Unhealthy is sweet for GOP as MTG praises Pentagon leaker
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If Cruella de Vil, the evil, dog-fur-coat-craving heiress within the novel “The Hundred and One Dalmatians,” hadn’t been featured in a Disney film, she’d seemingly be a hero to present-day Republicans.
They appear to have a factor for villains. The 2 front-runners for the GOP presidential nomination are Donald Trump – an election-denying, insult-hurling and completely indicted former president – and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – a bully whose main targets embody teachers, LGBTQ youth and, as he clearly demonstrated late last week by signing a draconian six-week abortion ban, ladies who need management over their very own our bodies.
However alas, Cruella can’t be a part of the fold of favored fiends. The Disney connection dooms her. That firm, in accordance with DeSantis and different Republicans, is “woke.” And woke, you see, is evil.
It is complicated, however in at present’s GOP, ‘unhealthy’ is ‘good’
I can already hear your confusion. Aren’t I premising this column on the concept Republicans are embracing villains? And if that’s the case, shouldn’t evil truly be good?

It’s difficult. Somebody “unhealthy” is simply “good” when that individual matches completely, like a laser-cut jigsaw piece, into the puzzle that’s the right-wing ecosystem.
For instance, a 21-year-old Air Nationwide Guardsman, Jack Teixeira, was arrested last week and charged with leaking classified military documents on-line. In regular America, this is able to be thought-about “unhealthy.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene provides suspected labeled doc leaker Jack Teixeira an enormous ol’ hug
Enter one Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s the face of Home Republicans, whether or not they prefer it or not. After the suspect’s arrest, she tweeted: “Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he advised the reality about troops being on the bottom in Ukraine and much more. Ask your self who’s the actual enemy?”
I did ask myself who the actual enemy is – actually I requested myself a number of instances, simply to make certain – and the reply all the time got here up: the man charged with an array of crimes referring to the leaking of labeled paperwork.
However once more, that’s in regular America. In a lot of right-wing-echo-chamber America, nonetheless, the alleged actions Teixeira took have been embraced. He matches proper into the puzzle, partially as a result of, as Greene noted, he’s “white, male, christian” and his case might be twisted right into a grievance in opposition to the Biden administration. Welcome dwelling, Jack.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott needs to pardon a convicted assassin
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced he’s going to do all he can to pardon Daniel Perry, an Military sergeant who was found guilty this month of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020. This got here after Fox News’ Tucker Carlson hollered about Perry’s conviction, calling it “a authorized atrocity.”

Within the right-wing fever swamps, anybody related to Black Lives Matter is all the time the unhealthy man. And that previous Republican tough-on-crime thought? That solely applies if the crime matches the puzzle, and this one clearly didn’t.
Oops! Seems the convicted assassin additionally despatched a bunch of racist messages
But it surely will get worse. Shortly after Abbott went to bat for the convicted assassin, extra courtroom paperwork from the case have been unsealed. They included an array of personal messages from Perry that are wildly racist. So now Abbott and Carlson and all who’ve tried to make Perry a trigger célèbre on the precise have their arms round a racist assassin. Unhealthy is sweet, good is unhealthy. What a world.

Talking of crimes and unsavory characters, former President Trump has not solely been indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, he’s going through an array of other investigations starting from election interference to a possible violation of the Espionage Act.
He’ll additionally go on trial later this month in a civil lawsuit alleging defamation and sexual assault. That each one sounds downright villainous, however many Republicans nonetheless love him, and he stays the favourite to win the occasion’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Possibly it’s as a result of he additionally loves unhealthy guys.
Donald Trump clearly has a factor for tyrants
In a latest interview with Carlson on Fox News, Trump described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “high of the road.”
Of Chinese language President Xi Jinping, Trump stated that he “is an excellent man. For those who went throughout Hollywood to search for any individual to play the function of President Xi, you couldn’t discover – there’s no one like that. The look, the mind, the entire thing.”
The brutal North Korean dictator? Trump stated: “Kim Jong Un is wise too. You understand, once you come out and as a younger man at 24, 23, despite the fact that he kind of inherits it, most individuals once they inherit, they lose it. And that’s straightforward stuff. He took over a rustic, a really sensible folks, very, very energetic folks, very powerful folks at a really younger age. And he has whole dominate management. That’s not straightforward.”
Have Republicans met a tyrant they don’t like in recent times? (I welcome your emails saying “BIDEN IS A TYRANT AND YOUR AN IDIOT!!!” Thanks for proving my level.)
And lest we neglect, the ‘heroes’ who attacked the U.S. Capitol
Don’t neglect all of the violent MAGA mopes in jail for attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Carlson, Greene, Trump and different notable noisemakers routinely frame them as patriotic victims of an unjust system.
So those who beat up all of the cops and expressed a urgent need to hold Vice President Mike Pence are actually the great guys if you happen to’re a part of the pro-villain wing of the Republican Celebration.
It’s a wierd time to be alive. I’m telling you, if Cruella hadn’t been in that Disney flick, she’d in all probability be a GOP-vice-presidential-candidate-in-waiting, making a killing promoting faux-dog-fur coats at MAGA rallies.
Observe USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Fb facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
Extra from Rex Huppke:
Elon Musk is taking away my blue check mark on Twitter. Who am I if not notable?
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