I had a discussion with a colleague the other day about the absence of any sense of humor or irony in our political life today. We take ourselves entirely too seriously these days, and it seems we’ve lost the ability to laugh at ourselves and our political antics.
So, I was fixin’ to write a column poking fun at our gloomy seriousness. I was looking around for good examples of political humor to write about and I wasn’t coming up with much that was laugh worthy.
Then the Wyoming Republican Party rode to the rescue and dropped this gem in my lap. Frank Eathorne and the GOP Central Committee are booting Liz Cheney from the GOP, revoking her secret handshake and demanding that she surrender her decoder ring.
I immediately had a mental image of a ratty little clapboard clubhouse in someone’s back yard. Hidden under the dirty blanket on the floor is a tattered back issue of Playboy and a couple of purloined cigarettes.
Here is where the tough kids meet, and they whisper about their plans to take over the neighborhood while they pass around a warm can of Bud Light that someone stole from their dad. They exhort each other about their toughness. They pinkie-swear their patriotism.
Their meetings are only interrupted when Mom calls them all back indoors to watch re-runs of “The Apprentice”.
In order to protect their gang from weaklings and any ideas that might threaten the club, they have a crude sign over the door proclaiming “No Gurls Aloud”.
Seriously! I’m not making this up!! So, don’t tell me that there is no longer humor in politics.
For the mouth-breathing firebrands in the GOP to say that Liz Cheney is no longer a Republican means absolutely nothing. They can pound their chests and spout off about third ribs til the cows come home but it is mere sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Hell, if the Wyoming GOP had the power to boot dissidents from the Party, they would have gotten rid of me a long time before they tried to get rid of a sitting Congresswoman. I’m sure they wish the could. But in the harsh light of reality, they are impotent.
And that makes me chuckle.
It also reassures me that there is still room for slapstick in politics. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that this won’t be the last time that Eathorne et al provide us with a bellylaugh. They’ll continue to bolster and defend their little clubhouse with pronouncements that will keep us in stitches.
And when the festering cauldron of hypocrisy and demagogy that is the hard right wing of Wyoming’s Republican Party finally boils over, and a stench fills the neighborhood as their secrets are revealed, we’ll all have a good laugh at their expense.
Yep, we’re laughing at you Frank, not with you.
