to buy insurance from him. Anyway, it’s passing strange that a guy who is applying for a political job from us citizens tells us during his interview that questions about his political opinions are none of our business. This from a guy who ran his first campaign by smearing his opponent’s personal life, which was somehow, I guess, more relevant than John’s political beliefs. And, of course, the reason why John won’t tell is because, contrary to what he says, his “endorsement or lack thereof” is important. Important to him. He needs the cretin vote to win, so he can’t afford to throw it away by putting the interests of the country first.
So, two variations on a theme.
I really feel sort of sorry for Dave Collins, over there at the Day. When he announced his Trump test, I really think he had a sort of touching faith that our local Republicans were somehow different in kind from their national brethren, who have used bigotry since 1968 to harvest votes from the yahoos, all in service to the .01%. You’d think it would be hard to get people to vote against their own interests, but the Republicans have made it look easy for years. Now the yahoos have taken over, and Republicans like Heather and John have no choice but to protect their right flank. If that means disappointing Dave Collins, then so be it.
Colllins probably never imagined that almost every Connecticut Republican asked the question would come up with a way to change the subject, but change it they must, or risk losing the votes of the deplorables upon whom they depend. Now the poor guy is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He either abandons his Trump test, or consigns each and every Republican candidate to eternal damnation. For a shill with sterling Republican bona fides, that’s a tough place to be.
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