OCTOBER 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, Sen Tim Scott (R-SC) says “Abortion is not the way to help single Black mothers.” First, can he get any more patronizing? Some guy, who has never had to worry about an unwanted pregnancy, swans into the room and tells women he knows what’s best for them. Second, how does removing a constitutional right benefit the person who loses it? Let’s look at his reasoning.

Scott starts with a hagiography of his mother, saying she worked 64 hours a week to raise Scott and his brother and to “keep food on the table and the lights on”. It makes you wonder where he stands on the minimum wage — spoiler alert, he is against raising it.

I am glad for Scott that he was able to benefit from the American dream — elevating himself from poverty to the US Senate in one generation. But anecdotes are not evidence. And children are not the best judges of the trials and tribulations of their parents, who usually put the best spin on difficult circumstances for their kids.

Next, Scott reports on remarks made by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen. According to him, she said,

“I believe that eliminating the right of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy.” She went on to say how abortion affects “particularly low-income and often Black” mothers and how a lack of access to abortion “deprives them of the ability often to continue their education to later participate in the workforce.”

Scott was horrified. He asked,

“Was Yellen making the case for how abortion is good for America’s labor force?”

No, she was not. She clearly said that lack of choice hurts women because it could deny them educational and professional opportunities. But Scott chose not to hear Yellen’s respect for individual rights. Instead, he created a strawman argument — misrepresenting what Yellen said to criticize an argument she did not make.

Next, Scott goes on to write.

If abortion is our first and “best” answer to ensure that women and low-income families can thrive economically, the United States has reached one of its darkest times in our history.

Where is anyone saying that abortion is the “first and best answer”? Yellen was talking about choice because it is on everyone’s mind due to Alito’s rights-stripping, Roe-overturning opinion. Ask a liberal what will help “women and low-income families thrive economically” and they will talk about childcare, universal pre-K, parental leave, affordable higher education, and increasing the minimum wage. Scott supports none of that.

The hard truth is that the Supreme Court’s Roe-overturning decision takes away a right that American women of all backgrounds have been entitled to for 49 years. And they do not need a man, of any background, explaining how that is good for them. 

2. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. The despicable Johnson can pack more lies, prevarication, and voodoo economics into 40 seconds than nearly any other politician. He is worse than Greene, Boebert, Gosar, and the rest of that barking crowd, because they sound insane. Unless you are a MAGA cultist, it is easy to spot that they are un-moored from reason and in love with lying. But Johnson can speak in complete sentences and does not project the grinding stupidity that forms his core.

If you were a stranger to American politics, his avuncular mien and grating Midwestern monotone might convince you that Johnson is an honest man who knows what he is talking about. But anyone, who knows the Wisconsin Senator celebrated American Independence with Russian authorities in Moscow, knows Ron is as dumb as a rock, incapable of an original idea or telling the truth.

For proof, I present Johnson's remarks this month in his debate with Democratic candidate Mandela Barnes. Specifically, his contention that capitalists should determine working conditions. Or, as historians refer to it, the good old days of sweatshops, 12-hour workdays, six-day work weeks, poverty wages, child labor, and unsafe and oppressive workplaces.

He did not say those words. And he likely has no idea that if you rolled out his philosophy of laissez-faire corporatism on the minimum wage, it is a straight line to the work conditions of yesteryear. But the robber barons of the economy — Koch, Bezos, Thiel, et. al. — are nodding their approval.   

Let us parse what he said. He starts with a deception that falls short of an outright lie through his use of “can”.

“When you increase the minimum wage, you can also eliminate jobs.”

In the real world, predictions that raising the minimum wage leads to job decimation has no basis in fact; quite the contrary. Employees with a living wage tend to be more loyal to their place of work and more productive. Employers have realized that less turnover and a motivated workforce save money in the long run.

Johnson next offers an unsupported opinion.

“So, I think a strong economy is the best approach to this thing.”

Employers and employees can both agree on the benefits of a strong economy, but Johnson has the cart before the horse. The American economy relies on consumers spending more. If you give the rich more money, they will buy stocks. If you give corporations more money, they will do stock buy-backs. Neither adds a cent to GDP.

However, if you give someone living paycheck to paycheck more money, they tend to spend it. Or pay down credit cards that they will then use to buy things. It is not rocket science.

