The Sheep
As I return to work today, I have much to cover. I’ll be back on air at noon today. You can listen live here.
First, Happy January 6th to all who celebrate. Note to the media: The exit polling in November showed that most voters do not care. That you will try to make them care today is another reason trust in the media is beneath that of Congress itself.
Second, here is the list of topics I need to review on my show today that happened while we were all on vacation. If you have any others you think I need to him, leave them in the comments before 11:00 a.m. ET today. Below is the order in which I logged them throughout the holidays, not their priority.
History’s Greatest Monster is dead.
Biden commutation of sentences
The serial killing rapist
But not Dylan Roof
The woman burned alive on the subway
On the day Kathy Hochul claimed the subway was safe
Also two stabbings the same day
60 Minutes praising the gun policies in Mexico
Santa Cruz Pier collapse
Pictures emerge of Biden with Hunter’s business contacts while Biden was VP.
The New Years Eve Fog Conspiracy
The Broadband Story and ending Net Neutrality finally.
The Rotherham Scandal explodes
Presidential medal of freedom to George Soros.
And then there is the fight over Mike Johnson as Speaker, which I specifically want to focus on here with a specific denunciation of the sheep of social media. I confess I started off titling this piece “Against Whores” and referring to them as whores, but the more I dig into this, we’re dealing with some malcontented and easily led and manipulated sheep who have outsourced their critical thinking skills to politicians all while using their presence on social media to bully others.
Last month, because a handful of Republicans blocked a continuing resolution to keep the government going, Speaker Mike Johnson had to cross the aisle and work with Democrats on what turned into a monstrous and terrible package.
Trump initially supported that plan, but then Elon Musk denounced it, and Trump wavered on it.
The result was a cavalcade of social media voices with hundreds of thousands of followers demanding Mike Johnson resign, be defeated in re-election as Speaker, or otherwise removed from office. “Commie,” “Progressive,” “Traitor,” etc. were all words hurled at Johnson by these social media sheep.
Then, Donald Trump announced he would support Mike Johnson for Speaker of the House.
The result? The very same voices that attacked Johnson now demanded everyone fall in line to support Johnson. For daring to question both the final continuing resolution and Johnson, Chip Roy and Thomas Massie were both savaged. So, too, were other Republicans.
The most consistent and principled Republicans were attacked as “commies,” “progressives,” and “traitors” for not falling in line to support the very man these same people had called a “commie,” “progressive,” and “traitor” just a month before.
These social media sheep have no principles. They claim the Right needs lions, and they themselves are sheep—easily led and manipulated. Many of them have monetized accounts where their outraged tweets generate revenue. All of them see themselves as MAGA enforcers, bullying others to toe the line. I suspect some of them just do it for the money, but they are actually all sheep.
On top of it all, and the ultimate irony, is that these sheep have also, for the past number of years, used their social media following to savage, attack, and discredit any expert who dares, at that time, disagree with their own opinions at that time, all while outsourcing their opinions and critical thinking skills to others.
It is a hell of a thing to be so easily led — rudderless ships blown about and tumbling on the waves, waiting for external forces to direct them. It is just remarkable to see so many people insist on discrediting any individual who thinks for himself all while themselves not thinking, but being led. It is fascinating that so many of them are even willing to admit it — they trust Donald Trump more than anyone else on the planet. I’m old enough to remember when we mocked Democrats for acting that way with Obama. The loss of shame in this country is something to behold.
What is, I think, something to keep an eye on is that these people are so invested now, there is no way for Donald Trump to ever betray them. They are fixed to him and all his many shifts now because they have allowed him to think for them. There is no way for him to ever abuse their trust, because they have outsourced their thinking and their trust to him. They will blow in the winds of Trump, in which ever direction he shifts, and insist any who are anchored to principle or idea are the ones adrift. But they will insist they are leading while being led. They are no different from the progressives worked up so easily about whatever is in fashion to be outraged about at a particular moment.
For a very long time, Republicans had a unifying ideology from the Reagan era. Today, the politics have changed, and those ideas have been replaced by a political coalition loyal to Donald Trump. The phenomenon that Erick brilliantly captures is that the negotiations in the House are very complicated. I myself think both Johnson's and Roy's approaches have merit. The deciding factor for which too many Republicans decide complicated questions now is whether or not Trump supports it. The irony is that by all available evidence Trump is not playing 4-D chess. In this case, he was swayed by his buddy Elon tweeting about Johnson's bill.
Setting the sheep aside, House Republicans have become too dysfunctional as a result of both the double dealing and big spending from the Speaker and the radicals undermining Republican leadership for their own gain. Trump will need to unify the two sides if he is to tackle the most pressing problems heading into his administration, securing the border and expiring tax cuts. Perhaps it is better that the conflict between Johnson and Roy happen now rather than later when legislation with actual stakes is on the line. Maybe a little bit of dysfunction is the cost of holding together a coalition that achieve larger goals. The largest goal is shrinking the size of government and cutting government spending. In order to achieve it, the GOP will have to show they can govern and tackle legislation on the issues that won Trump election, or they will be swept from power without shrinking anything.
Mike Johnson is a means to an end. He’s not Paul Ryan or John B. But he’s close to it.
For the sake of getting things done we needed to let him be speaker and move on.
The truth is we don’t have the majority to put a true staunch conservative as speaker. It’s not going to happen.
BUT every house needs one.
So you either get a Jeffries, which is unacceptable in my opinion, or you get Johnson who is the polar opposite of him.
That’s all I got to say.
Saying that there no need to bash trump supporters on your blogs. Without them we would have Kamala Harris. Without the overwhelming distrust of the media and Elon musk. We would still have the blue sky version of twitter.
You need to do what I did over the holidays and watch summary videos of election night and the leftists meltdowns. That no matter what is said or done. A Trump being in the white house is remarkably better than what we could have had.