EXPOSING THEMSELVES

2017 is an annus horribilis but it has at least this virtue: it's the year people came out of the woodwork - the year people have been exposed for who they really are and what they really believe.

Sexual assaulters have been outed, fired, and been made to confess to their misdeeds. Racists and xenophobes have outed themselves, frankly, loudly, and proudly. 

And the GOP has finally abandoned any pretense of giving a damn about debt and deficits.

Or the livelihoods of working people and the formerly hallowed middle class.

Or sexual propriety.

Or fiscal responsibility.

Or taxation without representation.

In due course I'm sure we'll all see that they've never seriously cared about national security or abortion.

Republicans, in attempting to pass a tax law that will drain public coffers in order to make rich people richer, are openly admitting that they their policies are a plain quid pro quo for their corporate and wealthy donors. And that they'll happily grow deficits to use later as a pretext for cutting social services.

I don't know if it's from desperation or a stupid sense of impunity, but 2017 has prompted Republicans to expose themselves as brazenly and obnoxiously as Harvey Weinstein and Louis CK and Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer ever did to the women they harassed and assaulted.

The GOP has been getting away with a depraved agenda for a long time but now the truth has been exposed for anyone who cares to see it. If our electoral system remains capable of providing a legitimate result (and there are ample reasons to fear that it may not be), 2018 should be a year of terrible reckoning for Republicans.