Johnson then offers a piece of philosophy that has nothing to do with economics.

“I really don’t like the federal government getting involved in doing price-fixing or anything like that, that includes wages.”

And this is the crux of the matter. Small government is a conservative mantra. But taken to its logical conclusion, it returns the economy to pirate capitalism. Removing the government from the marketplace creates the industrial conditions described above. And that will depress wages for many.

Compare the average take-home for workers in pro-union states against those in the Orwellian named “right to work” states. And then look at where payday loan companies are most prevalent — which I will warrant is where they also charge the most exorbitant interest rates.

Johnson then goes into full liar mode.

“If you have a strong economy, which we had under the previous administration you had plenty of jobs and you had rising wages, I think something like $2,000 to $4000 a year is what the average family increased their wage by.”

First, was the Trump economy strong? It never achieved annual GDP growth of even 3%. And his last year was a disaster. I will grant you that no President could have stopped the economic devastation of COVID — although Trump’s determination not to take it seriously exacerbated the pandemic's effects, not to mention the death toll, but it is a lie to say that the previous administration presided over a strong economy.

Johnson’s claim that the average wage growth was $2,000 — $4,000 is an example of lying with statistics. He uses the mean, which reflects the tax breaks the GOP lavished on the ultra-rich. Instead, he should use the median. If he did, I suspect the average increase would have been more like $100, if anything.

It is like the old joke — If Elon Musk walks into a room, the average net worth of the people in that room increases by $billions. But try spending it.

Johnson wraps up by reiterating all the bullshit he has already spewed.

“So that’s the best thing, is having the marketplace take care of it rather than the government set the minimum wage. Which then starts eliminating jobs and then of course it doesn’t do you much good if you have a higher minimum wage and you don’t have a job. Then you have a zero wage.”

Bollocks.

A final thought. If AI is our inevitable future, let us use it in political debates. The moderator will wire the candidates to a power source. And every time they lie, AI will spot it in real-time and zap the candidate. The more lies the candidate tells, the stronger the current. Wouldn’t that be something? Imagine the ratings.

3. Kellyanne Conway. Conway, Donald Trump’s favorite former parrot, appeared on Fox News this month to claim the January 6 insurrection “wasn’t that bad.” During the interview, host Howard Kurtz pressed Conway on her ex-boss’ shenanigans in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, the results of which precipitated a nearly two-year-long (and counting) toddler tantrum that has so far led to deaths, serious injuries, and a democracy teetering on the edge of ruin.

Conway, who was apparently less enamored with alternative slates of electors than with alternative facts, tried to excuse Trump’s heartfelt decision to fuck American democracy in the ear with Vladimir Putin’s Cheeto-redolent genitals by claiming he occasionally talks about things other than his wild election-fraud fever dreams.

Here’s part of her exchange with Kurtz:

KURTZ: “In contrast to President Biden, there’s a lot of media attention, as there always is, on Donald Trump. Not just on the DOJ documents investigation, but the way he pounds away at a stolen election. He’s still doing it. And so I asked you this last time, as one of the few in his inner circle who told your former boss at the time that he lost the election fairly, is this all—amplified by the media to be sure—a distraction for Republicans?”

CONWAY: “Well, I disagree, though, with your premise. I think it’s actually lessened over time. If you listen to what he says at his rallies, if you listen to the wonderful policy speech he gave at America First Policy Institute … two months ago here in Washington when he returned for the first time since he left as president. That speech, it took him about one hour and one minute to talk about the 2020 election, Howie.”

So, his election lies have “lessened,” huh? Gee, it’s been hours since Donald Trump tried to murder democracy. Maybe he’s seen the error of his ways. Oh, no. Now he’s peeling Mitch McConnell’s face off with the lid of a Spam can. Time to tweak those talking points again. Sigh.

It’s bizarre that anyone still defends this quaggy sack of rancid llama balls, and it’s particularly worrisome when people who presumably know better try to downplay his clear intention to end American democracy. Does Kellyanne really want a Russian asset and known despoiler of democracy back in the White House?

Apparently so. And, sadly, she’s far from alone.

___________________________

And the October winner is:

For the final time, because he will enter the Phronesis Hall-of-Shame in December, I must give the October IGGY to the not-so-quick-and-agile Ron Johnson. As I write this, let’s hope he loses his election next week.