One of my favorite lines from Melvin Udall, aka Jack Nicolson, in the film As Good as It Gets is,” Go sell crazy somewhere else; we’re all stocked up.” I’ve been thinking about that line a lot lately. Here’s why.
Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. has touted bizarre anti-vax theories, claimed that CIA agents were responsible for the JFK assassination, and said that an abnormality in his brain scan was caused by a worm that got into his brain, ate a portion of it, and died there. Recently he confessed to dumping a baby bear’s body in Central Park.
While on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about Hannibal Lecter, his golf game, and shocking sharks. Tell me that’s not crazy.
Republican VP Nominee J.D. Vance lamented that the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies.” He also said that people without children were “deranged” and “psychotic.” Before becoming Trump’s running mate, he called himself a “never-Trump guy” and called Trump an “idiot,” “noxious,” “reprehensible,” and “America’s Hitler.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has ranted about Pelosi’s “Gazpacho Police,” claimed that 9/11 attacks were partly conducted by the Federal Government, suggested that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced with a body double before her death in 2020, argued that global warming is beneficial to humanity because more food is grown when it’s warmer which feeds people, called January 6 “a little riot,” and stated that California wildfires were started by Jewish laser beams. I could go on, but I’ll stop right there.
Paul Gosar (R-AZ) called January 6 rioters “peaceful patriots” and tweeted out an animated video showing himself killing Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Several of Gosar’s own siblings have repeatedly called on him to resign from Congress, claiming that he is “immune to shame,” and has displayed “unhinged behavior” and didn’t possess the “intellect, character or maturity to serve in Congress.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala) called the three branches of government, “The House, the Senate, and the Executive.”
Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was convicted of all charges in his corruption trial, including accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as a foreign agent to the Egyptian government.
Matt Gaetz (R-FL) continues to be under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sex trafficking violations, illegal drug use, inappropriate use of campaign funds, and more. Couple that with his major league dramatically overly botoxed face at the Republican convention, and it’s difficult to take the guy seriously.
So why are there so many unserious poor representatives in Congress? Many observers blame the current situation on Newt Gingrich who was Speaker of the House for four years in the late 90’s. Gingrich made fund raising a priority and massively gutted congressional budgets and downsized committee staff. Dozens of the most knowledgeable and experienced legislative staff members left Capitol Hill as a result. Today most members of congress don’t write legislation or develop legislative ideas themselves, instead they rely on Think Tanks like The Heritage Foundation (author of the now infamous Project 2025), The American Enterprise Institute, and The Brookings Institution.
Gingrich embraced the philosophy of aggressively confronting the opposing party instead of seeking common ground and focusing on legislation. He sought attention for his party, and the ploy worked. Gingrich, more than any other Republican, is responsible for his party regaining a majority in the House of Representatives after many years of Democratic majorities. The Gingrich philosophy is still embraced on Capitol Hill. So now instead of substantive dialogue, we see delight in humiliating speakers at Congressional hearings, and endless grandstanding of congresspeople like Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Josh Hawley (R-KS), MTG (R-GA) Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and a host of others.
A Pew Research Study shows that a majority of Americans have a very negative view of politicians. I understand why. The caliber of some elected officials is past embarrassing. Many of them are self-serving and ineffective.
So, what’s to be done? For starters. both political parties should require candidates running under their banner to pass a basic civics test—along the lines of a citizenship exam—as a prerequisite for holding public office. Clearly other reforms are needed, including reviving ethics in campaign spending, banning lobbyists from fundraising for politicians, strengthening criminal anti-corruption laws, banning individual stock ownership by members of Congress, and posting legislation at least three days before a vote so that all members have the ability to read proposed legislation. Let’s be clear. We need to get serious. The swamp has not been drained and both parties need to work together to fix it.
In Joseph Heller’s novel Catch 22, the character Yossarian said, “Insanity is contagious.” It certainly seems that way, since this is the craziest group of elected officials I remember in my lifetime. Let’s hope a cure is on the horizon. It can’t come a moment too soon.
Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, and nature.
Maggie Andersen says
Great column, Maria!
Linda Kohler says
Hardly an unbiased look at the “crazies” in politics. One Democrat, Bob Menendez, was mentioned among a host of Republicans. Joe Biden’s story of an uncle eaten by cannibals didn’t make the list. If you want people to take politics seriously, perhaps you should take journalism seriously and open both of your eyes when viewing the world. You’ll see things more clearly.
Maria Grant says
Thanks for your message. I wasn’t aware of the uncle eaten by cannibals but you’re right, it is a strange claim. I would also like to point out in addition to Menendez I also included Independent Robert Kennedy, Jr. I held myself in check by not mentioning fraudster George Santos, dog killing Kristi Noem, empty kitchen woman Katie Britt, Lindsay Graham, and so much more.
Rob Douglass says
Linda, please do write up a “both eyes open” story that captures your perspective of the amazing things our former president has done and is planning on doing. I would really love to read it with an open mind in genuine seriousness.
Please also share some titles and authors of books I should read to get a balanced or different perspective of our former president, his team or the policies and accomplishments he’s made. I commit to reading them.
Here are a few books that shape my current perceptions of the former president and the Republican Party of which I used to be a member in the Reagan-Bush years: “The Trump Indictments” – Velshi; “Where Law Ends” – Weissman; “The 1619 Project” – Hannah-Jones; “Unthinkable” – Raskin; “Betrayal” – Karl; “Dark Money” – Mayer; “Gunfight” – Busse to name a few.
Honest, open dialogue. Thank you!
Maria Grant says
Thanks for this.
trudy wonder says
I always enjoy your pieces and this has left me going, Wow, when you look at it all at once, WE look like the crazy ones for continuing to elect these nuts and suffer their indignities over and over again. We’ve allowed our ‘elected’ (think about that) officials to turn the Halls of Congress into a three ring circus – intentionally (on their part). When are we going to start demanding they get back to the people’s work of lawmaking (which, by nature, requires goodwill collaboration and conversation) instead of PR grandstanding and fundraising – often in the form of “inquiries” (we need them to be lawmakers, not courts – that’s another branch of government)? We hire these people, we pay these people, and it’s we who need to set the requirements and fire these people if they’re not up to the task.
Also… I couldn’t help but notice your list did not include Crazy Emeritus, George Santos who was expelled from the House last Dec and is currently preparing for his upcoming Fraud trial. It’s small comfort to know we at least have ‘some’ scruples left.
Maria Grant says
Thanks for your comments and insights. Much appreciated. I too am grateful that Santos has been expelled. Here’s hoping for a more enlightened and serious Congress.
Julie Susman says
Amen
Rob Douglass says
Maria, great piece, very well said! You have my vote to replace Andy Harris any day!
Sad thing, I fear, is that it is going to get uglier, and more disgusting, as the Republicans (yes, I used to be one back when they were sane and stood for something in the Reagan-Bush years) become more desperate. Trump has no idea how to “go high” though he’s a master of “go low” and goes lower the more desperate he becomes.
Going back in time (sorry to burst the MAGA bubble, America is still great) plus doom and gloom (versus looking to the future with hope and some policy and problem solving plans) are not going to win at the ballot box this fall (yes, my prediction and yes, we’ll all have to wait and see).
“We the People” were looking for something different in 2016 and “We” (not me) gave Trump a chance. He was fired in 2020 fairly and squarely for his job performance and “We the People” need to remember every crazy thing he said (drink bleach, maybe that will cure COVID) and did (chose a radical Supreme Court to overturn things like a woman’s right to choose), and there are so many more.
President Biden showed the character of George Washington, relinquishing power versus trying to hold onto it like Trump tried, and failed. President Biden is a man of character and responsibility and cares about America and its future. Actions, not just words.
