“I don’t feel you anymore
You darken my door
Whatever you’re looking for
Hey, don’t come around here no more.”– Tom Petty
One of the most difficult things to explain to social studies students is the difference between actual laws and procedures and what seems like law and procedure. There are some traditions that are so entrenched that they seem like law, but really they are just one asshole away from being a distant memory or a thing of the past.
Grover Cleveland is the only person ever to lose the presidency and then regain it. When you lose you go away. Unfortunately, that’s not the law. It’s just one of those things that everyone understood. At least everyone understood it until now.
Furthermore, political expedience dictated that if you were in the party of the guy that lost the last election, you did everything in your power to convince voters you weren’t that guy (or gal). That’s particularly true if you lost by something like eight million voters. Well, it appears those days are long gone as well.
There appear to be three GOP governors that are throwing their hat in the ring fairly early. All three are falling over themselves to convince people that they are just like the last guy. In parlance, it would be like David Culley (Houston Texans head coach) telling the world on the day he was hired that he wanted to continue what the last coach had done. Worked to the tune of 4-12 for that guy. Let’s do that.
Of course, he’s dodging all kinds of indictments to shove himself back into that discussion. The virus is still raging out of control. The Afghanistan situation quite literally blew up in his face. People are getting used to not hearing about the president everyday. Yet, his former mouthpiece was telling us that there wasn’t a scandal everyday like we have now. You can’t make this stuff up.
Recent polling data suggests he’s gaining on Joe Biden and is within a couple of points of Kamala Harris. It also suggests he’s doing better than any other GOP challenger. I could spend thirty column inches evaluating different data points and come to the same conclusion. It doesn’t make any sense. That’s the only conclusion there is to come to.
The problem is pretty apparent. We have to spend time codifying things we all understood and followed without question before. We never used to go after former politicians in court. It just didn’t make sense. Now, we need to make sure he’s wearing an orange jumpsuit or some people will fail to see what was obvious to most of us.
I really shouldn’t be surprised. If millions couldn’t see he was an absolute jackass for the past four decades then they wouldn’t have seen it over the past five years. Either they see it and don’t care or they are jackasses themselves and have that blind spot. Either way it’s just exhausting and it’s long past time for this jackass to go away.
halloffameindex 