The epiphany

Elise Stefanik's incredulous statements in response to the opening day of testimony during the House select committee's investigation of the criminal events of January 6 don't deserve a reaction. 

As we see her and her colleagues twisting uncomfortably under the supposed magnifying glass of plain sight, we should all understand what’s happening. Namely deflection.

Victim blaming is nothing new. But transferring blame with such cognitive dissonance has become the ultra-conservative power play that, up until recently, has worked in their favor. 

Try to bring your mind back to all those “Pelosi” flags waving as the Stop the Steal Tourists erected gallows, broke windows, dragged police officers, and hunted down certain members of Congress who were proponents of counting votes. 

Stefanik is on stage playing a part that has been lucrative for her. The telegraphing taunts make for good headlines and blood pressure-raising retorts by a plethora of pundits, but the only purpose they serve should be deeply disturbing to us all. 

I'd caution that her sophomoric provocations directed at Democrats -- which seem slapped together with the same spittle and mud favored by the bloated, candy-floss coiffed talking head she turned by carrying bucketloads of his fetid water -- are nothing more than theater. 

But our nation seems immovably transfixed by this Debauchery Show whether it plays live or in syndication.

Little by little, trained as we are to chant along with the refrain, too many of us would sell our souls for the click counts. 

We all watched into the night as she came back from an office bunker after riding out an attempted insurrection and stood up to loudly and proudly continue pushing a bad-faith case for the subverting of our democracy.

And with this slime, she was anointed.

Stefanik soon replaced Liz Cheney as chair of the House Republican Conference after Cheney upset the applecart by voting to impeach the party's golden goose.

She knows this script as well as anyone. Deny and deflect. Take the inconvenient burden of guilt and toilet paper the nation's house with it. People will always be willing to blame the occupants for scrimping on the candy. 

I could rant forever about Stefanik and those like her whose public disservice is gerrymandered into seemingly infinite revolving terms. 

But I won't.

For far too long we have been blinded by our own brutality and acceptance of inequality because of the thin layer of politeness on the surface.

And that politeness, now stripped away, shows the ugly truth we need to address.

Stefanik represents a problem that can only be solved when the rest of us become better citizens. We the People have to demand more than this particular dog and pony show from those we elect as our representatives. We have to demand decency, accountability, and the seeking of fact and truth before it’s too late. Our leaders, the people we entrust with power, have to be more principled because when they aren't, as we can plainly see, the laws are rarely applied. 


It's time we recognize the game and refuse to play it with folks whose only strategy is to upend the table.