If you think it’s weird now, standby, 88 days to go! We’re going to see how low the Trumpians go.
Maria Grant says
Thanks for your comments. How I wish we could elect an Eastern Shore congressperson of which we could be proud. Alas, that is not the case. I agree with you that things are going to get uglier before they get better. Let’s hope the joyous team prevails!
Wilson Dean says
This article sums up so well what most reasonable people on both sides of the political aisle are thinking : Congress and Presidential candidates need to stop with the crazy antics and come up substantive solutions to problems all of us in the country face.
Many of us don’t care whether Democratic VP Walz carried his rifle in war or military training, or what JD Vance did with his couch. So many of us instead want to know what our government is going to do for our children and grandchildren about climate change, what it will do for our seniors in shoring up Social Security, what it will do to help us to prepare for the next pandemic so it doesn’t kill one million of us again, what we can do to make colleges and trade schools more affordable—the list is endless.
Two warnings. First it will require compromise, the kind of brilliant work Republican Senator James Langford, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, and Independent Senator Krysten Sinema put together for dealing with the border situation. Second, it will require people to agree on the facts. There can be no substantive discussion or solutions until people dismiss outlandish conspiracy rumors unsupported by any evidence (yes, Trump did lose the 2020 election as was proven as he lost over 60 court cases on the issue). This is a tall order for our country, but a fully functioning democracy demands both compromise and recognition of the facts. Both are sorely lacking right now.
Maria Grant says
Wilson,
Thanks so much for your on-point analysis. I agree with you that the Border bill was a piece of legislation that should have been passed. Unfortunately Trump told his supporters to kill the bill. I also agree with your point about all the important legislation that needs to be passed and priorities that need to resurface. Thank you for writing.
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson says
Bravo! You’ve been reading my mind. To underscore, that candidates “be required to pass a basic civics test—along the lines of a citizenship exam,” brings to mind those years long ago when, as a baby priest, I assisted refugees in asylum visits, represented them before the U.S. Immigration Court; and teaching them and then standing with them at their citizenship ceremonies. I believe the oath of citizenship should be required not only of political candidates, but as well of ordinary citizens. I inherited this view from my father, a Russian Jewish immigrant receiving his education in England, coming to the United States, becoming a citizen, clerking in a federal appellate court, then becoming a judge. He evidenced crocodile tears when describing the oath of citizenship, and the sanctity of being an American. Thanks for your fine article!
Maria Grant says
Thanks so much for your comments. And kudos to you and your dad! So wonderful to hear these success stories!
Laurie Powers says
I will start by saying I agree with Ms. Grant that we need better public servants representing We the People and that “clearly other reforms are needed” as they are listed in her second to last paragraph.
And Ms. Grant is entitled to her opinion of Robert Kennedy, Jr. and the others she includes in her letter. I won’t respond to her comments about the others.
However, ‘crazy,’ ‘conspiracy-theorist,’ ‘anti-vaxer’ are the standard smears used by the DNC and its captured media to discredit independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. because he is popular and poses a threat to their power structure. It’s a shame that Ms. Grant parrots those smears, evidently without doing her own homework before perpetuating the harmful rhetoric that is dividing this country and keeping people from seeing the truth about this candidate and one another.
As I’ve shared before in other replies, I’ve followed Mr. Kennedy closely for five years, and he’s the farthest thing from crazy I can imagine by any reasonable standard. The majority of examples Ms. Grant gives to label him as crazy were concocted or dug up from the past and twisted by the legacy media to hurt his reputation. It says more about the media and people who blindly parrot these smears than it does about Mr. Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy inspires me every day to be a better person. When detractors smear or attack him, he doesn’t attack back. He rises above it. He is an exemplary leader and the remedy to the division, hatred and unwellness in our country; we have never needed a president of his caliber or compassion more. I agree with the thousands of people I’ve heard say that he is by far the best candidate in our lifetime.
