The Patriot Post® · Just When You Think You've Heard the Weirdest Thing Possible...

Politics is many things: maddening, confusing, dirty, crazy. A recent example is Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, a #NeverTrumper who did not seek reelection in November and who has decided that he will oppose every effort to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominees during the remaining weeks of his term unless there is a bill put forth to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from being fired.

This position is odd for a couple of reasons. First, the reason for holding up a vote on a nominee or voting against one is that you believe the nominee is not fit for the position. Second, there is no indication that Trump, after one and a half years of Mueller’s investigation, intends to fire him, even though he has the clear authority to do so if he chooses, for any reason or for no reason.

Such a bill raises constitutional questions as well, since a law that effectively raises an administration employee, which Mueller is, above the authority of the president in effect creates a fourth branch of government.

And then there’s the new Darling of the DNC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young Democrat elected to represent a New York district. The new representative is loved by both the Left and the Right, but for very different reasons.

The Left loves her because she is young and appeals to its idea of shaking things up. The New York Times termed the young member of the Democratic Socialists of America a “28-year-old giant slayer” when she defeated 19-year incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley in the primary.

The Right loves her because of her frequent gaffs. She seems to have little knowledge about the way the country works, among other things. She not long ago informed the country that America’s government has “three chambers of Congress.” Realizing the mistake, she corrected to “three chambers of government: the presidency, the Senate, and the House.”

She champions renewable energy, believing it can cure many ills. “The transition to 100 percent renewable [energy is] the vehicle to truly deliver and establish economic, social and racial justice in the United States.”

And to top it off, in a Twitter dustup with Donald Trump, Jr., she threatened to use the House subpoena power against him. That’s a no-no.

After the 2016 election there was talk of doing away with the Electoral College, because were it not for that system, Hillary Clinton — the person who was supposed to win the presidency — would have become president, since she won the popular vote.

Another Democrat wants not only to do away with the Electoral College but the U.S. Senate as well.

As reported by The Washington Times, “Former Democratic Rep. John Dingell, the country’s longest-serving congressman, called for the abolishment of the Electoral College and the Senate, arguing against the ‘disproportionate influence of small states’ that paralyzes the lawmaking and electoral processes.”

Whether Dingell, with more than 59 years in Congress, was never taught the reasons for the brilliant design of our government or just wants to grease the wheels for Democrats to speed transforming the United States of America into another socialist catastrophe, à la Barack Obama, is open to debate.

The Senate’s design of two senators from each state and the Electoral College were very deliberate mechanisms to ensure that the states maintained some independence and that population centers like New York City and California would not run roughshod over the less populated areas of the country. They both are obstacles the Left would love to eliminate.

A Facebook post laid bare the ignorance of at least some of the legions of Trump detractors. When Trump saluted the flag-draped coffin of former President George H.W. Bush, he was criticized for saluting without having served in the U.S. military. Apparently, no one — or at least not Trump — may salute without having earned the privilege.

The post, however, showed photos of former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who also dared to salute without having served in the military, which, if memory serves, did not generate any criticism.

We we also find performers in the anti-Trump media, sometimes known as the “fake news” media, who criticize Trump’s combative “take no prisoners” style as offensive, along with nearly everything else he does, says, or even is thought to be thinking. One such performer said during the funeral of George H.W. Bush that Trump’s style, in sharp contrast to Bush’s gentlemanly style, has debased the presidency.

But history shows us that politics has always been a rough and tumble activity and that Trump has much company in his caustic style. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams may have set the standard in 1796, and the 1828 contest between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson has been called the dirtiest in American history.

So many of the crazy things that we witness today result from the tremendous amount of things that people don’t know: ignorance. And the poster child for that sad characteristic may be New York’s Ocasio-Cortez.