A Genius of calligraphic swordsmanship, swashbuckler Zorro proudly wears a mask as he traces a Z onto a villain.
Armed with a mask and shield, Captain America fearlessly routs the Nazis in World War II.
Astride a splendid white horse, a masked Lone Ranger rides with Tonto to right the wrongdoings of the world, declaring, “We ride for justice. Justice is what I seek.”
All swagger in suit and tie, his pouty puss topped by the floppy curls of a toddler, Rand Paul enters the Senate chamber, sans mask and mea culpa.
(Photo from Senator Rand Paul’s weekly update page)
“If you’ve had the disease or you’ve been vaccinated and you’re several weeks out from the second dose, throw your mask away,” he insisted earlier this month in an interview with Fox’s Laura Ingraham.
“Tell Fauci to take a leap,” he added later in the discussion of the pandemic, referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose experience in epidemiology far exceeds Paul’s past as a practitioner in ophthalmology.
Just recently, during the second impeachment of Donald Trump, Paul was the sole spoilsport who refused to wear a mask on the Senate floor. When his puerile antics finally got under the skin of his colleagues, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown admonished him.
“I would like to ask Sen. Paul in front of everybody to start wearing a mask on the Senate floor like the entire staff does all the time,” Brown remarked. “I wish Sen. Paul would show the respect to his colleagues to wear a mask while he’s on the Senate floor walking around and speaking.”
At least Senator Paul is consistent in his boorish behavior. Back in March, when he became the first sitting member of the Senate to contract the virus, he got tested as a precaution after traveling “extensively in the U.S.” Since he was asymptomatic, he was sure he was negative. So instead of awaiting his CORONA-19 test results in private, he spent time in the Senate gym and came into contact with Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Lee. As a result, the two were forced into self-quarantine after Paul’s positive status was announced.
Never one to appear apologetic, Paul doubled down to defend his cavalier attitude. In an op-ed in USA Today, he declared, “We need to broaden the testing and quit the finger-wagging.”
While he decries “finger-wagging,” the senator does enough of it himself. Metaphorically. Throughout the recent impeachment proceedings, he demonstrated his disdain by doodling. Likewise, Josh Hawley – another senator whose parents taught him better – sat in the gallery with his feet up.
How does one get a job like this, where you make it clear to the people you serve that you just can’t be bothered?
Let’s hope voters have some better choices in 2022, when Rand Paul is up for reelection. Maybe the competition will change his attitude and inspire him to lead by example and act as if he cares. Without that kind of change, we are in for another six years of sullen, Rand Paul’s superpower.
Senator Paul happens to be one of the least popular senators in the Congress, along with Mitch McConnell. Read all about it at www.statista.com.
