The Republicans have gotten No-Go Zone Fever; they can’t shake it. But it’s like watching take off a meme about the moon being made of poisonous cheese that’s going to fall on our heads. It’s so obviously absurd.
And then I think of Fox News’ Mexicans sneaking across the border with their anuses stuffed with drugs a few years back, and then it became explosives in their anuses, and then came ISIL and Ebola, and then ISIL and Ebola working together and Mexicans sneaking across the border with Ebola, and before that, it was Benghazi.
For six years we have listened to Republicans invent a fake and increasingly bizarre reality from which to attack our first black president. They complain about no-go zones, but they seem determined to turn America into a no-go zone. A no-go zone for people who disagree with the invented reality they want to impose not only on us, as American citizens, but on the world.
Their reaction to President Obama’s SOTU the other night had an air of the unreal about it, with John Boehner blaming Obama of all people for income inequality, and Ted Cruz complaining to Megyn Kelly, “he just doubled down on the same failed policies of the last six years, more and more taxes and spending and death…”
Failed policies? Where has he been? Not with the rest of us, apparently.
What they are creating is a no-go zone for facts, like passing legislation (H.R. 1422) that would prevent scientists from advising the EPA in areas where they have expertise. You know, like climate scientists. Because the facts are not helpful to Republicans and their corporate owners, they want to replace actual scientists with industry “experts” who know a lot about how to extract oil or natural gas but nothing at all about the climate or environment (and who could care less).
Or H.R. 4435, which, because Republicans don’t like the Pentagon dealing with the reality of global warming and its threat to national security, as ThinkProgress explained, “forces the Defense Department to ignore the findings and recommendations of the National Climate Assessment and the IPCC’s latest climate assessment, specifically with regard to the national security impacts of climate change.”
“You can’t change facts by ignoring them,” said Mike Breen, Executive Director of the Truman National Security Project, and leader of the clean energy campaign, Operation Free. “This is like trying to lose 20 pounds by smashing your bathroom scale.”
But that is exactly what Republicans think they can do. They ignored them or legislated them out of existence under Bush, and they are more than willing to do it again under Obama.
Just look at some of the other absurdities they want us to accept:
If all of this has a sense of the unreal, it is because it is all based on fantasy. Even post-SOTU Republican fact-checking involved simply inventing facts to pit against the claims made by the President. And that’s not how it works. Fact checking, by definition, is checking claims against actual facts. Otherwise, the process is meaningless.
The ultimate effect of this is that America will become the ultimate no-go zone, a place where reality – the scientific underpinnings of our universe included – is not welcome. Now it’s all fine and dandy to indulge in fantasy, but there comes a time you have to turn off the video game and get back to work. It’s one thing to remind our kids that their video game isn’t reality, but our kids aren’t running our families. That’s what adults are for.
Do you see the problem? Republicans want to replace the laws of physics and say, “This is how reality works now” but you can’t legislate reality out of existence. We shouldn’t have to remind the guys who are supposed to be running the country that none of that stuff they’re saying is actually true. That it’s all a fantasy. An America they would like to have. Not an America that is. That the sea levels are going to continue to rise whether scientists are allowed to talk about it or not.
Feel like you’re trapped in a nightmare yet? You should.
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