It’s April Fool’s Day, a good day to remember that when you vote for Republicans, the joke’s on you. After all, Republicans have gone out of their way to demonstrate that they DGAF about you, your family, this country, the world. It’s a party of selfishness, greed, and cruelty.
What someone considers a joke or finds funny tells you a lot about them. Humor requires self-awareness, empathy, and an attempt at understanding, otherwise, it’s not a joke, it’s just someone being a jerk.
So when Republicans make “jokes” (or excuse saying awful things by claiming they were just joking), they’re telling us who they are loud and clear.
Here are some “jokes” told by Republicans:
March 5, 2022: Disgraced former President Donald Trump tells a Republican crowd that the U.S. should “put the Chinese flag” on bomber jets and send them to Ukraine to “bomb the shit out of Russia….Then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch.”
And let’s not forget that on July 27, 2016, Trump asked Russia on live TV to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton. “I will tell you this: Russia if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” He was, he said, being sarcastic. Even though he is right now literally asking Russia to get dirt on Hunter Biden while Russia destroys Ukraine.
Robert Regan, a Republican nominee for the Michigan House of Representatives, recently said, “Having three daughters, and I tell my daughters, ‘Well if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it.’” A horrifying comment that’s now being explained away as a joke. But Regan isn’t the first Republican to say this. In 1990, Clayton Williams, who was running against Ann Richards for governor of Texas compared rape to the weather: “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.” He, too, said it was just a joke. Apparently, one that really struck Regan as something so hilarious he should tuck it away for a later day.
And then there’s Fox News moron Greg Gutfeld who has a “humor” show that has, well, no humor. His monologues on his show Gutfeld! are excruciating. Here’s an example: “When I was a kid I had a dog named Chipper,” he says. “The dog drove me crazy because we lived on a street between a park and a busy street full of fast cars and whenever the dog got out you’d think it would run into the park to pee or poop, you know like vagrants in Democrat-run cities? But no, it always ran up the street toward the traffic and us kids would have to race after him and risk our lives trying to scoop the mutt out of harm’s way. It was a weird habit when offered options to pick the worst one. Which seems to be our president’s problem…” cut to a picture of President Biden.
Okay, we get it, Greg. You feel about homeless people the same way your dog apparently felt about you.
There are so many more examples, but as an act of self-care I won’t subject myself, or you, to any more of them.
Republicans confuse humor with cruelty and they also confuse cruelty with strength. That’s why Trump is so popular with Republicans. He is a cruel person and sadly too many Americans like that, admire it, even. Think about all of the Trump merchandise with “liberal tears” and “fuck your feelings” on it. And the new “Let’s go Brandon” rallying cry.
Honestly, it all bums me out. Republicans have so much animosity toward the majority of this country: women, BiPOC, LGBTQ, union workers, children, the poor, scientists, any religion that isn’t evangelical Christianity.
Democrats aren’t perfect. But they aren’t running on a platform of cruelty. I don’t care if you like President Biden or not. But if you seriously look at who is in the White House now and long for the days of Trump, then Happy April Fools Day! This is the holiday for you.