If you vote Republican, you have no choice.
Granted, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) isn’t typical even by GOP standards; he’s as incendiary as they come (see story here).
Biggs has two main claims to fame. Remember the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes that sends “Prize Patrols” with balloons and huge checks to lucky winners’ front porches (photo, left)? You have a better chance of being hit by lightning. Well, lightning struck Biggs, and he won $10 million from PCH in 1993.
His other claim to fame is his bomb-throwing approach to politics. To him, the rioters who tried to overthrow our government on Jan. 6, 2021, are mistreated patriots. And, he claimed on a C-Span call-in show on Friday, March 24, 2023, there’s not a seditionist among them.
The Daily Beast reported (here) that Biggs asserted “nobody has been tried and prosecuted for sedition in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, only for a C-SPAN anchor to coolly fact-check his obviously false claim.”
When a caller challenged Biggs by saying, “Trump wants to pardon the traitors that have been convicted of seditious conspiracy? Come on! What the hell’s wrong with you Republicans?!,” Biggs responded, “Not all were convicted of seditious treason. In fact, none were!” That’s wrong. As the C-Span host pointed out, two Proud Boys leaders were convicted last year of seditious conspiracy.
Biggs is extreme, but Republican bullshit is as common as mud. I don’t write an article every time a Republican lies or gets facts wrong. Life is too short. The falsehoods flowing from the GOP are like water in a river; they just keep coming. I’ll sum up the situation this way: Republicans do politics, not governing. They hate government and aren’t interested in governing, nor do they have the temperament or skills to actually run a government.
When someone asks for my vote, I expect certain things in return. I want them to be honest and truthful, yes, but also diligent about getting facts right and developing an accurate understanding of situations, so they can make informed decisions.
When Republicans get elected, they grandstand, and don’t know how to govern. That’s not acceptable. I don’t want climate deniers, vaccine deniers, or election deniers in positions of authority.
We elect people to govern, and effective governing requires rational thinking. It involves, for example, sending troops to Afghanistan instead of Iraq when we’re attacked from terrorist bases in Afghanistan; understanding that if you deregulate airline maintenance and mortgage lending, planes and lenders will crash; and that people who break windows, assault cops, and chant “Death to Mike Pence!” trying to stop the certification of a presidential election are not tourists.
I don’t want my local public health agency run by people who reject science and embrace false conspiracy theories. If you live in a fantasy world, believe nonsense, are a chronic liar, or simply can’t get facts straight, you have no business holding public office.
At this moment in history, Republicans have a truth and fact problem, and until that gets straightened out, you should consider them as unelectable. The problem isn’t just Biggs, it’s the entire party. He doesn’t matter; the larger problem does.