The 800-pound gorilla. Or sometimes referred to as the elephant in the room. Similar meanings.
We hear the words a lot. The Mirriam-Webster dictionary indicates the phrase means, “one that is dominating or uncontrollable because of great size or power”. Also, according to the same source, the saying was first used in 1976. (How do they know these things?)
These days, the “800-pound gorilla” has become synonymous with a person or issue that takes up great space in the collective mindset. In other words, someone like Donald Trump. Everyone knows it’s there (hence its immense size) but no one names it specifically. Unless you’re senile president Joe Biden speaking to the establishment media.
The current president conducted his second open press conference last week where he addressed surprisingly few topics (mainly, Russia, Russia, Russia -- and Ukraine) and sidestepped a couple uncomfortable queries about why polls show he is so unpopular (he thinks he isn’t) and why he’s been unable to move the needle on most of his campaign agenda (answer: the Republicans did it! See below), as well as whether he intends to run for reelection (he does) and how he would characterize his first year in office (he says he’s outperformed expectations).
As the press amply covered it last week, the occasion lasted almost two hours, with Biden looking and sounding like he could’ve gone all night if the others had really wanted to sustain the madness and fib-infested monologue -- and if his handlers would’ve permitted him to go past his bedtime (which must be 6 p.m. EST). Clearly the Democrat powers-that-be shot the man full of Red Bull or some other stimulant to allow him to focus his attention longer than his typical 30-seconds of coherence.
But it was a single repeated question that senile Joe had for the GOP -- and his insistence that there’s an 800-pound gorilla in the party (he didn’t use those exact words) that deserves further comment and elaboration here.
“President Joe Biden … excoriated Republicans for working to derail his agenda while also questioning what the GOP actually stands for. ‘What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they're for,’ Biden said at his first solo news conference of 2022, which occurred on the eve of his one-year anniversary in the White House.
“The president effectively accused Republicans of having no other goals other than obstructing him, and of placing politics ahead of the health of the country...
“Biden also suggested that former President Donald Trump's ongoing influence on the GOP was pushing the party to derail his agenda. ‘Did you ever think that one man out of office could intimidate an entire party where they're unwilling to take any vote contrary to what he thinks should be taken for fear of being defeated in a primary?’ Biden said.”
Hence the 800-pound gorilla. Long live President Trump.
To reply to senile Joe’s question, the answer is an emphatic “yes”. By continually referencing Donald Trump, senile Joe appears just as obsessed and unable to get over “Trump derangement syndrome” as the major media. I don’t know if it’s resentment -- or envy -- that’s motivated Biden to insist that Trump is responsible for everything that’s gone wrong with his fledgling administration, because Joe came in and reversed everything Trump had done regardless of how successful it had been.
Trump’s energy policy turned an energy dependent America into an energy dominant one. What did Biden do? On his first day in the Oval Office, he flat-out cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, effectively sending pink slips to over ten thousand union employees who were hard at work building the thing. Through additional strokes of his executive pen, Biden disbanded Trump’s immigration policies, essentially conveying the message to hundreds of thousands of would-be border jumpers (and the cartels and human traffickers that go along with them) that the United States was open season.
After a year of Biden’s blather to go along with Nancy Pelosi’s lecturing us like children and Chucky Schumer’s pontificating about fairness and rights, it’s pretty evident what Democrats believe in. They’re for punishing U.S. consumers at the gas pump and grocery store alike -- and correspondingly, for placing the blame for higher prices on producers, not misguided government policies.
Democrats are also for fantasy junk science theories like “climate change” and are clearly okay with trashing the American economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, purportedly to halt the planet from warming and to “save” ourselves from imminent doom of rising oceans and raging climate features like hurricanes, tornadoes, rising sea levels and wildfires.
The thing is, liberals don’t even know if reducing carbon emissions would do anything. Stupid.
Democrats love appropriating money for government solutions to real problems and those they’ve created just to spend more taxpayer funds to fix them. COVID-19, caused by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or Wuhan, if you prefer) virus, provided a yearslong excuse for Biden and congressional Democrats to toss checks at people for no apparent benefit. Statists knew they could rely on their favorite little stooge, Anthony Fauci, to tell outright lies (gain of function research) and manipulate data to show anything they wanted him to say.
Then there are made-up crises like “voting rights”, where Democrats claim citizens -- especially African-Americans -- are denied the franchise because of new state laws that require voter integrity measures like voter ID and accountability assured absentee voting. Anyone who’s against turning state voting rules over to review by the “civil rights” division of Biden’s Justice Department is summarily branded as a racist and reduced to being compared to Democrat segregationists of years gone by.
