The Feigned Mortification of Monsieur Mangolini

I must confess to no small amount of disappointment with Kathy Griffin. This past Tuesday she held up the fake severed head of President Trump and half the country blew a gasket. I’m not disappointed that she opted to do this. I’m disappointed that she apologized.

Conservatives around the country trotted out their faux righteous indignation and howled from the apical orbits of their questionable religiosity, purportedly appalled by the barbarity and “violence of the left”. Our esteemed Commander-in-Chief was quick to join in the furor, Tweeting out,

“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”

So, let’s paint a picture here. Melania rushes across the gilded opulence of the family apartments in a frenzy, approaches the impressionable Barron who is perched atop his stuffed lion and quickly tosses her hands over the eyes of the Mangolini scion lest he see the horrific specter of his father’s decapitated rubber head held aloft by that woman who rings in the New Year with Anderson Cooper. That an innocent child should be exposed to such imagery is unacceptable, bleated the right-wing commentators.

The bloody indefatigable hypocrisy it requires to get your collective panties in such a bunch is stupefying. Daddy’s worried about the impact on his impressionable son? Here’s a guy who, in public venue after public venue, screamed out exhortations such as. “And you can tell them, to go f**k themselves” and “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any voters”. Who questioned President Obama’s right to the Presidency and whose supporters, repeatedly, hung his predecessor in effigy.

Republicans hang Obama in Effigy

Here’s a guy who spews vitriol and exhortations to violence with unfailing predictability, who has belittled the disabled and women, maligned every minority population on the grid. Profane, bombastic and a relentless bully, Monsieur Mangolini’s ostensible concern in this instance is absurd. The wannabe schoolyard bully who, if he ever got into an actual fistfight would surely scamper into the corner like the fainting daisy that he is. But to get so worked up over THIS? Priceless.

Yeah, we all know he’s playing to the base again. This man who prattles on about “bombing the shit out of them” and under whose watch, the acceptable collateral casualties among civilians in places like Syria and Iraq have escalated sharply. This man who has no problem with incarcerating entire families for civil infractions so a pack of corporate hacks can yank down 200 bucks a day from the Federal government while screaming about national debt. This accursed draft-dodger with the nerve to talk tough with his drooping gait and his pugnacious chin who spent Vietnam as a trust fund baby in the bordellos of Manhattan has the nerve to whine about a comic holding up a rubber head.

And he used the plural form for his progeny, “children”. Now that’s funny.

So, the base. Kids who begin playing Medal of Honor and Mortal Combat on X-Box at age 12, with all the gore and digital carnage that entails. Who regularly watch the President of their nation bully and berate anyone who dares utter a peep he don’t like. Our children watch the gunning down of unarmed black men in the streets by cops who never seem to get punished or sanctioned for their actions. A nation where poor men and women get prison sentences for non-violent misdemeanor offenses while the nation’s Attorney General lies under oath before Congress and nothing happens. Spare us your hollow posturing.

Kathy Griffin is a comic who provokes responses by crossing lines and in doing so forces us to confront some aspect of the interior imagery inhabiting our troubled heads. So, she offended hypocrites and snowflakes. Big deal. I wish she wouldn’t have apologized. When she did his Orangeness chalked up one more meaningless tick-mark that will be gleefully heralded by his supporters, most of whom remain utterly clueless as to how badly they’re getting screwed. If you’re going to trot around like a bombastic, bullying asshole at least have the decency not to act like a first-rate pansy when someone serves it back to you in kind.

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