National overview
Josh Hawley calls you stupid
Are you a Republican voter? Are you planning to run in the 2024 presidential election? If your answer to these first two questions is “yes,” I have a third: Are you not angry? Josh Hawley, the skinny and hungry lawmaker who helped incite an attack on his own workplace, says almost daily that a majority of Republicans are stupid. Make no mistake: the Missouri senator is guilty of far more than being ominous or misleading to occasionally appeal to ‘the base’. Your perceived ignorance and gullibility are the driving forces behind every step. The latest insult took place Thursday, just a day after a conspiracy theory not only boosted but was also acted upon by Hawley – a graduate of Yale Law School who did not believe for a moment that the election by the Democrats was stolen, or that it could have been stolen by Republicans in Congress during the certification process – led to an attack on the U.S. Capitol building. But for Josh Hawley, the biggest tragedy of the past week is not that there has been a failed uprising by the President of the United States. It’s that Simon & Schuster, the former publisher of Hawley’s forthcoming book, The Tyranny of Big Tech (Big Tech is another case where Hawley accepts your ignorance), has announced that it will not continue with the project. Here was Hawley’s answer:> It can no longer be Orwellies. Simon & Schuster cancel my contract because I represented my constituents, and lead a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they now decide to redefine as a definition. Let me be clear, this is not just a contract dispute. This is a direct assault on the first amendment. Only approved speech can now be published. These are leftists who want to cancel everyone they do not approve of. I will fight this canceled culture with everything I have. We’ll see you in court. If it’s a constitutional claim Hawley wants to make in court, he can expect to have about as much luck as the Trump campaign has had in recent months. Simon & Schuster’s decision is not Orwellian or a violation of the First Amendment, much less a ‘direct assault’ on it. The government does not restrict Hawley’s speech. He is free to find a publisher who is willing to associate with him. I believe Simon & Schuster should not have canceled this contract, because America is better off if its institutions follow the spirit and not just the letter of the First Amendment. But the company is under no constitutional obligation to associate with Hawley. I can certainly understand why it does not want to after the events of Wednesday. The purpose of Hawley’s statement is obvious: to take this personal event, which took place as a direct result of his own behavior, and to make Republicans feel like it was a personal attack on them and their beliefs. It was not. But remember: Hawley’s political fate is linked to a bet that voters will not think clearly. A bet he wants to do everything he can after still objecting to the certification of the election by Congress, even after the assault on the Capitol. The most treacherous idea of Hawley’s assumption is that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When conservative officials like Hawley and the disgraced Ted Cruz – leaders we are supposed to be able to trust – spread conspiracy theories, indicating to voters that these theories are or may be true. Conspiracy theories are natural, and the laymen’s belief in them does not automatically make them stupid. We all have a busy life, and most Americans cannot spend every waking moment keeping abreast of every political event. They rely on officials of their own ideological tendency to tell them the truth. When those officials lie for perceived political advantage, it has consequences. Consequences are made more serious by motivated reasoning and a tendency to believe the worst of ‘the enemy’. Consequences that are sometimes even bloody. Many nowadays, especially by Senator Hawley, are made up of ‘the elites’ and their perceived contempt for ordinary Americans. Senator Mitt Romney has been hailed as an elite for years, and especially since Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination in 2016. But Romney spoke much more wisely about it than Hawley on Wednesday: “The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is to tell them the truth!” Indeed. The older you get, the more life facts your parents allow you. It starts with Santa, and from there it just gets more depressing. I then have another question. Which is more condescending and shameful: truth or deceit?