Clearly we are living through some weird times. The line between the factual and the absurd just keeps getting blurred beyond recognition.
Satire is dead.
Senate Republicans have complained that all the evidence against Trump has come from people with secondhand, third-hand and even fourth-hand knowledge. Yet when Democrats asked, during Trump’s impeachment trial, to subpoena witnesses with firsthand knowledge of Trump’s alleged wrongdoing, all such requests were voted down along a straight party-line vote.
Then, over the weekend, the Bolton book bombshell hits the streets. In the unpublished manuscript of his tell-all book, former national security advisor, John Bolton, says Donald Trump told him that he was withholding military aid to Ukraine in order to pressure Ukrainian president Zelensky to help him with political motivated investigations, i.e. dirt on the Bidens.
In a normal world this would be considered the ultimate firsthand knowledge … unless you could produce a witness who inhabited Trump’s subconscious!
But, no. Missouri junior Senator Josh Hawley is actually questioning whether John Bolton is that much-sought, indispensable witness.
When CNN’s Haley Byrd caught up with Hawley yesterday and asked why the Senate wouldn’t want to hear from Bolton, he replied, “Well, I don’t know. Is he a firsthand witness? I’m not sure.”
Folks, we have reached a point where writers of political satire need to just pack their bags and go ply their trade on some less absurdist terrain otherwise known as today’s political world. Well, at least until we can return to more normal times … if that is even possible.
Sorry, Mr. Borowitz, but it seems the current crop of Republican politicians may have put you, and all your clever fellow satirists, out of business.
Did you hear that Donald Trump is thinking of pardoning Charles Manson, Ms. Williamson?
Photo | washingtonpost.com
Satire is dead. Irony is dead. Hypocrisy is dead. Sense of shame is dead. And if things don’t change, our democracy is dead.
Sadly . So true.
Political satire has been very difficult in the Donald J. Trump Era. I’ve only written and published two satires about Trump since he announced his candidacy for president. One of those is actually not technically satire but answering one of Trump’s real questions (follow the link), and the other is about 90% true–because I couldn’t think of anything funnier than what Trump actually said.
It’s very hard to write anything about Donald J. Trump that’s both half-way believable and more absurd than what he says himself.
By the way, you can leave a message for your senators through the government’s Washington D.C. number of (202) 224-3121. You can tell your senators to end the unprecedented press restrictions on the Donald Trump Impeachment trial. The public has a right to know what’s actually going on.
Yes, hard to write satire when Trump is one continuous joke! But I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet!