The Right and Gus Walz
How low can they go? As low as you can imagine and lower.
Anyone with a heart would never insert a child into the seamy world of politics.
But few people would accuse the right wing of having a heart.
Unless you count expressing sympathy for murderers like Kyle Rittenhouse.
Insurrectionists like Ashli Babbitt.
Karens who get caught expressing their prejudices on camera.
The “very fine” White Supremacists who marched in Charlottesville.
These are the kind of people the right cares about.
But a young man who is neurodivergent, has ADHD, anxiety, and a nonverbal learning disorder garners no sympathy from that crowd.
Especially when his dad is running for Vice President from the other side of the aisle.
When Gus Walz jumped to his feet and tearfully expressed his love for his father Tim Walz, the Democratic Vice President nominee, it was simply a son returning the love and support of his father.
Leave it to the Republicans to make it political.
Right-wing commentator Ann Coulter shared a picture of Gus with the caption “Talk about weird…”
Pseudo journalist Mike Crispi posted this:
“Tim Walz stupid crying son isn’t the flex the left thinks it is. You raised your kid to be a puffy beta male. Congrats.
Does Barron Trump cry? Nope. Does he love his father? Of course. That’s the type of values I want leading this country.”
Toxic masculinity seems to be one of the values Crispi wants leading the country.
As for Coulter, she is a well-known purveyor of muck. This is a new low for her, but every few months, she predictably lowers her bar of respectability.
Crispi mentioned Barron Trump in his comments.
No reputable liberal commentators are hurling insults at him. Nor should they.
His father’s mess does not belong to Barron. When people attack his siblings Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric, it’s because they have done their father’s bidding and are of age to be eligible targets.
Barron is not the same. He is 18 years old and doesn’t need to be mentioned in political discourse.
Most of the left understands that, but the right does not.
They save their sympathies for the worst of the worst, as if they don’t have neurodivergent children, kids who have ADHD, anxiety and learning disorders.
The right-wing has children, less they forget, and these children will watch and learn from their parents, for better and certainly for worse.
Their behavior comes straight from the fascist playbook which brands neurodivergent people “defective.”
Remember that the Nazis killed neurodivergent people in concentration camps.
This is why this isn’t just another election.
Why the stakes are much, much higher.
Do we want to re-elect a president who makes fun of disabled people?
Do we want to put power in the hands of people so callous and cruel they would insult a 17-year-old child?
Is this the kind of world you want your children and grandchildren to live in?
The greatest Republican president said in his first inaugural address:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory… will yet swell…when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Over 160 years later, Abraham Lincoln would be aghast to see how low his party stoops.
The better angels of Republican nature have gone to hell in a handbasket.