Children’s Game

I don’t have the skill to effectively reflect in words how much respect I have for Ruth Bader Ginsburg nor how grateful I am for how she chose to apply her brilliance, particularly when I talk to my daughter about how she might someday apply hers. So, I won’t even try. Like many other Americans, I am profoundly sad about her passing. I’m also really fucking angry.

I got involved politically in 2016 after the GOP’s abuse of power regarding Merrick Garland. It’s pointless to argue about the magnitude of decline since in the health of the country and the world. You either recognize it, lack the ability to, or are lying. But the complete lack of pretense now regarding the depth of Republican hypocrisy won’t ever be forgotten by me. As my anger has intensified, I think of Ginsburg’s words to not be distracted by it…“These just zap energy and waste time”.

Hypocrisy is enraging to me, as it combines the human traits I find most vile…dishonesty, lack of character, absence of integrity, and cowardice. The etymology of the word involves the Greek word hypokrinesthai, which translates to "play a part” or “pretend”…so dishonesty is pretty close.

I welcome the trite attempts to argue the false equivalency between Harry Reid killing the judicial confirmation filibuster in 2013, Biden’s hypothetical musing in 1992, and what McConnell did in 2016 and will do now. I’ll wrap them into pretzels and fucking bury those silly arguments. But it would no doubt just zap energy and waste my time. Winning justifies the means to them, but we have a choice about how to play.

When I was young, my choice was to fight…I chose rock.

When I got a little older, I often chose to argue and persuade. I chose paper.

As I got older still, I often chose to ignore...to cut them off. I chose scissors.

So, as my rage intensifies, the important thing for me has been and will continue to be to determine  whether to fight, persuade, or ignore. And though I've done a good job of cutting out the things and people from my life that zap energy and waste my time, the ridiculous hypocrisy we are facing right now has me reflecting on the fact that rock beats scissors.

So game on, motherfuckers.