Like Scrooge, Sen. Lindsey Graham is dead as a doornail

I’d like to say the death of Lindsay Graham robs America of a devoted public servant who embodies the highest ideals of duty and honor.

I do not, however, choose to lie. He was always a conservative South Carolina Republican, for example spouting bullshit to justify denying detainees in Guantanamo Bay the right to habeas corpus. After it turned out the Toddler had left the White House while hanging on to classified documents, Graham said prosecuting him would lead to violence in the streets. He supported the Toddler’s first-term efforts to destroy Obamacare despite, by Graham’s own admission, knowing nothing about how it worked. He favored a national 15-week abortion ban.

Then there’s his complete swing on supporting the whining fascist Republican leader. Once upon a time Graham branded the Toddler as “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men and women in uniform are fighting for.” Once the Toddler won, Graham fastened lips as tight as humanly possible to the president’s ass and never let them go.

Graham didn’t have to do that. He said once that he turned into a Toddler supporter because it was the only way to stay “relevant.” It wasn’t. He could have opposed the Toddler, even if it cost his his seat. Like most of the Senate, Graham was a millionaire; it’s not like he needed his government paycheck to survive. If he didn’t want to stick his neck out, luxurious retirement was an option. But the people who become senators seem to love being senators. The perks — medical care, food and personal services available around the clock. The status. The attention. Having something to fill their time. And if they don’t want to put in much work beyond talking to the news media they can apparently manage it.

Rather than give that up, Graham supported fascism. At one point he even suggested the Toddler should be pope. Like every other Republican in the Senate, he made his career fully complicit in the Toddler’s doings. Unlike some of the, such as Thom Tillis, he never budged (I grant Tillis very little slack for turning against the Toddler only when he’s not in the running for re-election but I feel I have to grant him some).

Unfortunately the Democratic senators and former senators (e.g., Biden and Harris) are gushing about what a wonderful man he was. He wasn’t. I realize convention to say nice things and be all collegial and shit — let’s not get angry over trivial political differences like 1/6 or Dobbs — but I still think they should have said, as politely as possible, what a slime Graham was. Or noted that they disagreed deeply. Or simply stayed silent. It’s unlikely anyone’s going to lose their career over speaking ill of the dead, and Biden no longer has a career to lose.

As Fred Clark at Slacktivist says, “speaking ill of the dead after a selfish, harmful life, Dickens saw, was essential because it was true and because it demonstrated to those still living such lives the urgency of their need for repentance. It was only because he was granted the grace of hearing the harsh words spoken about him after his own death that Ebenezer Scrooge found a path to redemption.” Graham can no longer change his path or his fate but other people can. Telling them “no, don’t change, we love you just as you are,” is like an enabler pouring an alcoholic a good stiff one.