Article by Steve Feinstein in The American Thinker
Our Democrat "Rulers" Can't Be Serious
Tennis great John McEnroe was well known for his mercurial personality and unrestrained outbursts when he felt that a close call wrongly hadn't gone his way. His use of the phrase "you cannot be serious" has become sports lore.
The current-day Democratic Party has pioneered new ground in eliciting McEnroe-like responses. They cannot be serious. That phrase can be taken two ways, and both interpretations would be correct. It could be taken to mean that Democratic governing policies are not serious, responsible approaches to meet the complex and conflicting demands of our multifaceted economy, the challenges of an ever-shifting international landscape, or the real-world requirement to balance the demand for energy and natural resources with the necessity to protect and preserve the environment.
It could also be taken to mean that the Democrats are not serious in their publicly stated beliefs regarding their commitment to their own policies: Democratic stances on everything, from their anti-capitalistic economic positions to over-the-top social wokeness to anti–law enforcement actions to capitulating to international adversaries like Communist China and Iran, are so outrageously harmful to American interests that even the Democrats know they're wrong. They don't seriously believe any of it — they can't. They're just promoting these positions in a blatantly transparent attempt to curry favor with needed voting blocs in future elections. It's a nod-nod, wink-wink of the most insidious and deceitful kind, and the Dems are banking on their target blocs not being hip to the ruse. One can clearly, and no doubt accurately, imagine the Maxine Waterses, Kamala Harrises, and Chuck Schumers of the world sitting in their opulent surroundings, enjoying Dom Périgon jelly doughnuts while sipping 100-year-old brandy, saying to each other, "Well, they bought it again," with a dismissive, condescending smirk.
There are various examples of this from the current Democrat script. Many — most, actually — of their public statements and talking points fall into the "not serious" category, both from the not-seriously-thought-out policy standpoint and the so-outrageous-even-they-don't-believe-it standpoint.
Let's look at a few:
Tlaib's Wish to Eliminate the Police
Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib says she wants to do away with policing in the United States. Following the April encounter between Daunte Wright and police that ended in Wright's shooting, Tlaib said, "I am done with those who condone government-funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can't be reformed."
Tlaib, like all Democrats who call for defunding the police or for more restrictive gun laws and the like, lives in a low-crime, affluent area and enjoys the personal safety benefits of armed security. Unsurprisingly, she is a total hypocrite. Her statements are not serious on any level, not as a matter of public policy and not as they pertain to her. Her utterance is meant as a self-serving, publicity-grabbing instrument, to solidify her voting base and make her required payments to the sympathetic liberal media.
Ed Markey and the Green New Deal
Ed Markey — the 45-year D.C. lifer — could be considered the quintessential liberal NE Democrat politician. He transparently espouses every clichéd liberal Democratic policy position that comes down the pike. He never puts forth any new, thoughtful, genuinely helpful initiatives of his own. (Remember the groundbreaking "Markey Act"? Of course not — it doesn't exist.) His entire political existence is one of self-perpetuation, to live off the public dole. He brazenly resides full-time in a luxurious home in suburban Maryland, maintaining a barely plausible legal mailing address in Massachusetts, just to be able to run for his guaranteed re-election.
As a dynamic, influential, important politician, Markey is meaningless. Empty. Irrelevant. He collects his government dough, lives worry-free, and has the dictionary definition of a "cushy life."
Yet apparently, even empty vessels like Markey occasionally feel the need to attach themselves to something that might convey some visibility and substance onto their otherwise vacant countenances. Hence, Markey is all of a sudden a major proponent of the risible Green New Deal. His own connection to the GND fandango would be utterly humiliating to him if he had the self-awareness to see it. The GND is a fantastical "what-if/if only" environmental pipe dream, conceived of by too-young, completely immature and uneducated political neophytes, without the slightest clue of either economic realities or scientific facts. That some older politicians like Markey — bereft of any other substantive causes that can be credited to them in spite of seemingly endless decades in office — glom onto this movement is astonishingly unserious in every way imaginable. You know that Markey doesn't believe this hooey, not for a nanosecond. He's just trying to appear relevant.
The Harris/Climate Change Illegal Immigration Connection
This one is particularly rich: Kamala Harris, our no-show southern border czar, has staked out the position that somehow climate change is responsible for causing the overwhelming influx of illegal aliens to the south. I won't even attempt to summarize her reasoning, because it is so flagrantly contrived and dishonest that it makes the word "disingenuous" look trustworthy.
Granted, with her penchant for hyena-like uncontrolled cackling outbursts at socially inopportune times and her remarkably inarticulate, unintellectual manner, Madame Vice President is not exactly the picture of a serious anything. Yet, even by her admittedly low standards, trying to foist blame for this administration's utter failure at the southern border on something so conspicuously unconnected to illegal immigration as so-called "climate change" is the perfect illustration of everything about the "Biden" presidency that is so frighteningly imbecilic.
We knew when we were watching John McEnroe play tennis 40 years ago that we were watching something special, a competitive talent that would live on in our consciousness, long into the future. But no one knew at the time how prophetic and forward-looking his famous phrase would become.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/05/our_democrat_rulers_cant_be_serious.html
