So Christmas arrives in several days, and, no doubt, if you’re headed to a family gathering there will be some chatter, cool or heated, about politics, perhaps warmed
over and renewed versions from the occasional Thanksgiving repartee amid sharp veers toward pique or anger, especially if there’s plenty of alcohol around.
Let’s see … what will be on the discussion menu?
May I recommend at No. 1 the political hypocrisy on both sides but particularly the hard right in the post-you-know-who era?
Did you catch on TV the other day when two GOP representatives assailed President Biden’s $2T social safety net bill, which would transform our nation in so many ways, from child care and family leave to battling climate change and public housing and a whole heckuva lot more.
The well-meaning Republicans said the Biden’s bill would overheat the economy and increase our income tax bills.
On whom exactly? Oh, the poor rich, as some House Democrats would like to see? Probably, but it’s certain the rich and corporations — that, like draft dodgers from the 1960s and ’70s, have fled the country and set up corporate offices in low-tax foreign countries to avoid paying their fair share to keep America afloat — could afford to shell out a few more bucks, a small percentage, and certainly won’t miss them unless their greed gene is activated.
What the GOP representatives fail to mention is their leader’s 2017 jobs and tax bill, which, predictably, ended up being a windfall for the rich and a deep reach into middle-class pockets to pay for it. I can remember paying a suddenly whopping amount in income taxes in 2019 and paid plenty since then, too, at a rate the rich would most assiduously try to avoid.
It was just a way for No. 45 to tell his friends to return some of the taxpayer largesse to his campaign coffers, which leads me to advocate for government-financed election campaigns in which everyone, depending on the office they seek, gets a fixed amount. It’s time to take “dark money” out of our collective political life for the sake of the long-term democratic health of our nation.
The No. 2 item on the menu, which continues the political hypocrisy theme, are the documents recently sent to the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 (let’s not forget the
siege on the Capitol, where several people died) by Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the former and fourth chief of staff to ol’ 45.
When it comes time during the holiday conversation to defend the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the other supremacist folks and their fellow travelers carrying Confederate flags on Jan. 6, riled up by ol’ 45, remember that prominent Fox News hosts — Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham among them — and even the president’s own son, Donald
Jr., urged their leader to go on national TV to stop the “Stop the Steal” riot as it raged out of control on the steps of the Capitol and later inside. Even president-elect Joe Biden called on the guy in the Oval Office to do the same.
Finally, the man in the orange face makeup appeared in a pre-recorded video urging his crazed supporters, who had no evidence the election was stolen but just said it was, to go home and cool their jets.
The thing is, the Fox News hosts and others later supported the rioters and their notion that the 2020 election had been stolen, even after several courts ruled that it had not been. What? These are educated people? Additional partisan ballot counts, notably the one in Arizona, revealed the certified official ballot count was, indeed, accurate and actually yielded additional votes for Biden.
So enough already! But just don’t add alcohol to the holiday menu, according to a recent survey from the American Addiction Centers.
The results from a survey of more than 3,400 respondents to find out how families deal with alcohol-fueled kerfuffles during the holidays:
1. One in four California family gatherings descend into drunken arguments during Christmas and at the dinner table (above the national average of 21 percent).
2. Thirty-eight percent say family arguments involve booze.
3. Politics is typically the main reason for family arguments during the December holidays.
4. Four in five have at least one extended family member who annoys them.
5. When it comes to drinking, more than half, or 57 percent of respondents, said they have at least one family member who becomes confrontational or argumentative when they have booze at get-togethers.
6. Nearly 70 percent said they would consider an alcohol-free family Christmas in order to avoid the WWF-style brawls during yuletide.
7. Among other culprits: family tensions, at 29 percent, and money, 17 percent.
8. Somewhat surprisingly, 17 percent said that taking games too seriously is the root cause of holiday arguments.
Californians can take heart, however, to know that the survey showed that families in Delaware were most affected by high-octane arguments, with one in three saying these
types of arguments take place in their homes during the holidays. By comparison, just 5 percent of households in Hawaii reported drunken arguments during the season.
OK, let’s all move to the Aloha State and forget the headlines coming from Capitol Hill.
With a nod to an old Eddie Murphy “Saturday Night Live” skit, happy holidays … dammit!
— Richard Bammer is a Reporter staff writer.