I’d like to share something my friend and fellow volunteer in the Kennedy campaign just posted to social media. She speaks for me and the many tens of thousands of volunteers who are working tirelessly on the ground in the Team Kennedy grassroots campaign because we believe wholeheartedly in this candidate and the need to elect him as our next president.
She wrote (we can’t use Mr. Kennedy’s name in our FB posts or we will be shadow banned, thanks to Meta and government censorship/election interference):
My candidate inspires me every single day to be a better person. And his inspiration gives me the strength to volunteer daily, to do the hard work and to fight against the broken and corrupt 2-party system that is trying to exclude him from the race by any means necessary, no matter how un-democratic. I care so much for this country and all its people, as I’m sure all of you do, but I am SO TIRED of all the hate back and forth. And both of our 2-party candidates are promising more of the same hatred back and forth. Haven’t we all had enough hate for the last 8 years?
No matter how much my candidate is attacked, bullied or smeared, he never spews hatred back at his attackers. NEVER. We need change in this country–NOW. We need to challenge and overcome “the establishment” that just wants to maintain the status quo of the 2 sides warring against each other.
My candidate wrote the following this morning, and I urge you to please read it through. This is the presidential candidate we ALL need–whether red, blue, purple, democrat, republican, libertarian, green, etc. He cares and will fight for ALL people, as he has already been doing for the last 40 years. And maybe if you read this, you will better understand why the corporate-funded 2-party system and the corporate-funded media are fighting so hard to KEEP him from becoming president. That is, WHY he inspires resistance in the establishment.
Here it is:
“During my announcement speech more than a year ago, I said that I have so many skeletons in the closet that if they could vote, I would be king of the world. I knew much would be made of my past. I have been around politics. I know of its hazards. I also knew that my vision and policies would inspire resistance in the establishment.
When you declare yourself foe to widespread corporate-government corruption and declare yourself counter-friction to a runaway war machine (a war machine killing innocents and draining our country’s coffers), you will inspire resistance in the establishment. (Put another way, many powerful people want to make sure the gravy train never stops. And I derail gravy trains.)
When you point out the morbidity of our two-party system — a system that our first president warned us about, a system that is now largely predicated on hating fellow humans — you will inspire resistance in the establishment.
When you’ve spent much of your life successfully fighting against our biggest corporations and worst polluters; fighting against mining, timber, hydroelectricity, and oil industries on behalf of the voiceless and the indigenous; fighting against agribusiness barons blithely ravaging the lives of small farmers and small towns, you will inspire resistance in the establishment.
When you remind Americans that censorship and other curtailments of our civil liberties always arrive burnished with a moral and patriotic gloss, you will inspire resistance in the establishment.
When you invoke our crisis of meaning, our deaths of despair, the addiction, and the many children lost to screens, ill health, and ennui, you will inspire resistance in the establishment.
When you are wary of reductive partisan ideology and group-think; and when you refuse the common coin of today’s public discourse — a glib second-rate cruelty delivered via the screen — you will inspire resistance in the establishment.
When you assert that to better our country we must work toward a politics that heals this divide and affirms our mutual belonging, you will inspire resistance in the establishment.
As you perhaps know, I am used to such resistance — used to the bile and malign distortions that accompany speaking out on high-stakes issues. And I know that the establishment’s treatment of me — while challenging — makes perfect sense.
The dark and elaborately refined arts of partisan politics deployed to end my campaign (the documented censorship and shadowbanning; the out-in-the-open, anti-democratic, and well-funded attempts to keep me off ballots through expensive, complex, time-consuming legal challenges; the thwarting of debate access; the withholding of secret service protection; the paid staged protests; the sundry campaigns of defamation and scandalmongering) are the logical reactions of a threatened — and very unwell — status quo.
And underneath all of this — underneath much of this election cycle, underneath much of this moment in our nation’s politics — is a sort of destitution. A destitution of heart. It’s no small wonder so many people have withdrawn from civic life and democracy altogether.
