Kamala Harris is a radical liberal who would raise taxes, take away guns & health insurance, and explode the size and power of the federal gov’t. She wants to recreate America in the image of what’s happening on the streets of Portland & Seattle. We won’t give her the chance.
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) August 11, 2020
Here are all the times ex-GOP Rep. Liz Cheney ripped “radical” Kamala Harris before her endorsement. https://t.co/pDO7WdeLWB pic.twitter.com/u3KmvOiFGY
— New York Post (@nypost) October 3, 2024
Kamala Harris to Liz Cheney: ‘I also want to thank your father, Vice President Dick Cheney, for his support and what he has done to serve our country.’
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) October 3, 2024
How long have I been preaching to you guys about the trickster deity who loves us and wants us to be amused? Well, I don’t know about you, but my cup is about to runneth over here. You see, if you had popped through an interdimensional portal around 2004 and informed me that in twenty years, the Democratic nominee for president would be publicly thanking the Cheney family for their endorsement, I would have stared at you in mute disbelief. If you had then told me that Digby, one of the most popular Democrat bloggers of the early ’00s who wrote thousands of posts ranting about the enormity of the Bush administration and Darth Cheney in particular, joined in the praise, I would have assumed that the time travel had scrambled your brains. But here we are, El Oh El.
“Kayfabe” is a term that refers to the old code of professional wrestling, back in the days before it became “sports entertainment.” Wrestlers went out of their way to protect the business by refusing to do anything in public that would indicate that the matches were staged. No breaking character in front of fans, no traveling to the next show with other wrestlers who were supposedly sworn enemies, etc. Of course, that all changed on Vince McMahon’s watch, and for the last few decades, wrestling — sorry, sports entertainment — has embraced the understanding that the fans don’t have to believe the athletic competition is real in order to appreciate the bombast, drama, and campy humor.
Political discourse is no more real than old wrestling promos. The only difference is the “marks” aren’t wise to it. Liz Cheney can swear for years that Kamala the Radical Liberal will destroy the country, before turning babyface in order to team up with her against The Orange Miscreant at the next pay-per-view. Digby can spend several years telling us that Dick Cheney was the original election thief and a sociopath who orchestrated a phony war for the benefit of Halliburton stock prices, before gladly accepting this sociopath’s help to “protect democracy” from “fascism.” Words mean nothing, convictions mean nothing. It’s all bullshit. I’d rather watch old videos of Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes screaming at each other. At least they were entertaining.