Democrats love “woke” stuff too. They accept and promote cancel culture bolstered by social media tech oligarchs, censorship, punishing or suppressing free speech (in the name of outlawing “misinformation”), sticking needles into your arm whether you consent or not (vaccine mandates) and forcing parents to strap their kids in stupid masks that don’t prevent the spread of anything. And then Democrats hope to teach those same children to hate each other based on surface skin color characteristics.
This isn’t exactly an exhaustive list, since Democrats are for a lot more destructive policies.
But was Biden right? Does the GOP delve into nothing but obstruction?
It's sometimes hard to tell, but the Republican Party, by and large, stands for free markets -- or at least reduced regulations. Republicans are for lower taxes, though not necessarily for reducing government spending (more so than Democrats, that’s for sure).
Republicans, thanks to Trump, believe in an America First foreign policy philosophy.
Most Republicans are pro-life. Last Friday was the March for Life, which is held every year on the anniversary of the tragically fateful Roe v. Wade decision. If the newly constituted (with three Donald Trump nominated and confirmed justices) Supreme Court overturns that historically heinous case, states will need to decide for themselves their own abortion policies.
That’s the way the Founding Fathers wanted it, and embedded the federalism concept into the Constitution through the 10th Amendment and other provisions. So yes, Republicans are for federalism. And free speech. And privacy rights as protected by the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unlawful searches and seizures. And due process, including protecting the rights of the accused in “woke” university rape cases.
And the right to bear arms! It shall not be infringed!
Republicans like free and fair elections. Every eligible voter in this country can cast a ballot -- one vote. And GOPers work to ensure those votes are collected and counted fairly. Paper ballots would be nice, as would banning so-called “vote harvesting” and limiting mail-in voting to only circumstances where it can be monitored closely.
Republicans, at least when Democrats hold power, are for fiscal sanity. So senile Joe can quit standing before a national audience claiming that the Grand Old Party doesn’t believe in anything. Conservatives and Republicans believe in lots of things. Traditional marriage. Peace through strength. Projecting military might throughout the world as the greatest deterrence to ambitious and aggressive enemies.
Many of those beliefs and principles are inscribed into the Make America Great Again agenda, with a strong emphasis on border security and enforcing local, state and federal laws. And respecting law enforcement. If one can’t feel secure in his or her own home, where can they be safe?
Is liberty such a hard concept?
Democrats are so bothered by the 800-pound gorilla in the room -- a.k.a Donald Trump -- that they’re risking everything to pass senile Joe Biden’s agenda now when they have neither the votes nor the public support to get it done. Trump’s long shadow has shaken up the system. We can only hope it’s not too late to save it.
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Joe Biden is upset that Senators are doing their jobs for a change...representing their constituents back home. I am sure that there is no "red" State that supports Biden's agenda. Last I saw, Biden's lost a lot of support in even "blue" States. Biden has no political capital, but he thinks Republicans should use up theirs to help him pass a bill designed to destroy the Republican Party. Perhaps he is correct to assume that, given that Republicans helped rig him into the Oval Office. Perhaps that's why Biden invokes Donald Trump, to help Republicans remember that they're all on the same side! They have to work together to hold back the Orange Man. The most controversial thing out of…
Impeachment time,when it's broken and can't be fixed,put it to the curb, day late dollar short, Behind the times joe, no leadership at all, the Impotent biden equals old man, old ideas, not capable of leadership, now toss in his America last policy and what do we have? high crime, inflation, opens borders, international leadership mistakes, soaring shortages, national confusion, and a direct attack on the sovereignty of our Country. This is what happens when someone has committed to take money from Russia and China and what was given for their allegiance to foreign powers for personal monetary gain. We need new leadership not continued corruption,what was promised by the bidens for accepting money from international adversaries? Vote every corrup…
Well duhhhhh. I never looked at the Presidency of the United States as a popularity contest. It very well shouldn`t be. This position is for the right person this job. Just like any other job.Grow up for christs sake.
What I'm about to say will sound like a blatant over simplification to many but so be it. As a general rule of thumb conservatives regardless of party label or affiliation can generally be said to be on the side of God and what's good. Liberals regardless of party affiliation or label are invariably on the side of Satan and what's evil. I submit that a simple observation of the facts is more than sufficient to prove my case.