When Pope Francis Came to Town in 2015 the Republicans Behaved.
It might have been the last time.
I’m working on my book of essays (No, really—I am!) and I came across this piece, written in September 2015 when Pope Francis came to DC and caused a bit of a splash. I was fascinated by the Republican reactions—especially John Boehner’s—which I’ll admit made me laugh out loud. I was giddy for days.
I even talked about Donald Trump—and nailed him, if I do say so myself.
Just thought you might want to read it, seeing as how the Republicans are in the news these days. It’s not long. And at least back then they were kind of fun.
(You could help me out here by weighing in on whether you think this is chapter material. Thanks. I have years worth of this stuff. Picking and choosing is murder.)
Okay Meanies, You Can Come Out Now. The Pope is Gone
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how quiet the resident meanies were while the Pope was here? Even Donald Trump gave it a rest for a few days. Or am I wrong? Did I just not notice because, to their credit (and my relief), the press took to covering the Pope every day in every way and kept it nice?
On Thursday, Pope Francis stood at the House podium and addressed the joint session of Congress. Speaker of the House John Boehner sat behind the Pope, listened to what the pontiff had to say about justice, goodness, and mercy, and bawled his eyes out.
The next morning Boehner floated into a press conference singing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-Ay, My, Oh, My, what a wonderful day”. It was a charming if wacky prelude to his message: “I quit”.
Just like that.
Now, John would like us to believe the Pope had nothing to do with it--Lord, no!--but I’m not buying it. It’s true, I suppose, that John has wanted to throw in the towel for a long time, but why now? He said he woke up and told his wife, “I think today’s the day.” She was okay with it. (No word yet on the Pope’s reaction.)
I want to believe the Pope made John Boehner a better person; a lacking leader seeing the light, contrite--but, as any sitting member of the Republican Party will tell you, that’s death on wheels. You can’t be a better person and be loyal to the party. Nowadays only worst persons need apply.
(Marco Rubio, another presidential candidate, announced the good news to a crowd of his Republican peeps only moments after Boehner made his announcement and, wouldn’t you know?--the crowd went wild! Yay!)
Which brings me to the doggedly anti-government businessman and top Republican Party candidate, Donald Trump. Trump is like the person you invite to the party thinking you’ve scored a big one--famous person!--and then realize he’s obnoxious as all get out but you’re stuck with him because there are no insults big enough to make him go away. And you would be too polite to use them, anyway. (That’s why we Democrats lose--but that’s another story.)
So Donald took the opportunity of the Pope’s visit to talk with Chris Cuomo, who took the opportunity of the Pope’s visit to ask Donald Trump, of all people, what he would say to the Pope if he had the chance. Donald said he would have to scare the Pope. Of course he would.
Carly Fiorina pretended she didn’t notice the Pope was here and went on lying about what happens at Planned Parenthood. She stood out like a sore thumb.
Jeb Bush said something about Democrats offering free stuff to African-Americans and he was attacked for it. The Pope said giving free stuff to people who need it is God’s work and he was cheered. I guess it’s all in the delivery.
And the press, at long last, moved away from, “How did it feel when so-and-so said so-and-so about you?”, and seemed honestly happy to share in a celebration that hurt no one.
We were a land of big hearts last week. It’s been a long time. It felt good.
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My, we’ve come a long way! And, I'm not sure we're on the right path.
I'm concerned about how long it's going to take for us to push the nasty bits back in the closed cupboard and brush off our habits of civility in our dealings with others. You did well to mention the "businessman" back then, because he bears the responsibility of a lot of people feeling free to take their worst bits out and hammer the rest of us with them.
As for the writing: go for it!
I loved this and it documents how far we've fallen. Our current Pope has a much bigger job with our current administration, and this should speak volumes to the breakdown of humanity overflowing from the U.S.A. We must maintain our resistance and I think we are. Patience, grasshopper.