Is pretend politics—hawking a counterfeit self—the ultimate right-wing propaganda?

For “real” Rethugs one looks in vain –/ It’s quicksand, whether frauds or insane.

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Image Credit; George Wylesol/The Economist

Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.” – La Rochefoucauld

“The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.” – Wm. Hazlitt

It’s no scoop tying MAGA with lying:
Recall only needless COVID dying;
But shameless, non-stop mendacity
Hides a worse crime: rank hypocrisy.

Sure, candidates relish make-believe,
Slippery slopes that dodge and deceive;
But lying differs from willful pretense—
Faking your self—the telltale offense.

The Donald leads GOP parades,
Pretend rage drives tedious charades;
Malicious pandering suits this snake—
Bogus branding fits a populist fake. 

His opening scam, as hot shot tycoon,
Collapsed when failure roiled the buffoon;
Candidate as troll his next scurvy scam,
All prep for lurid White House flimflam.

The worst loser morphs into martyr,
“I was robbed” cries the mock usurper;
Inciting a last-ditch insurrection,
More drama—but where’s his detention?

Up next counterfeit George Santos,
Dumb-bell lies hides his double-cross;
He playacted being a real person—
Instead arose cartoon perversion.

He overtopped mere mendacity,
Betrayed by his own rapacity;
His phony life had no there there,
A leaky balloon full of swamp air. 

Speaker McCarthy’s another spook,
A phantom imposter, two-faced fluke.
His leadership a wobbly delusion,
A pawn of vile MAGA collusion. 

For “real” Rethugs one looks in vain—
It’s quicksand, whether frauds or insane. 
Their monstrous burlesques never quit
All is pretense—all but real bullshit. 

FALL FUNDRAISER

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For over a decade, Robert S. Becker's independent, rebel-rousing essays on politics and culture analyze overall trends, history, implications, messaging and frameworks. He has been published widely, aside from Nation of Change and RSN, with extensive credits from OpEdNews (as senior editor), Alternet, Salon, Truthdig, Smirking Chimp, Dandelion Salad, Beyond Chron, and the SF Chronicle. Educated at Rutgers College, N.J. (B.A. English) and U.C. Berkeley (Ph.D. English), Becker left university teaching (Northwestern, then U. Chicago) for business, founding SOTA Industries, a top American high end audio company he ran from '80 to '92. From '92-02, he was an anti-gravel mining activist while doing marketing, business and writing consulting. Since then, he seeks out insight, even wit in the shadows, without ideology or righteousness across the current mayhem of American politics.

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