Profiles in Cowardice: The Susan Collins Chapter

W

hen I was in high school history class we used to get shown episodes from a show called Profiles in Courage, which was based on a book by the same name written by John F. Kennedy. Well, his name was on the thing anyway, though I see by Wikipedia that his contribution may actually have been fairly minor. Wikipedia says that “The book profiles senators who defied the opinions of their party and constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions.” That’s how I remember it, though I haven’t read it in decades, and I don’t know what I’d think of it today. I definitely took issue with some of the episodes of the tv show we saw in class—but my high school history class was supposed to do that—make you challenge the material and evaluate the stories presented as history.

Now imagine its bizarro counterpart—Profiles in Cowardice, with, say, Spiro Agnew’s name on the title page. The book would presumably profile senators who kowtowed to the opinions of their party rather than doing what was right and reaped enormous acclaim and popularity because of their actions. The gutless cretins who backed GWBush’s attack on Iraq could have a chapter, along with the late Senator McCain. Susan Collins would fit right in. Not that I expected anything different from her. Today’s Republicans are a different breed from those of the past; I’d abandon the party myself except that I don’t want to give the motherfuckers the satisfaction. Why the hell didn’t the Anti-Americans start their own goddamn party, instead of ruining the party of Lincoln and TR?

Ah, well, let the dead bury their own dead, and move on. It was nice while it lasted, but America is dead, and the zombie Trumpenproletariat infest the land, eating the brains of others since they have none of their own. Move on—there’s nothing to see here.