Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, meets with Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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It is that time of year, again. Halloween. The time when people like being scared.
But while parents and others prepare for the Oct. 31 fright fest, there is something else very scary taking place. Take, for example, what has been going on in Washington, D.C., the past few weeks.
Never before in our nation’s history was the governing party in the House of Representatives — that would be the Republicans, in this case — unable to pick a speaker. That voting circus went on for three weeks until this past Wednesday, when the GOP finally landed on one.
He is Mike Johnson of Louisiana. And he is a scary dude.
Never mind that he is a climate change denier at a time when every part of our country and our world is being ravaged by new and different weather patterns that can only be explained by, wait for it, climate change. The man most responsible in the House of Representatives for doing something about this existential threat doesn’t believe in the threat. Makes you feel all warm and safe inside, right?
It can be scary to have a person in charge of fixing things when he and his colleagues can’t even agree that it is broken. Oh well, wait for the next hurricane, and the next. He may not be afraid of what’s happening but I bet his constituents in Louisiana will be.
But that’s not the most frightening part.For example, Speaker Johnson opposes gay marriage and proposes the controversial and almost always unworkable conversion therapy for people “afflicted” with gayness. No reason for the LGBTQ+ community to be the least bit concerned that such a person is just two heartbeats away from the presidency. And who knows what other crazy ideas he has that can scare the heck out of other groups of Americans. I guess we shall soon find out.
But Americans are tough. We don’t scare that easily. Just because Johnson is an election denier — I am told he believes, as does Donald Trump, that Trump is still the president — there is no reason to be the least bit concerned that he will be in charge of whatever happens in the House of Representatives in 2024 should the election not produce a clear winner. What could possibly go wrong?
On the other hand, no need to be afraid. We do, after all, have a House speaker. So, there is that. And one of his first official acts in response to that unspeakable murder spree by a man in Maine with an AR-15 was to announce his initial plan. He is going to pray on it. No offense, but ...
And while Congress has been acting like a bunch of children, on the other side of the world there is real reason to be afraid. Real children have been killed, butchered and burned to death.
As Israel prepares to dispatch the vicious and murdering terrorists of Hamas who are responsible for all this inhumanity, it is also mindful that it must find the best way to free the 200-plus hostages in Hamas’ hands.
At the same time, it is duty-bound to protect, as best she can, the innocent Palestinians who are stuck, by Hamas’ design, in the middle of the muddle inGaza. And who knows which other crazy country — maybe Iran — will use this time as an excuse to do its worst.
Life right now is really scary in that part of the world and could get a lot worse in a minute. There are bad people in the Middle East who can’t wait to escalate this fight between Hamas and Israel into a regional war that very few world powers can ignore. It may be time for those who believe in the End of Times to start packing a bag.
Meanwhile, back at home, people are watching Mr. Tough get a little scared himself. While the rubes continue to send him their hard-earned money and continue to believe his baloney, members of Trump’s loyal and lying cadre can’t take plea deals fast enough. It’s got to be scaring The Donald just a wee bit, as well as his true believers who may soon have to find something else, less dishonest, to believe in.
And, if all of this weren’t scary enough to deal with for ordinary Americans, there is this thing called Halloween in two days.
That’s when the adults do their best to scare their kids. For fun!
I don’t see the fun in that because right now I see an entire country and a world in which so many kids are already scared to death. And rightly so.
And this fear ain’t for fun. It’s for real.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
