Despite the sudden discovery of the word ‘firebrand’ to describe politically goofy swine like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Lin Wood and Matt Gaetz, that appellation does no justice to their actual practice of lunacy.
The word – defined as one who is “a person who is passionate about a particular cause, typically inciting change and taking radical action” – is far too soft and not nearly pejorative enough to cover the territory in question.
Words matter, and in the case of Gaetz, it appears more appropriate descriptive phrases might be drawn from legal documents or street slang.
In the common parlance, “many people are saying” Gaetz and his slimy associate and close party bro, Joel Greenberg, might more accurately described as “johns” for their sex-trafficking antics, “dope fiends” for their prolific intake of Midomafetamine and “Malpolitical Peckerwoods” for their adherence to cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, and embezzlement.
Or journalists could simply continue to refer to Gaetz as a ‘firebrand’ in the interest of brevity…
While everyone focuses on Gaetz connections to Greenberg, the stalking victim that started the entire investigation, Brian Beute, today is pointing the finger squarely at Ron Desantis, accusing the state of either being complicit in or covering up Greenberg’s crimes. pic.twitter.com/UFWBjErJzs
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 17, 2021
It’s beautiful day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and absolutely nothing bad is going to happen.
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 17, 2021