The AZGOP’s Absurd Censure of Cindy McCain

The AZGOP has proposed, but not yet passed (due to a rules violation by the floor motion), a draft censure of Cindy McCain. If it could have been passed by acclimation on the floor, it would have, and they will still be back to pass it on January 23rd.

If that motion had simply read — “Whereas: Cindy McCain supported our opponent in the Presidential race. Therefore, we don’t want anything further to do with her. Further, we hate her and she’s stupid and she smells like flat beer.”  — I would have nothing to say about it.

We have a First Amendment right in this country to freedom of association. The AZGOP can like or dislike, associate or disassociate with anyone they damn-well please, and I couldn’t possibly care any less.

But they just had to go and say a bunch of deeply absurd, stupid, and offensive things.

So, I think something needs to be said about it.

The first paragraph of the draft censure resolution, according to the newspaper, reads:

“WHEREAS, Cindy Hensley McCain, the wife of the late Arizona US Senator John McCain, has supported leftist causes such as gay marriage, growth of the administrative state, and others that run counter to Republican values, a Republican form of government, and the US Constitution;”

OK. Hold up. They are alleging here that her supporting ‘leftist causes’ like ‘gay marriage’ and the ‘growth of the administrative state’ (vague much?) runs counter to the US Constitution?

I know it’s just sententious, run-on non-sense to make it seem more principled than it actually is, but really? Republicans now violate the US Constitution when they support things that violate the party’s current party line? No wonder there are armed seditionist wing nuts in the street claiming their opinion trumps our Constitution, given that this is the rhetoric they deploy amongst themselves.

They repeat this rhetorical idiocy of wrapping their ideology in our Constitution in the third paragraph:

“WHEREAS, Cindy McCain has supported globalist policies and candidates, including Democrats such as Joe Biden, in direct opposition to Republican values, the interests of the American people, and the Constitution of the United States;”

Now the widow McCain is ‘in direct opposition’ to the “Constitution of the United States” because she supported some policies and candidates the AZGOP didn’t like? Get a grip, AZGOP.

They do actually get to the heart of the matter in paragraph two:

WHEREAS, Cindy McCain has failed to support Conservative Republican candidates such as President Trump;

But even here, which should be as easy as Dick Cheney shooting someone in the face, they can’t shoot straight. She failed to support “Conservative Republican candidates such as” Trump?

In what universe is Donald Trump a conservative of any sort? Only in his lies and contortions designed to appeal nakedly, and in opposition to his entire prior life, to the mindless right-wing and Christo-facsist masses who assume that if you claim (no matter how incredibly…) you are anti-abortion, that’s enough to qualify as a ‘conservative’.

Cindy McCain is objectively far more of a conservative Republican than Trump could ever be.

In paragraph four, they get get even weirder:

“WHEREAS, Cindy McCain has condemned President Trump for his criticism of her husband and erroneously placed behaviors over actual presidential results; and”

I used to think that Republicans at least actually believed it when they would proclaim, “Character matters.” The last 5 years have proven definitively that not to be the case.

Now the AZGOP are censuring Senator McCain’s widow because she actually believed it. As tortured as the syntax may be, clearly, ‘erroneously placed behaviors (presumably, Trump’s terrible sort…) over actual presidential results’ (like calling for a coup, I suppose…) criticizes Cindy for daring to think that Trump’s actual behavior should influence one’s opinion and political support of a man. Really! I couldn’t make this up! If I tried to write the most sophomoric, self-parodying censure motion possible, I would not have touched the sublime idiocy of this paragraph.

As for Trump’s extremely euphemized ‘criticism’ of her husband: calling someone names and questioning the valor of their service to country is not ‘criticism’, it’s juvenile, vile, and contemptible calumny, which I feel quite sure would have gotten Trump killed in a duel with Senator McCain in an earlier era of American history.

I believe one can fairly infer a person’s character from the their speech and treatment of others. So do most non-sociopathic human beings. By that standard, Trump is a school yard bully and contemptible coward.

The AZGOP’s censure of Cindy McCain demonstrates their monstrous arrogance (equating disagreement with your views with a violation of the Constitution should qualify as arrogant…), and their utter abandonment of personal responsibility, leadership and character as political qualifications (don’t judge a man by what he does or says, only by his transparent lies and the policies he cynically advocates…).

The AZGOP stands for nothing. Believes nothing. Values nothing. Will stop at nothing.

They are no longer even a political party; they are merely a cult of personality and handmaiden to the bloated and ugly ego of Donald Trump.

The AZGOP’s vendetta against anyone who dares criticize Trump, or fails to bend the knee to Trump, is embarrassing and injurious to Arizona. But embarrassing and injuring Arizona is nothing new to the AZGOP.