Incompetence, Right out of the Gaetz

No one who pays the slightest bit of attention to politics is genuinely surprised by Donald Trump’s selection of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. Gaetz is woefully unqualified and unaccomplished, of course, but that is almost a prerequisite for a cabinet position in the Trump Administration. The only qualification that really matters is unwavering loyalty to Donald Trump, and it’s hard to imagine that anyone—North Dakota’s Doug Burgum and South Dakota’s Kristi Noem excepted—will enjoy their turn at bootlicking for the cameras at a cabinet meeting as much as Gaetz, who is also a good fit because, like many in Trump’s orbit, he likes his women “on the younger side.”

Some Republican Senators are feigning shock and bewilderment, acting as if they expected more qualified appointees than Gaetz for Attorney General or Fox News personality Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. There are even whispers that there won’t be enough Republican votes in the Senate to confirm Gaetz, but this pretense of principles is nothing new. At some point, their spinelessness will emerge. Senate Majority Leader John Thune will come up with a new rule—named after a Democrat, of course—that says all of a president’s cabinet picks must be confirmed, even if the nominee has been voted most likely to grope your granddaughter at an official event.

The MAGA base, history’s sorest winners, will surely pressure Senate Republicans to conform to Trump’s will on everything. Because they’re not going back!—back to the days when they pretended to dislike the unseemly things Trump said at rallies or on social media, back to the days when it wasn’t cool to wear your “Joe and the Ho Gotta Go!” t-shirt to a school function, back to the days when some Republicans thought that January 6th, 2021 was something other than a love-fest, a Capitol tourist hug-a-thon with maybe just a schmear of feces thrown in.

Some have suggested that there is a secret strategy behind Trump’s selection of people like Gaetz and Hegseth, but there’s no 4-D chess going on here, folks. The President-elect is not conducting a social experiment with his cabinet picks. He is only inadvertently testing the passivity of Senate Republicans and the permissiveness of the American people. This is simply a birds-of-a-feather situation, and this flock of carrion eaters expects easy pickings from the bones of democracy.

So it is our job to show that there is zero permissiveness. There are no easy pickings. And we really don’t care whether the MAGA base revels in the vulgarity or pretends not to. Perhaps the first thing we will need to overcome is our own cynicism. There is a temptation to just let them burn it all down and enjoy the I-told-you-so moments that follow. You can see it now in the F*** Around and Find Out trends on social media. I admit, the schadenfreude is delicious, but like every delicious thing, too much is not good for you. Besides, whether we fight or roll over, those I-told-you-so moments will inevitably arrive.

These confirmations are the first fight, but it will be a long and continuous effort. Will it be worth it? Yes. Sure, we will still probably end up with a Secretary of Defense who thinks that women belong in the kitchen and that black soldiers get promoted because the system is rigged against white people, but at least everyone will know it, including those Americans who don’t consume much news and who vote based on “the vibes.” Yeah, we will likely have an anti-vaxxer with a dead bear cub in his trunk as Secretary of Health and Human Services and a snake oil salesman running the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but won’t it be fun to go tell it on the mountain, over the hills, and everywhere?

Besides catching the attention of low-information voters, our refusal to go gently along with an Attorney General who may have dabbled in sex trafficking or a Director of National Intelligence enamored with Vladimir Putin gives others permission to resist the insanity too. It lets groups with whom we are aligned and other allies know that someone has their back. It lends courage to everyone who wishes to stand against billionaire-backed organizations and the politicians in their pockets.

I have likened where we are now to the dark night of the soul in novels and movies. The dark night of the soul is a reaction scene that follows an all-is-lost event. At the end of the dark night of the soul, the protagonist learns a valuable lesson and recommits to the fight. This story is far from over, and we will have a hand in writing it. We are the protagonist. We are the hero. And it is time to recommit.