A broken bond needs to be reestablished in our country. We need more soul-searching and less partisan warfare. Our work as Americans, whether we like it or not, transcends all labels and all parties. It seems we will recognize this reality and act accordingly; or be broken into it. History is not made occasionally on great stages by the privileged few but made daily in the depths of each human soul.
Ours is a beautiful nation, still. According to the Internet, our country (and our world) founders in chaos. But in post offices, parks, grocery stores our beauty still heartens and shines. We all see it every day.
It is in the name of that beauty that I work.
It is in the name of that beauty that I run to be your next president.
The true power of America is not its comfort, wealth, or military might, but its ideals of liberty, democracy, and generosity.
This campaign is about honoring and restoring those ideals — regardless of the defamation, evasion, and trickery. We knew those were coming.
We will not be deterred on this necessary journey.”
Maria Grant says
Thanks for your comments. In my defense, I’m not getting info about RFK Jr. from the radical left. I actually worked at a bookstore in DC when his book The Real Dr. Fauci came out and saw the divisiveness and consternation it created. He has a long track record of undermining science. Also, he is not widely popular. He will be lucky if he gets 8 percent of the vote. The good news is that it looks as though right leaning Independents are more likely to vote for him which will take votes away from Trump. This is also another case where even his own family members are urging voters not to vote for him. They say he is a threat to the country.
trudy wonder says
I saw an article in a Portuguese English-language paper the other day noting that Nicole Shanahan is vacationing in Portugal this week and it reminded me that the Presidential ticket is a twofer. Should something happen to the President, the VP must be a ready-now candidate to immediately step in an assume the Office of the Presidency.
Vice President of the United States is a critical position, yet we’ve heard and learned nothing of his VP nominee other than the fact that she married one of the wealthiest tech execs in America and was injecting millions into his campaign. (Shanahan is the richest candidate for vice president in at least 50 years.)
Shanahan rarely appears at RFK Jr. campaign events and infrequently gives interview to mainstream outlets (one of the other would give the American public an opportunity to get to know her and what she stands for). Her first solo appearance on the campaign trail was a month and a half after Kennedy named her as his running mate.
What do we know of her politics:
– Shanahan has “questioned the scientific consensus on vaccine safety and efficacy.”
– During their campaign, Shanahan and Kennedy have expressed divergent views. Shanahan expressed support for banning abortion at “between 15 and 18 weeks” while a Kennedy spokesman said “he believes the cutoff should be at fetal viability.”
– While campaigning in 2024, Shanahan echoed conspiracist rhetoric common in the QAnon and Christian nationalist movements, suggesting that “the government might be satanically possessed” and that “almost demonic forces” have “overtaken our agencies, and our culture.”She has criticized the Biden administration for lending military aid to Ukraine.
– Shanahan has named ultraconservative U.S. Representative Thomas Massie as one of her “favorite” members of Congress.
– Shanahan has suggested that their campaign was intended to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives (in the U.S., if no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the election is thrown to the House); Kennedy disavowed this strategy.
When voting for President, we are also voting for Vice President, yet I never hear mention of this woman who, if Kennedy were to be elected, would be one heartbeat from the White House. Let’s please include her in advocacy – or not – of the RFK Jr. ticket.
For reference: Washington Post article:
‘I ran into her yesterday’: RFK’s strange non-relationship with his VP pick.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, are on the same ticket. Getting on the same page is taking a bit more time.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/05/21/rfk-kennedy-vice-president-shanahan/
Diann Masinick says
So well written. As a former health care worker I’m astonished how many medically trained people cannot see the many psychological misfits that are in government or running for an office. It truly is scary, like a sci-fi novel.
Robert Parker says
While the Parties need to vet potential candidates, our govt is “by the people and for the people”. Consequently, the voters need to educated on how the govt functions and general “civics”, AND our elected officials must refrain from giving simple answers/solutions to complex problems. Without doing this, the general voter will always be disappointed in our govt and will continue to elect “crazies”.