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GOP Representative claims Obama and a cabal of 'unelected elitists' are probably running the country [1]
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Date: 2022-10-27
On Wednesday, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told Real America’s Voice, a QAnon-promoting, right-wing propaganda outlet, that he knew who was really running America. Or, more precisely, he knew what was running America and suspected he knew who its leaders were. Confused? So is Ralph Norman.
I will let him explain his thinking.
“The whole administration is a rogue administration and I guess we all know Joe Biden is not running this country. There is a cabal of unelected elitists who are running this country. Probably Barack Obama is involved. Probably [former Attorney General] Eric Holder and… but who knows? We know it’s not Biden.”
Ralph needs to roll up his sleeves and work to flesh out the details of his assertion and achieve some certainty. If he is correct about this “cabal of unelected elitists” then the good people of South Carolina’s 5th congressional district, and indeed patriots from sea to shining sea, should be protected from this unconstitutional usurpation of executive authority from the rightly elected by this ungodly camarilla of despotic liberals.
Only he cannot. Because this cabal exists only in his paranoia. He is like the rest of the tinfoil-hatted droolers — obsessed with fantasy, unmoored from reality, and convinced that social media conspiracy theories are the truth beyond all questioning.
With that in mind, let us parse his thinking. We can start with “The whole administration is “a rogue administration”. What does he mean by “rogue”? Does he mean it is illegitimate? The Supreme Court — with its 6-3 conservative majority — does not see it that way. They swatted away all laws suits challenging the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
Does he mean that Biden is acting illegally? Again the Supreme Court disagrees. For example, it signed off on Biden’s cancellation of Trump’s inhumane “remain in Mexico” immigration policy.
Does it even matter? If Joe Biden, head of this rogue administration, is not running the country what difference does it make what the administration is doing?
Next, “I guess we all know” is an odd hedge. If you guess something, you admit you do not know the facts. If you guess “we all know” then all you offer is merely your best estimate. And it allows equally for “we all do not know”.
Let us look at Norman’s claim that “a cabal of elitists is running the country.” How are they doing it? What is the mechanism of their perfidy? By which agency are they exercising their power? Norman does not tell us. Perhaps it slipped his mind? Of course, it did not. He has no examples. And he knows he does not need any because politics is not the law. And claims, no matter how extraordinary, require no evidence in the court of public opinion.
Take, for example, the claim that the 2020 election was rigged, fixed, and stolen. Two-thirds of Republicans now take that as gospel. But legally, it is a lead balloon. An armada of lawyers fired volleys of cases in courts across America. And the courts changed no vote and uncovered no crime. In fact, because of the penalty for perjury, this motley mass of mouthpieces did not even claim that any election official or outside agency had committed election fraud.
But the MAGA base swatted that failure away because it disagreed with what they desperately needed to believe. No cult can have its godhead revealed as a clay-footed loser. It is like a small child who cannot imagine that a parent is wrong. But children, unlike cultists, grow up. Some develop critical thinking and accept the world as it is, not what they want it to be. The others become Republicans.
Norman solidifies his reputation for wishy-washy thinking with a quavering stab at the powers behind the putsch. “Probably Barack Obama is involved” is a weasel statement. If you have no evidence, be like Joe McCarthy.
"The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."
He is promoting a lie. But he has a list — right there in his hand — containing precisely 205 names of people the Secretary knows are Communists but still allows to shape policy. That is how you do it. If you live by fake claims, then back them up with fake facts.
The right wing makes hay with unsupported claims. Take their assertion that the Founders created a new nation on Judeo/Christian principles. The liberal response is usually, “no they didn't.” I think the better strategy would be to ask what they mean by Judeo/Christian values and explain how they differ from Hindu, Shinto, or any other religion's values. In reality, “Judeo/Christian values” is a euphemism for homophobia, sexism, and xenophobia. But it sounds better than claiming you believe America was born in prejudice and the Founders intended it to be a bigoted country.
Lastly, how does Norman think Obama — or “who knows” — is running the country? What is their modus operandi? Norman does not suggest a method. In Dr. Stragelove, General Jack D. Ripper was a paranoid nutter. But at least he had a theory on how the communists planned to take over the planet. He warned of an “international conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.” Norman cannot even achieve that low level of lunacy.
On the other hand, when a liberal accuses the GOP of subversion and a power grab, they provide examples of the method used. Take the Democratic claim Republicans are fixing elections. They support their assertion with examples of gerrymandering, restrictive voting laws, reduction in poll stations and early voting, a crackdown on mail voting, and armed “poll watchers” scaring the bejesus out of voters at drop boxes.
Unlike the Republicans, and their complete legal failure to prove anyone fixed the 2022 election, Democrats can point to Courts that have tossed out Republican redistricting maps. The evidence is extensive. And because they have enumerated it, those who think otherwise have something to negate.
But Norman provides nothing. Luckily for him, the base needs nothing. As a right-wing fantasist, he can say what he thinks without evidence because his audience believes everything it hears - as long as there is no evidence for it.
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