You Just Knew the Christmas/Assault Rifle Guy was a Climate Denier, Because of Course
December 6, 2021
Right.
If you saw the (all too real) Christmas tweet from the (actual, sitting) congressman Thomas Massie, coming on the heels of the latest mass shooting, and sporting a Christmas (Prince of Peace!) theme, you may have thought the guy was a total triple “A” a-hole. And you’d be right.
And because it’s generally true that the most awful people tend to be science and climate change deniers, right, he is that as well. John Kerry called it right way back in 2020. This video is really something.
Just to underline the point, if even our former President can’t stand you, that’s, well, really something.
Thomas Massie might be the least popular man in Washington.
The Kentucky congressman attempted unsuccessfully on Friday to require House members to take a recorded vote in order to pass a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. And although Massie’s colleagues were able to foil his parliamentary procedure in a matter of seconds, his efforts nonetheless forced scores of lawmakers to travel to Washington amid a pandemic to stop him.
Led by President Donald Trump, both Republicans and Democrats lined up to whack the GOP lawmaker who tried to derail the bipartisan stimulus bill.
“Looks like a third rate Grandstander named @RepThomasMassie, a Congressman from, unfortunately, a truly GREAT State, Kentucky, wants to vote against the new Save Our Workers Bill in Congress,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
House Republican leadership had been concerned that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) would move to demand a recorded tally as opposed to a voice vote on the historic measure, throwing a last-minute hurdle in the legislation’s path to the president’s desk.
Two hours after Trump’s initial post, Massie confirmed that he would do just that, tweeting: “I swore an oath to uphold the constitution, and I take that oath seriously. In a few moments I will request a vote on the CARES Act which means members of Congress will vote on it by pushing ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘present.’”
Massie ultimately failed on Friday afternoon when the House approved the package. But his threat compelled dozens, if not hundreds, of lawmakers to return to Capitol Hill from their home districts, navigating across interstates and through airports at a time when public health officials have urged Americans to avoid nonessential travel and gathering in large groups.
“He just wants the publicity. He can’t stop it, only delay, which is both dangerous … & costly,” Trump tweeted of Massie. “Workers & small businesses need money now in order to survive. Virus wasn’t their fault. It is ‘HELL’ dealing with the Dems, had to give up some stupid things in order to get the ‘big picture’ done. 90% GREAT! WIN BACK HOUSE, but throw Massie out of Republican Party!”
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
December 6, 2021 at 11:06 am
Massie is an MIT graduate who won a competition there for building a solar car. Just a decade ago, he filmed the conversion of his home to being a completely off-grid and sustainable solar home. And yet, he is a hardcore denier with third grader arguments, as in the Kerry video above. (I read Kerry’s tweet before watching the video and thought Kerry went too far, but wow, after watching the video, I can see why he did it.)
Massie frequently goes against traditional conservative positions on foreign policy. He’ll also go whackadoo rogue on things like individual honors that has the support of everyone across the aisle. The only way to describe him politically is that he’s an ideological libertarian – so much so that the key principles of libertarianism override rationality, especially when scientific realities like climate change collide with ideological preferences against governmental action.
He’s been elected by landslide margins in the handful of races he’s been in. The ammo for Christmas thing is a virtue signaller to his base, and it gets to ‘trigger the libs’, a completely intentional act that has the benefit of further burnishing good credentials to his voters.
A-hole, most definitely. But, this is a good example of what politics in America have devolved into in the past decade.
December 6, 2021 at 11:40 am
FYI, the Lunatic Fringe is an expression that has been floating around North America for more than 120 years. WP-Quote: is a reference to is a term used to characterize members of a political or social movement as extremists with eccentric or fanatical views. Theodore Roosevelt is widely credited with having popularized the term, which he used with gusto:
1) “There is apt to be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement.”
2) “Then, among the wise and high-minded people who in self-respecting and genuine fashion strive earnestly for peace, there are foolish fanatics always to be found in such a movement and always discrediting it — the men who form the lunatic fringe in all reform movements.”
comment: apparently nothing has changed in the past 120 years. In fact, the political world now seems crazier than it ever did. The second comment now seems a little anachronistic since this kind of thinking now seems to also affect women.
December 6, 2021 at 12:01 pm
The fringe has always existed. The problem, though, is that the ‘lunatic fringe’ is no longer JUST a fringe. They’re rapidly becoming the majority of the Republican Party. Many recent Republican positions are old John Birch Society ideas that were totally nutso to most Republicans in the 1960s.
It’s the bubble effect from pundits like Alex Jones and social media creating fertile soil for crazier and crazier political positions. It IS getting worse, at least here in the States, than it was in the past 50+ years – and imo, it’s dangerous to think it’s just the same as it ever was.
Massie won 67% to the Democrat contender’s 33% in 2020. he’s anything but fringe there. In our bubble, we see his card as outrageous (and it is), but it’s a complete win-win for him. He wins major kudos with his voters on several fronts with it. The fact that ammo might not be the ideal way to celebrate Christ’s birth, especially right after a horrific school shooting, has nothing to do with it for his base – to them, it’s all about a regular Joe like them celebrating Christmas, family, freedom, and sticking it to the liberals.
Total fugnuts (to us). But it’s completely normal and even praiseworthy to a solid chunk of the American electorate – it’s not fringe at all.
December 6, 2021 at 12:09 pm
Fox News on it:
Rep. Massie launches ‘maximum triggering’ with family Christmas photo: ‘Santa, please bring ammo’
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/thomas-massie-gun-christmas-photo-outrage-second-amendment
Read especially the end of the article – not taking it as truth but seeing it for the editorial slant it is. There WAS a time when the fringe was treated as the fringe in conservative circles. That line has long since passed. It’s now honored instead.
December 6, 2021 at 12:26 pm
I’d forgotten about that exchange with Mr. Kerry. Thanks.