Issues can at all times worsen. If there’s one lesson to remove from this yr/this decade/this century/ongoing existence on this capitalist hellscape typically, it’s precisely that: issues can at all times worsen — and subsequent yr they most likely will.
Within the meantime, it’s additionally essential to be pleased about small mercies. And whereas 2023 could find yourself being remembered because the comparatively delicate amuse-bouche de merde that preceded the arrival of the almighty shit sandwich {that a} Donald Trump victory within the 2024 US presidential election would represent… effectively, for now not less than, we are able to respect that this yr additionally provided a measure of comedian aid.
Why sure, George Santos, we’re speaking about you. Step ahead, please. What’s that? You’re recording a Cameo? Oh. Nicely, everytime you’re prepared, we are able to go forward with the presentation of the inaugural Anthony Devolder Award for Hilarious Grifter of the 12 months — and, extra importantly, the coveted Man of the 12 months trophy.
I’m hardly the primary individual to level out that in addition to embodying the spirit of 2023, Santos embodies just about all the pieces the Republican Occasion stands for as of late, insofar because it stands for something in any respect: the relentless grifting, the tradition battle speaking factors, the barefaced mendaciousness, the cynicism, the obvious flat-out criminality. And the puppies. The irony of Santos’ temporary profession is that if something, he represented all these, um, virtues too effectively: the entire conservative undertaking works provided that it’s accompanied by a measure of believable deniability, a token try to not less than say the quiet half and not using a megaphone.
Santos by no means fairly grasped this, which is maybe why he elicited such hostility from his personal social gathering. (That, and the truth that a few of the individuals he swindled had been wealthy GOP donors, which — as we’ve already identified this yr — is the one factor you completely can not do within the US.) The yr’s defining second was Republican grandee (and fellow do-er of unusual issues with canine) Mitt Romney staring down Santos after which snarling: “You don’t belong right here.”
In some methods, Romney was proper. Santos is an immigrant (so far as we are able to inform, anyway), he’s homosexual, and worst of all, he’s an arriviste. He didn’t slot in, and he didn’t have the cash or energy to make his congressional colleagues settle for him anyway. He was a humiliation, and that’s actually saying one thing in a political social gathering that counts coach Tommy Tuberville, house laser fanatic Marjorie Taylor Greene, theatre aficionado Lauren Boebert, and — after all — Trump amongst its representatives.
Nevertheless, Romney’s denunciation of Santos additionally denies the truth of his social gathering. It could as soon as have been the social gathering of the Hamptons, of a moneyed elite who weren’t above dipping into some grubby rhetoric to ensure their wants (low taxes, basic impunity to behave as they noticed match) had been perpetuated in Congress. However as with many different conservative events everywhere in the world, the GOP is previous the “fucking round” part at this level. It’s deep into the “discovering out” course of, and what it’s discovering out is that when you invite the lunatics into your huge fancy home, they not often show particularly eager to go away.
Santos is hardly a worst-case situation on this respect. He’s a clown and a grifter, not a fascist. I’m positive he’s much less humorous if you happen to’re one of many individuals he’s screwed over financially in his temporary flirtation with prominence, however for the remainder of us he’s a welcome supply of amusement. However sadly, even the enjoyment of laughing at Santos’ evident absurdity is hole as a result of his basic lack of seriousness says one thing about in the present day’s American political panorama.
So if we’re laughing at Santos, it’s solely as a result of his social gathering is laughing at us. Issues can at all times worsen, you understand.
