Can our lawmakers heal instead of pandering to to hate?
Jeffrey Denny
Seeing the U.S. Capitol during Joe Biden’s inauguration, cleaned up and safeguarded after the Trump insurrection mob attack and destruction, took me back to the Congress I was privileged to witness first-hand too long ago.
As a cockeyed Midwestern optimist, I hope the lesson from both the insurrection and inauguration is that Biden-style bipartisan cooperation can trump Pyrrhic political combat.
Looking back to my personal experience with Congress, I believe the Biden healing is possible. Here’s why:
My first encounter with Congress was when I arrived in DC in the mid-1980s to be the “Washington correspondent” for an unknown and later defunct magazine covering the Pentagon. …
For those seeking absolution whether real or expedient
Jeffrey Denny
Major American corporations have pledged to stop making campaign contributions to the 147 GOP members of Congress who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College win.
To reopen the spigots, Sedition Caucus members might consider apologizing for aiding and abetting the Trump insurrection, destruction, deaths and historic desecration of our Capitol, Constitution and democracy.
As a speechwriter by trade and heroically selfless person by nature, I want to help.
So let me offer a draft floor statement for Congressional Hall of Shame members who may wish appear remorseful, aka, they’re worried about losing PAC money:
Madam Speaker, my dear leader, I ask on bended knee in all supplication for unanimous consent to address the House and to revise and extend my remarks. …
Arguing with die-hard Trumpers is a fool’s errand
Jeffrey Denny
“Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” –Alice, “Alice in Wonderland,” Lewis Carroll.
“I believe, I believe/I believe in wishing wells/But I also believe in a lot of things…” –Frank Sinatra, lyrics by Ervin Drake.
“I believe he won the election.” –Trump supporter “Patriot Barbie,” who joined the Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol, as she told to The Washington Post.
I admire true believers, whether pious, political or parental no matter how many crimes their children commit.
True love is grounded in belief, as well expressed by the mid-20th century philosopher Neil Diamond and popularized by The Monkees: “Then I saw her face, now I’m a believer. …
So what if Trump incited an attack on our Capitol? What about the AOC Democrat Socialist Antifa?
Jeffrey Denny
Lunch conversation with a Republican friend three days after the Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol:
Me: I was following the Biden certification vote on CNN out of the corner of my eye when I saw the invasion. I was stunned. I have never seen anything like this.
Republican friend: What about Seattle?
Me: Seattle?! This was a violent mob invading the U.S. Capitol because the president told them to!
Republican friend: It’s a building.
Me: [dumbstruck; is he serious or just messing with me? Or having it both ways?]
My Republican friend is no angry violent Confederate flag-waving Proud Boy, Boogaloo Boi or other MAGA extremist rebel anarchist without a cause or clue. …
Defense of sedition is sedition
Jeffrey Denny
No offense to anyone, but I tried, and I tried, and I tried, and I tried, but I can no longer try to respect the political perspective of anyone who ever supported Trump.
Or even worse, still does.
Not after January 6, 2021, when violent pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol at his incitement for seditious insurrection.
Many Americans who care about America worried this day would come — though we never imagined how bad — when on June 16, 2015, Trump regally descended his golden escalator to announce his run for president.
We suspected this during the 2016 GOP and Hillary Clinton debates when Trump sneered, jeered and smeared, thrilling people who love a nasty smack-down over boring policy issues that matter to most Americans. …
No downside for the Trump-craven
Jeffrey Denny
Merriam-Webster’s 2020 Word of the Year is “pandemic” for obvious reasons.
For 2021, I nominate “performative.”
Used disapprovingly, performative means “made or done for show (as to bolster one’s own image or make a positive impression on others),” Merriam-Webster says.
That’s how America began this uniquely hopeful New Year: With the most daring political performative act against America in modern history.
You know:
A group of House and Senate Republicans rejected the clear, recounted, certified and legally upheld 2020 election results and Joe Biden’s overwhelming victory. All in cowardly fealty to sore loser Donald Trump.
“YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS! YOU ARE THE PITS OF THE WORLD!” Trump, Trumpers and Trump-craven politicians screamed at Republican electors, state legislators and Trump judges like John McEnroe disputing a line call as an emotionally immature lad. …
An open letter from Duck Defenders.org
Jeffrey Denny
Dear friends:
We know you love ducks as much as we do — either quacking back at them at the park, slaughtering them for sport, floating little rubber ones in the bathtub, or dining on them à l’orange.
So it has come to our attention at Duck Defenders that the outgoing President of the United States, Donald Trump, is being referred to as a “lame duck.”
On behalf of our board of directors, management and staff, and millions of duck-lovers across North America, we want to express our concern about the emotional harm this offensive term — especially in association with this particular outgoing president — is causing to ducks, whether they be with or without disability. …
Enjoy your Covid vaccines, everyone else
Jeffrey Denny
Forget the Proud Boys and shameless Republicans who are fighting President Trump’s humiliating defeat:
The real political battle of 2021 has begun with arguing about who should get a Covid vaccine first and next and next and then next.
To keep the Covid vaccine peace, President Biden might have to declare “Marshall Law,” which is what MAGAs call martial law that they hope Trump will declare to reject the election and enforce his authoritarian rule. Like a Socialist dictator.
I myself won’t be rushing the line for a Covid vaccine. I’ll resist brutally trampling the weak or ailing like a gentleman demanding a lifeboat on the Titanic or amid the old Black Friday frenzy when doors opened at Walmart. …
There’s no room for you in Washington, DC
Jeffrey Denny
MEMORANDUM
To: Whoever admits to leading the Proud Boys
From: A longtime Washington, DC, citizen
Re: Your planned January 6, 2021, rally for Trump
As you know, Washington, DC, is a uniquely hospitable city.
We welcome all visitors from across America and the world.
Our hospitality — hotels, restaurants, monuments, museums and so many sights to see — strives to be second to none.
But to be hospitable to all comers, as I hope you would acknowledge and respect, we need to draw the line between good and bad visitors, as the few bad can drive out the greater good. …
What could be worse than 2020?
Jeffrey Denny
Many political pundits are like the worst American president ever: They refuse to admit when they’re wrong.
I will. This is what makes me morally superior to media bloviators that make money declaiming with false certainty and pathological karma-daring.
In that light, to honor the late great Washington Post columnist David Broder and his classic year-end “annual accounting of errors and misjudgments,” I offer a look-back at my look-ahead to 2020 and admit where I blew it, before I prognosticate for 2021:
· Upon the 2019 year-end holiday season, I wished everyone “the happiest, healthiest 2020!” …
