1. Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign. Republicans who are urging him to do the same should win the Hypocrisy of the Year award after defending you know who with the same or worse behavior with 26 women. At least Cuomo isn’t married and cheating on one of three wives. Nor has he been accused of rape like you know who. Nevertheless, Democrats must be consistent while judging inappropriate behavior toward women.
2. A note to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: We all have family issues. But if you want to be treated like regular people and not royalty, don’t sit for an interview with Oprah Winfrey to tell us about yours. Ignore the noise, build your own lives together, and don’t feel compelled to share it with us. I wish you both the best.
3. “Cancel Culture” is the new rallying cry for Republicans. While the rest of the networks were covering FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony about the January 6th Capitol riot by Trump supporters, Fox News was defending Mr. Potato Head. Republicans are upset that Mr. Potato head is being canceled (he isn’t) but they are fine with canceling 81 million American votes for Joe Biden.
4. Republicans think that too many people voted in 2020 and so they are passing hundreds of laws to make it more difficult to vote. The interesting thing is that the record turnout in 2020 actually helped Republicans. They picked up seats in the House instead of losing seats as expected. They lost the presidential election but that had more to do with their candidate than turnout.
5. Republicans in Arizona are doing their fair-share to suppress the vote. In response to Democrats saying that we should make it easier for Americans to vote, Arizona Republican state Rep. John Kavanagh disagreed, stating, “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.” Perhaps, Kavanagh will tell us how many Black votes equal the “quality” of a white vote.
6. It looks like Republicans have given up on the idea of becoming the “big tent” party. A political cartoon by Jimmy Margulies shows a man trying to make a vaccine appointment turning to a Black woman and says, “So many obstacles. Have you ever seen anything like it?” “Yes, I have,” says the woman holding a newspaper with the headline “Voter Suppression Laws.”
7. Did you hear? The Trump supporters who stormed into the Capitol to stop the certification of the presidential election were not real Trump supporters. According to some Republicans, they were just pretending to be Trump supporters. Talk about cancel culture and rewriting history. Look, if I were a Republican, I would be embarrassed to be represented by that group, too. Even Trump, according to The Washington Post, “was dismayed that his supporters in their costumes looked low class.”
8. A recent Yahoo News poll found that 44% of Republicans believe that Bill Gates is using the coronavirus vaccine to implant tracking devices in people. The belief increases to 50 percent of Republicans who named Fox News as their primary news source. Why Gates, who thus far has donated nearly $50 billion to improve health care around the world, would want to place microchips in our bodies is beyond me. Only a Trump supporter could believe such a silly idea. Unfortunately, these ideas likely contribute to the fact that in the same survey, only 44 percent of Republicans say that they will get the vaccine compared to 72 percent of Democrats. Evolution at work.
9. Sen. Roger Wicker wants credit for a bill he tried to kill. On March 10 Wicker tweeted, “Independent restaurant operators have won $28.6 billion worth of targeted relief. This funding will ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic by helping to adapt their operations and keep their employees on the payroll.” Indeed! The aid to keep restaurants in business that Wicker tweeted about was included in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Wicker, however, along with all of his fellow Republicans in the House and Senate, voted against it.
10. Trump wants people to donate directly to him, not to other candidates or to the Republican National Committee. He sent a letter to the RNC telling them to stop using his name in their fundraising literature. Sorry, Trump, but you are a public figure and you don’t get to decide who can talk or write about you. But we get it. You want all the money for yourself and you want total control of the GOP. But, your insurrection failed, this is not Russia, and you are not Vladimir Putin.
Tom Zirpoli is the program coordinator of the Human Services Management graduate program at McDaniel College. He writes from Westminster. His column appears on Wednesdays. Email him at tzirpoli@mcdaniel.edu.