There Is No Bottom
As of the time of writing this, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has announced that she will vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense. This is a big shoe dropping in favor of Hegseth’s confirmation, because Ernst, a veteran and sexual assault survivor herself, was viewed as one of the Republicans who might have voted against him. Given this endorsement, it appears almost certain that Hegseth will be confirmed.
Let’s talk about Pete Hegseth. In my mind, I see him as evidence that Trump’s second term is going to be far more unhinged than the first. However you felt about Jim Mattis, Trump’s first Secretary of Defense, he was at least qualified for the job as a former four-star general. By contrast, Hegseth holds no qualifications other than being a Fox News host who looks good on TV; besides loyalty, that is perhaps what Donald Trump values most of all in his Cabinet.
Additionally, Hegseth faces numerous allegations of impropriety. According to this Democracy Now article, he has been accused of sexual misconduct and drunkenness at work. He’s also made statements disparaging women and LGBTQ+ people who serve in the military. Now, I’m not a big fan of the military anyway, and if there’s anything good that comes out of Hegseth’s impending confirmation, it’s that he’ll bring to light how rotten the U.S. military is as an institution.
But the fact remains that he’ll almost assuredly be Secretary of Defense, and he might well order the military to fire on peaceful protestors. That’s the whole point of firing civil servants who voted for Kamala Harris and putting in Project 2025. Trump told us exactly what he was going to do, and all too many of us thought he was the lesser evil. If Trump truly wants to invade Canada and make our northern neighbor the 51st state, do you think Pete Hegseth will stand in his way?
In the grand scheme of things, I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising that Ernst would vote for Hegseth despite her past. Every Senator had to evacuate the U.S. Capitol on January 6 when a mob violently stormed the building and tried to have them murdered. Not only did the man who incited that mob not get any jail time, he was elected President again and will be able to pass his agenda with the full support of his party. It’s a cult, led by a senile criminally-liable rapist who used to be a Z-list celebrity.
Hegseth isn’t the only horrendous Trump nominee who’s almost guaranteed to be confirmed. There is also Robert F. Kennedy Jr., last seen threatening to spoil the election against Kamala Harris due to being on the ballot in many swing states. He’s now been nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services despite being an anti-vaxxer whose rhetoric led to a measles outbreak in Samoa.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, RFK Jr. stated that he would not take away anyone’s vaccines. He would not seek to ban immunizations - it was a matter of choice. However, given how the last decade has gone, how the “doomers” have been right more often than they have been wrong, I can’t help but think of this example:
Donald Trump announces Brett Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nominee in 2018. Image taken from the PBS News website.
That’s right. During their confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Injustices Gorey Gorsuch, Gang Bang Brett, and the Contagious ACB all insisted that Roe v. Wade was settled law. They claimed they would not vote to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.
Well, guess what? They did. In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, meaning that these same three Injustices committed perjury. Because of our archaic Constitution that designates the nine Supreme Court members as basically imperial overlords, there’s no way to hold them accountable. And since they ruled that Trump was above the law and could do whatever he wanted in office, there’s no way to hold him accountable either.
So here’s what’s most likely going to happen. During his confirmation hearings, RFK Jr. will “assure” Republican Senators that he isn’t going to ban vaccines. The GOP Senators who were previously on the fence will claim to believe him, and they will vote to confirm an anti-vaccine activist to head the HHS Department. Make no mistake: Even if bird flu doesn’t turn into a global pandemic on the scale of COVID-19, there will be plenty of vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths as a result. When that happens, Susan Collins will feign surprise, making the face below when Kennedy does, in fact, ban vaccines and bring polio back.
“Surprised Pikachu” meme. Image taken from WIRED.
As horrendous as these policies are, however, I see no incentive for the GOP members of Congress to resist.
Now, let me clarify what I mean by that. I don’t say this because I lack conviction that vaccines are safe and essential, or that the Department of Defense must be run by someone who knows what the hell they’re doing. Rather, I mean that there’s no political incentive for people like Senator Joni Ernst to vote down these Cabinet picks.
Have you ever wondered why there haven’t been nearly the mass protests that there were after Trump’s first election? Well, other than the Kyle Rittenhouse precedent stating that you can shoot demonstrators in cold blood and literally get away with murder, Trump won the popular vote this time. He’s been normalized.
Yes, had Harris won the election, Trump would still have gotten 45% of the vote at minimum due to how polarized the country has become. However, the fact that more people voted for Trump than Harris means that people are less viscerally angry at the election being “unfair.” And as much as I hate Donald Trump, he did not steal the 2024 election. He won it fair and square, and that’s the worst part of all.
So no. The GOP Congress is not going to vote against any of Trump’s agenda, even if he tries to invade Canada. The American public has voted that there should be no limits to his power, and they voted for members of Congress who believe the same.
It’s too fucking late. The GOP is going to do what they will, and the American people are going to suffer what we must. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
