Political Thoughts by Richard Bleil
As I write this, ten days ago if it publishes on schedule, the big political news is the abject failure of the Republican “investigations” into President Biden and the Democrats. Shortly after taking majority control of the House of Representatives, the Republicans launched a panel investigation, occupied by the most vocal opponents of the Democratic party and far from unbiased. The investigation is in retribution of the investigations of the Democratic party into the insurrection and the former President Trump rather than an actual attempt to find justice. That the Republican party has made no secret of the fact that this is a politically retaliatory investigation is proof that it is politically motivated.
To be clear, yes, the Democrats have done things that are wrong. If you look into anybody long and hard enough, you will find wrongdoing at some level, although not necessarily so egregious as to warrant criminal charges. These Republican investigations have been categorized by just about every independent political analyst as an embarrassing belly flop as every allegation brought forth by the Republicans either fell flat or backfired.
The allegations brought forth are repeats of those that have been brought forth and summarily proven as false for the last few years. For example, the idea that Twitter conspired with the Biden campaign and was biased against the Republicans in favor of Liberals was brought up. Investigations into these allegations, however, proved that there was no collaboration with the Biden campaign. In fact, the investigation demonstrated that it was the Trump administration that petitioned Twitter to remove posts that were unfavorable towards the then-president. Further investigations showed that far more rules on what posts should be blocked were bent or broken on behalf of the conservative Republican party than the liberals and Democrats.
The inquiry into Biden’s son Hunter came up again, but easily dodged since the allegations have long ago been proven to be false. Every contentious point raised by the Republican committee were already raised and investigated. The Republicans, so desperate to bring charges against Biden and the Liberal Democrats backfired, all previously investigated, all previously dismissed, and all either falling flat with no new findings, or backfiring completely.
This is a reflection showing that the Republican party is not only continuing to pursue the lies put forth by Trump and his party, but they are believing them. Reports by independent, and often very biased towards the Republicans, have come back time and again refuting the stories being passed along to keep Trump relevant and in the eyes of the public. For example, the Trump party, using money from their own campaigning, paid a very conservative group to find evidence of vote tampering and proof that the results had been falsified only to have this excessively biased group report that they could find no such evidence. It seemed clear that this group, violating federal law in the handling of ballots and claiming that they would not stop until they could prove the election was illegal, would find the proof that Trump wanted whether it existed or not. How it is that they came up short, with their considerable bias, remains a mystery to me.
I have come to believe that the investigation into Trump was politically motivated. Were it not, they never would have held hearings on public television, and yet, the investigation lasted for years, and the results have given rise to a special counsel to ascertain whether or not the Justice Department should pursue criminal charges. In Georgia, another investigation has reached the point of a Grand Jury to ascertain any players that should have charges brought forth for election tampering. In New York, a third grand jury has brought charges on lies to manipulate taxes and marketability of Trump’s businesses. Whether or not Trump will face charges seems immaterial. The fact that sufficient evidence has been found to bring forth charges for those in Trump’s orbit demonstrates that these investigations have found evidence of crimes serious enough to warrant charges. On the other hand, the Republican investigation just managed to prove that their fabrications are still lies, and that the claims of bias were on behalf of themselves as opposed to the other party.
In 1738, Jonathan Swift wrote (in his publication “Polite Conversation”), “There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.” Republicans have been hit by a barrage of lies, and proof that they are as such. The proof that these are lies are irrefutable and from independent sources. How ignorant must they be to be completely blind to this proof, to accept that every refuted lie is actually truth, and to continue to investigation allegations that have already been investigated? In these hearings, they walked into a trap of their own building, as a blind person might walk into a bear trap they’ve set themselves.
Bleil's Banter 