Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Getty
You wonder sometimes if the Republican Party has secretly been taken over by brainless space aliens intent on destroying the party from within.
The latest faux pas involves the great white GOP hope, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who let fly at President Biden’s extraordinary trip to Ukraine, saying that the president would have been better off staying home and looking after domestic concerns.
DeSantis rated Russia as a “third-rate power” with no hostile intent toward its neighbors. It seems like the governor doesn’t get to read much beyond whatever book he’s going to ban next in Florida.
If he had kept up on current events, he might have noticed that in the last few weeks alone, Russia has made its intent clear to overthrow the government of Moldova, a near neighbor of Ukraine, which would allow Russia to open up yet another theater of war against Ukraine.
DeSantis also must have overlooked the news that countries like Finland, Latvia, and Estonia are all urgently pressing to join NATO so they can be under its protective shield if Russia tries to regain countries they have attacked before.
We guess Meatball Ron, as his frenemy Donald Trump reportedly christened him, has not spent much time educating himself about European history which shows that Russia had steamrolled over Eastern Europe during the Second World War which is why countries like Poland and Romania and, to a lesser extent, Hungary are all prepared for possible invasions.
DeSantis is obviously more at home finger-pointing at drag queens and the like rather than learning about the world he seeks to inhabit if he ever became president. His lack of knowledge of the Russian invasion and what it might lead to is truly shocking.
His ignorance is matched by the Republican Party in Michigan, a critical primary state, where the effective rule for success for getting elected to key GOP party positions is now election denial belief, as witnessed by the election of an election denier as leader of the Michigan party.
One might expect such rules in a southern state like Alabama, but Michigan, one of the most successful states in the US, is not where you would see such blind denial of reality.
Then there’s the abortion pill. Mike Pence has made this one of his priorities to have the pill banned.
Given that Kansas – yes, red-bleeding Kansas – threw out an anti-abortion referendum by a huge margin, it seems like political suicide to have another attempt by the GOP to restrict abortion. But no, it’s already full steam ahead and party officials are judge-shopping for a jurist to do the business.
Then there is the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. If the GOP candidate wins the election in April it is likely that the state will go back to the abortion bill first written in 1839.
Notice we haven't mentioned Trump and his drag on the party. It seems like the GOP will perform hara-kiri all by itself. How does one explain all these wacko positions from a party once known for its discipline and orthodoxy?
While the GOP is howling at the moon, Democrats led by Biden are looking ever more sane and trustworthy. The GOP picked a pig in a poke when they chose Trump way back when. Now the pig has them all wallowing in the mud alongside him.
*This editorial first appeared in the February 22 edition of the weekly Irish Voice newspaper, sister publication to IrishCentral.