It’s so weird—Independence Day here and I’m feeling uncharacteristically meh about it. From the flag-waving antics of the Gravy SEALS crowd to the Christofascist majority on the Supreme Court cutting a swathe the size of Olduvai Gorge through the Constitution, I’m finding it hard to feel…celebratory this year.
For one thing, the
ProudBoysOathKeepersMomsforLiberty set has so thoroughly co-opted the flag that
every time I see it I think, “What fresh fuckery is going on now?” And I’m
sorry about that.
I do believe
that the ProudBoysOathKeepersMomsforLiberty set will die off—possibly from a
combination of their congenital bile, unvaccinated status, appalling diet and
heavy smoking. Not soon enough, but it’ll happen.
I’m also
heartened that numbers of people claiming to be members of Christian sects are
diminishing—primarily because these Bible-thumping ignoramuses have distorted
the teachings of the Nazarene beyond recognition. I rather hope that, when
they, too, die off, there’s some kind of “nooo, you kinda missed the point”
announcement as they head to their well-earned eternal rest.
SCOTUS,
now—damn. If the Founding Fathers could see those six venal and morally corrupt
bastards, it would incinerate their powdered wigs. “Wait—we had to make
provision for ethical standards for jurists? Because men [this was the
Eighteenth Century, after all] who devoted their lives to the law might pervert
it through bribery and ideology? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Yeah, Jay,
Hamilton and Madison. While we’re on the subject, let me tell you about the
Federalist Society. Your eyebrows will join your wigs.
On the plus
side, there will be no display of military might on the National Mall this year.
I can’t believe that’s a thing I even have to say. And the sitting president
will not, under any circumstances, hold the nominating convention for his
political party at the White House next summer. There’s that. But it’s weak
sauce for celebration.
In past years, I’ve
delved into the principles of the Founders—life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. This time, I’m just not feeling it. Those words seem hollow right
now. So I’m going to go back not to 1776, but to 1968, when Martin Luther King,
Jr., spoke at the National Cathedral.
“The arc of the
moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
We are not there
yet. But I believe that we will arrive and all the mouth-foaming attempts to
subvert it by the racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, terrified bigots
will, in the end, fail.
And I’ll bloody
well drink to that.
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