Scott Tibbs
Learning to take a joke
By Scott Tibbs, November 6, 2023
One of the most self-destructive things you can do in politics is to be completely humorless. Reacting angrily to jokes and slights only encourages more mockery. Everyone who has spent significant time on forums has heard an important lesson, even if they did not practice it:
Do not feed the trolls. The more high-profile your office or candidacy, the more counterproductive it is to overreact to jokes.
Enter the Ron DeSantis for President campaign. DeSantis has faced some trolling about wearing "high heels." The smart thing to do is ignore it, be the adult in the room, and focus on policy. His campaign staff did not get the message, and reacted angrily to a joke by a conservative influencer on the subject, repeatedly attacking her. The whole episode was a huge embarrassment, especially since the influencer in question
has been very supportive of DeSantis. If you become angry at good-natured ribbing, how can you deal with Vladimir Putin or Ayatollah Khamenei?
I am not a fan of politics-by-meme. The Trump campaign has relied far too much on personal insults and mockery, to the detriment of serious policy discussions. Memes have always had a place in politics, and are the modern equivalent of what editorial cartoons used to be. But we live in a time when this nation faces serious budgetary, economic and foreign pressures. We need leaders who take those issues seriously, and are not obsessed with personal grievance or personally mocking opponents.
The DeSantis "high heels" dust-up is something that blew over in a couple days, but overreacting to memes can have serious consequences. Back in 2016, a Trump supporter posted a meme on X (formerly Twitter) telling Democrats to vote by text. He was just sentenced to years in prison. Now, Douglass Mackey might not be a paragon of virtue. He has expressed beliefs many people find odious. But the fact remains that, no matter what corrupt prosecutors and so-called "judges" claim, he committed no crime by posting satire on social media. Despite what the Biden Regime believes, the First Amendment actually does exist and actually does forbid this kind of malicious politically-motivated persecutions of trolls like Mackey.
This is dangerous. There is a lot of lingering bitterness on the Left over the 2016 election, and many Democrats are (wait for it...)
election deniers to this day. They
hated the mockery that came from the Trump camp and supporters. But throwing people in prison for satirical memes, when there is no evidence that anyone was denied the right to vote by those memes, is a direct attack on the First Amendment, equal rights and democracy itself.
As much as developing a sense of humor is beneficial in politics, no one needs it more than the Biden Regime. Let's be very clear: If you fail to vote because you believed a satirical meme, that is your fault. Every Republican candidate for President should promise a full pardon for Mackey and harsh retaliation against the corrupt prosecutors and all staff and law enforcement agents who participated in the unjust persecution of Mackey.
Everyone needs to chill out. Barring the mutilation of our system of government into a tyrannical regime, memes are not going away any time soon. Politicians and their campaigns need to be disciplined enough to avoid getting drawn into childish social-media spats. Much more importantly, though, we need to elect people who are truly committed to free speech and will not seek to weaponize government against dissent. Those who do should be impeached and, whenever possible, prosecuted for corruption and abuse of power.
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