I must confess that I did not make up the term of rhetorical pretzels, but happily adopted it once heard. It was on a CNN interview which analyzed the responses and verbiage of various Republican so called leaders. Such leaders we can do without. The term refers to their almost insane turns on a dime, contradicting themselves, re-contradicting themselves, turning around yet again, until even they cannot remember what they last misspoke!
That wonderful young poet spoke yesterday morning with Anderson Cooper, and in answer to a question asked, gave an answer that pleases me greatly, so much do I agree with it. For years, as a mother, educator, as a person, I have been telling one and all that words matter. They can indeed lead to broken bones, so the nursery rhyme is so dangerously wrong!
Words are what led to Jan. 6, our internal Day of Infamy, when American attacked American. It was a day when we stood on the doorstep of the annihilation of democracy in this country. At the head of it all, the traitor di tutti traitor, Donald Trump, who encouraged, spurred on, his rabid mobs, perhaps even colluded with them beforehand, and off to attack the Capitol they went, with malice aforethought, with havoc and murder on their most limited minds. Words matter.
At the same time, words were flying around the inner chambers of the Capitol, as the GOP stood by, or under, their demented leader and insisted on yet another twisted plan of denying the truth of the election, a last ditch effort before, it seems, the storm of the attack. And the words flew and the lies grew and one could, in retrospect, hear the ominous pounding of the drums of alarm, the high pitched atonal music that would accompany this scene in a movie. Only this was not a movie; this was a possible death scene of our country.
So where do rhetorical pretzels enter? That very day, even after the attack, after the murders, after the set up of nooses, after the pictures of people with weapons, of a police officer being squooshed in a door, as chants of death to various people were heard, even then, the words ran on, insanely, with no sense, replete with malice and viciousness.
There were some GOP members who at least had the courtesy and sense and honesty at that point to condemn the attack. They accurately blamed the cause on words, but attributed all the blame for these words on Trump. Hmmmm. What about the GOP members of Congress who were there at the Trump rally, the starting point of the raging mob? What about the words, the crazy rhetoric of the election campaign, of the demonization of all Trump opponents? Of the powerful rancor of the words? What about the collusion of McConnell? Of McCarthy? Of Thune? Of Cruz? Of Rubio? Of Mast? Of Scott? Of Goetz? Of Scalise? The list goes on, a roll call of the almost entire roster of the GOP.
Now, these practitioners of rhetorical pretzeling twist themselves into that shape as they retake their words, as they refuse to include themselves in the causative mess, as their words refute their words of Jan. 6, as they still march to the beat of that defeated man, the man who plays "Macho Man" as a theme song as he leaves in defeat.
For heaven's sake! Words matter, be it the words of Marc Antony in Julius Caesar or the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg or the words of FDR after Pearl Harbor was attacked or the words of JFK at his Inauguration or the words of Trump or the words of GOP members who casually tossed out all words other than those that mirrored Trump, that defended their power, that left behind honor, that once, ONCE! told the truth and then reneged, pretzeled again!
Their rhetorical pretzeling does not serve them well, nor the people of the country. Their apparent growing refusal to dance the tango with Biden, a man who expresses his disappointment with a mild, "give me a break, man", is disappointing, never mind dangerous. With this situation, cooperation is necessary. Rather than rhetorical pretzels, rather than non dancers, we do so need partners. Biden has reached out to them. If they refuse, the man is strong, a fighter in his own way, and he will make his way forward, serving the people, leaving the pretzels and the non dancers behind in the dust of rejected history.
Here are three statements, from the speech of Biden, from an analyst and a spokesperson. Read them and understand the importance, the dire need for cooperation, for truth, for forward movement rather than fighting a lost fight, a destructive, senseless fight, one that will continue to tear the country apart beyond all chance of revival and healing. No more pretzels. No more lies. No more wallflowers of deadly disguise and plans. No more. We need to become the Americans who are the ones that Biden praised when he said, "We are good people." We need to chant that as our mantra.
"Lincoln had the Civil War, Wilson had the pandemic, Roosevelt had the Depression, Kennedy had the height of the Cold War, and Johnson had unprecedented civil and social strife,” ..... “Biden has D, all of the above.”
"Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path,” Biden said. “Every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war, and we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”
"...their goal was to “bring transparency and truth back to government.”
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