(Not So) Great Scott

I got on the treadmill early last week and tuned to CNN. Before me, kicking off his presidential campaign, appeared a most curious creature .

Tim Scott, a member of the rare and little understood species, Republicanus blackus, and its even more rare subspecies Republicanus blackus senatoris, was kicking off his presidential campaign.

How, one might ask, can a Black person be a member of the party that runs on hate and racism? Scott certainly doesn’t regard himself as racist, but his dismissal of past and current history puts him in good company with M.T. Greene of Jewish space laser fame and Lauren Boebert, who this past week released the racist stench of the GOP soul into the national nostrils by saying a program to counter antisemitism is an attack on the Republican party itself.

Meanwhile, with typical Republican double-speak, Scott referred to Democrats as racists.

A cross between an evangelical minister and and a high school cheerleader, Scott regaled his hand picked audience with tired out platitudes about God, America and apple pie. Especially God, from whom, Scott claims, the Democratic sinners have “retreated”.

In one breath he preached the Republican party line that deprives the poor and minorities of liberty and justice. In the next he invoked the pledge of allegiance as the crowd joined him in yelling out the “liberty and justice for all” part. At one point, for good measure, he threw in the finale of the Gettysburg address. Lincoln, who was to today’s GOP as George Wallace was to today’s Dems, must have turned in his grave.

Scott boasted about his family’s military service, but we didn’t hear a peep about his own. Oh yeah, according to the bio I read, Mr. Macho never served.

Scott is apparently so holy that, if we are to believe him, when, at age 30, he made his initial run for Congress he was a virgin. Maybe he still is. Who but an extremist Christian would consider this a qualification for office? His lack of experience in sexual matters, however, doesn’t make him any less expert in them. LGBTQs are the devil’s spawn. Abortion, reproductive health care and the affordable care act, on which many Blacks rely, are squarely in his legislative crosshairs.

So is Mexico. He’d send troops there to “clean out” the drug lords. While our military is no stranger to marching into other countries uninvited, even Scott must know this would destroy our relationship with Mexico and be a total waste of time, money and lives. Somehow or other he’ll also stop Chinese drug makers from supplying the Mexican cartels. How? Conveniently, he didn’t say. He made no reference to the fact that the appalling social conditions facilitated by conservatives have created a vibrant market for mind numbing substances.

Says Scott, since he personally managed to climb the ladder of success, there are obviously no systemic restraints on Blacks. Every one of them has that ladder at their disposal. It’s true that, despite having been the product of a broken home and a mother who barely kept the family out of poverty by working 16 hours a week as a nurse’s aid, Scott did manage to succeed. If you call turning your back on your own people to further your own political ambitions success. Education is key, says Scott. Teach the kids “ABCs, not CRT.” What he fails to say is that Republicans do everything possible to make sure the lower rungs of the ladder are inaccessible to many people who start off where he did. It’s no surprise he’s anti-union and anti-affirmative action as well.

Like some people who have accomplished something difficult, such as losing weight or overcoming addiction, Scott insists if he could realize the American dream, anyone who fails to has no one but themself to blame. This is illustrative of an ugly trait that members of oppressed minorities sometimes manifest, distancing themselves from their own people and identify with the aggressors.

What does he want to use our tax dollars for instead of social programs and infrastructure projects that would benefit Blacks and give them a leg up on that ladder? Naturally, on expanding the Trumpian wall.

He further demonstrated his fitness to lead the party of lies by claiming, with a straight face, that the Trump tax cuts for the rich led to great improvements in the economy and by failing to mention that they increased the national debt massively. In Scott’s alternative universe, the Biden era economic boom did not occur.

I watched with a combination of amusement and horror as he kept carrying on in like fashion, obviously pleased with his forced and ludicrous performance. The audience cheered and chanted on cue like a bunch of pre-programmed robots.

Ironically, due in large measure to the deeply held racism of the Republican base, Scott has no chance of becoming their candidate. Still, the fact that there are actually people who can consider him, race not withstanding, presidential timber, is one more reason why this nation is in so much trouble.