The moral arc of the golf resort
There is no depth too low, it seems.
Ken Starr, an attorney for the president, invoked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his closing defense at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. “We hear the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream-filled speech about freedom,” Starr told the U.S. senators in attendance.
Oddly enough, though, by “freedom” King didn’t mean freedom to lie, to cheat, to steal, to grab by the pussy, to brag about grabbing by the pussy, to bully, to insult, to extort, to blackmail, to encourage and reward murderers and punish those who resist murderers.
“And during his magnificent life, Dr. King spoke not only about freedom, freedom standing alone, he spoke frequently about freedom and justice,” Starr continued. “And in his speeches he summoned up regularly the words of an abolitionist from the prior century, Theodore Parker, who referred to the moral arc of the universe — the long moral arc of the universe points toward justice.”
And it is emetically disgusting to compare that idea of the moral arc of the universe to anything related to Donald Trump. If the moral arc of the universe produces or protects a Donald Trump then the hell with the moral arc of the universe.
This is revolting on so many levels. The GOP spent decades despising MLK, trashing his reputation, calling him names, and ignoring his legacy – or belittling it. Now they try to put it on like a fancy jacket at their convenience, even while doing everything possible to undo what has been done by those who believed in MLK and his dream.
And to utilize MLK to defend a raging racist like DJT? I am disgusted. But I imagine Mitch McConnell is grinning from ear to ear. We’ll show those lefties…just say MLK with the suitable amount of reverence in your tone, and we can justify acquitting a monstrous lying, cheating, pussy-grabbing, bragging, incompetent knave who has seized the White House and is using threats of violence (and lost votes) from his supporters to keep the party in line.
Hardly the legacy MLK deserves.
If this is an example of the “moral arc of the Universe”, then the Universe owes us one.
In that spirit, I’d like to request a “drone strike” via small asteroid. For the purposes of poetic justice, something the size of a golf ball would be ideal. As something that small is likely to have a terminal velocity inadequate to the task at hand, I abjure the call of poetic justice for the sake of practicality. Perhaps a bolide more like the size of a bowling ball would be required; it’s the only way to be sure. It’s not asking for a lot, really.
Hell, at this point I’d be willing to settle for the pretzel that tried to take out Bush II.
For maximum, poetic justice I’d go with a pigeon shitting out a dime, but I suspect you’re right about the terminal velocity.
Well, I should hate to think of where the long arc of the Republican Party is pointing at present – but it is certainly not towards justice. In any event, the moral arc of the universe points nowhere, and being non-existent, it couldn’t point anywhere. I can forgive a 19th-century abolitionist for speaking in such resounding terms, but Ken Starr? How can people nowadays recite such vacuous rubbish with a straight face? To whom does it appeal? But of course what it allows them to do is to ignore injustice, since, for them, the invisible hand of the universe is doing the right thing in its own good time and so there is we nothing we can do since we have no responsibility.
Tim, I completely agree, Theodore Parker’s quote “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice” is flowery rhetoric, and a load of horseshit. Parker was saying slavery was wrong and predicting that eventually it would be abolished, and he was right. Acquittal is certain, and this is all grandstanding now, Dr. King is completely irrelevant to this. What I saw of this whole process on c-span from both sides was pointless and embarrassing. I think the main thing I am seeing is that Trump will not be humbled, but we knew that a long time ago didn’t we. He surrounds himself with bootlickers, and Starr is just another example.
Unless we are young, black, and smoked a joint. Then we have responsibility, and must pay – heavily – for our actions.
If you want to break the law, make sure to become rich either before doing it or as a result of doing it, and you can buy all the “justice” you want. Though, again, that is questionable if you are black. Bill Cosby (rightly) went to jail; I doubt we’ll be able to say the same for Harvey Weinstein.
For poetic justice, given that the current occupier of the White House is a notorious germophobe but has also gutted the pandemic response team, how about coronavirus?
Yes! Excellent! Looking back, I see that my golf ball asteroid only rose to the level of irony. Coronavirus would be much more poetically justiceier.