We all know the United States Senate is far removed from the days when it was called “the world’s greatest deliberative body” by former President James Buchanan in 1867. Careerism, pure Swamp corruption, and the blind pursuit of personal ambition have for decades diminished the stature of the once-formidable institution. That conceded, it still seems somewhat shocking to witness the depths of sheer mediocrity currently being plumbed by shameless Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
James Madison
In Federalist Paper No. 62, James Madison described the need to have a senate embodied by persons of character, who were above the overheated fray of what we now call the 24-hour news cycle. “The necessity of a senate is not less indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions,” Madison wrote. You would be hard-pressed to find more spot-on examples of Madison’s feared intemperate and pernicious political nature than what Booker and Gillibrand are flaunting on the campaign trail today.
Feeble Foibles
Booker, in a loathsome move that appears solely intended to garner attention, played the part of human trafficker on July 3, personally escorting five illegal aliens over our southern border. And, what’s more, he’s proud of it:
Today I crossed the US-Mexico border in El Paso with @fams2gether and @LasAmericasIAC to help five women present themselves for asylum. These are my observations. Please don't look away.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) July 3, 2019
The “please don’t look away” phrasing deftly highlights the striking immaturity of this former Rhodes Scholar. It is the wording of a mind swayed not by profound thought or even strongly held personal belief but by the impulsive gratification of social media and reality TV. Booker has long given in to his “sudden passions,” of course. When B-list actor Jussie Smollett pulled off his notorious hoax in January, Booker rushed to express his outrage and support well before any facts were clear.
Booker has also expressed a fondness for vulgarity that further obliterates any vestige of senatorial dignity on his part. Pandering on the issue of “gun violence,” he told CNN in May that “We are not going to give ‘thoughts and prayers,’ which to me is just bullsh*t.” Finding an opportunity to preen on race over a tweet Donald Trump, Jr. wrote about Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Booker again led with his foul mouth, commenting that Harris “doesn’t have sh*t to prove.”
Flimsy Flailing
Not to be outdone by her New Jersey colleague’s boorishness, Gillibrand has been running perhaps the most lightweight and ineffectual campaign ever carried out by a senator in a presidential primary. Having apparently no moments of gravitas to point to after serving a full six-year term in the highest elective office in Congress, Gillibrand acts as if she is auditioning for a role in a sitcom rather than striving to be nominated by a major party for the White House. In April, the senator was seen dressing up with drag queens before they performed in Iowa.
Vana and the amazing queens at the Blazing Saddle in Des Moines invited me for a visit tonight before their show. I felt underdressed, so I brought a dress I picked up yesterday—turns out it fit me, but it fit Vana even better! Thank you for having me, ladies! pic.twitter.com/l0ISbENSwg
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) April 20, 2019
In June she took her gimmickry to a new level, offering a competition in which a random campaign donor would “win” a chance to down a whiskey with Kirsten!
And, of course, she was all-in on the Democrat stampede to support Smollett without taking so much as a moment to wonder whether his story was true or not. Instead, she immediately concluded that “This is a sickening and outrageous attack, and horribly, it’s the latest of too many hate crimes against LGBTQ people and people of color. We are all responsible for condemning this behavior and every person who enables or normalizes it. Praying for Jussie and his family.”
Gillibrand has yet to meet a previously held policy position that she is not willing to brazenly flip flop on if it will help her gain a single primary voter. And she highlighted her pernicious intemperance, as Madison would put it, by dismissing out of hand the right of millions of Americans who oppose abortion to believe as they do. “I think there’s some issues that have such moral clarity that we have as a society have decided that the other side is not acceptable,” Gillibrand told The Des Moines Register in June, seemingly comparing pro-lifers to racists and anti-Semites.
That these are not the acts of serious adults is obvious to all Americans not completely blinded by a progressive mania so intense that it welcomes the fealty of soulless politicians who will literally say anything to get elected. Booker and Gillibrand are exceptionally hollow creatures even by Swamp standards. The embarrassing pandering and cheap stunts regularly performed by this shallow duo resonate far beyond their faltering campaigns. They should make sober-minded citizens recoil and wonder just how such empty vessels can be elevated to the loftiest of positions on Capitol Hill.
At some point, the question must be asked whether running for president excuses such unabashed and unapologetically dimwitted behavior. Yes, the Democrats have some howlingly awful candidates in their 2020 field. But ultimately the joke is on all of us. For we live in a nation where the most mendacious and pedestrian personalities imaginable can scale the heights of representative democracy. What does it say about us as a people?
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