Artwork by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
We live in perplexing times when an ex-president, presently under indictment for over ninety felony charges, is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. And—even more strangely, when his alleged crimes include (but are not exclusive to) instigating an insurrection against the very government he ruled and seeks to rule again. So, a majority of Republican voters want to elect a president who attempted to destroy their own government. That’s like hiring Ted Bundy to run a dating service.
To call this a paradox is an understatement. The situation reminds me of the landmark novel Catch-22. The “catch” in the title is—if you remember—that any pilot who wanted to continue flying missions over Germany was insane, but the very act of asking to be relieved of these missions established that said person’s sanity and therefore required him to continue flying missions. In other words, one had to be sane to recognize the insanity of a situation, but that very sanity required him to stay in that insane situation.
Today, MAGA Republicans clamor for personal freedoms while standing behind a leader who has openly proclaimed he will be a dictator and—presumably—curtail those very freedoms. MAGAs also cry freedom while continuing to ban books in school libraries, thereby censoring any idea they don’t agree with. The Attorney General of Florida has even stated that she believes public libraries should be reserved for “government speech.” Adherents to the Second Amendment of the Constitution insist that restricting gun access to anyone—and I mean anyone—is a restriction of personal freedom even as firearm deaths have become the leading cause of death for young people in this country.
While holding the Constitution in almost as much reverence—and quoting it as erroneously—as they do the Bible, MAGA Republicans deliberately overlook personal freedoms of others, especially minority populations. Laws have been passed making it illegal to teach certain embarrassing and shameful parts of country’s history because it may cause discomfort to some of our children. Liberty and justice for all stops at their doorsteps, their church doors, or the entrances to their gun shops. MAGA Republicans want to preserve freedoms by denying them—at best a deluded proposition, at worst an insane one.
This wasn’t always true. There was a time, not so long ago, when Republican politicians were as realistic, practical, and reasonable as anyone. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and Bob Dole were paragons of common sense and decency, but today’s MAGA Republicans support destroying our freedoms to preserve them, while insisting they are as rational and logical as anyone. Those who step up and point out the insanity, who expose the idiocy of this “catch” (like Liz Cheney) are scorned and expelled from the party. This is today’s catch: Catch-45.
The catalyst that ignited this phenomenon is former president Donald Trump. No one really took him seriously when he declared his candidacy in 2015. He seemed unqualified, undereducated, misogynistic, juvenile, and, well—gross. He didn’t look or act presidential. He acted like a playground bully, calling the other candidates demeaning names like Crooked Hillary, Little Marco, or Crazy Bernie. He mocked a disabled reporter. He proclaimed he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and still be elected president (a frighteningly prescient statement).
Yet, somehow, this man garnered enough votes to become president and promptly turned his back on those who elected him. His incompetence and apathy allowed COVID to spread across the country. Thousands upon thousands of Americans died, the economy nearly collapsed, and society ground to a halt while our Old ’45 disparaged Dr. Fauci, our leading epidemiologist, and advised citizens to drink bleach. He addressed the immigration issue by building a tiny portion of the border wall he had promised (which immigrants promptly tunneled under). He also managed to milk the Office of the Presidency for all the personal gain he could manage. He encouraged white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys to “stand up and stand by”. He has encouraged his followers through social media to use terror and violence against his political enemies. And finally, after losing his bid for a second term, he allegedly masterminded (to use the term loosely) a series of plots to illegally overturn the election results, resulting in the January 6th Capitol riot, a crime for which he is presently under indictment.
It would be hard to imagine anyone less qualified to lead our nation, but here we are with Catch-45 staring us right in the face. Republicans love a man who hates their country. After everything, the Covid, January 6th, hoarding classified documents in Mar-a-Lago hideout, the profiteering, the nepotism, and the incessant, unceasing lying, he is the front-runner for the Republican Presidential nomination. His people love him. They believe he will make America great again (which begs the question of which America they are looking for) and that he will save them from the horrors of transgender bathrooms, gay families, racial equity, and immigrants seeking the same hopes and freedoms our own ancestors experienced. He says he will save American freedoms, but he can only do it by eliminating these freedoms.
MAGAs also refuse to recognize that Donald Trump is not our president anymore. They seem to forget (or simply refuse to acknowledge) that someone else other than Trump won the 2020 election—someone else who has done a phenomenal job.
President Joe Biden, has passed landmark legislation during his term. He pushed through The American Rescue Plan, which protected middle-class Americans during and after the Covid crisis; passed the huge infrastructure bill to repair the nation’s roads, bridges, and rails (which also provided thousands of jobs); signed a bill to help veterans suffering the effects of burn pits; brought the unemployment rate down to 3.8%, the lowest in years; took steps to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions; ended the war in Afghanistan; and much, much more.
Yet, as of today, President Biden’s approval ratings hover around forty percent. Despite the fact his presidency has done more for middle-class and poor families than any president since Lyndon Johnson, people don’t seem to like him very much. And he’s not a Dick Cheney or a Ron DeSantis. Joe Biden is a likable guy.
Compare this to Donald Trump’s commanding leads in primary polls. Even though he is a caustic influence and inveterate liar, the ex-president has been enjoying double-digit leads for over a year; head-to-head polls between him and Joe Biden show a dead heat. Wanting this man to be president of our country again is simply insane, yet there is a very real danger it may happen.
Until, like the protagonist Yossarian and the other flyers in Catch-22, mainstream Republicans recognize the insanity of following this man down the rabbit hole of his self-proclaimed desire be an American dictator, they will destroy our democracy—probably forever. But they’re afraid to acknowledge it. If Trump is elected to a second term, then it won’t matter if the American people realize their mistake. They, and we, will be caught in this Catch-45. Forever.