The 2017 Toady Awards

What a season. It's hard to know where to begin. It has been a banner year for boot-lickers. First, to set the stage: near the end of 2016 decades of the systematic stultifying of a large section of the voting public resulted in the election of an inappropriate, incompetent and morally repugnant president.

For many years Republican leaders had been cunningly turning their share of the electorate into sheep and ignoramuses using all kinds of shady measures. It worked amazingly well. The Democrats were reduced to fecklessness and futility, unable to govern according to their wont even when they won. 

Republicans succeeded by misrepresenting their intentions and buying and gaming elections, pulling the country far rightward. Establishment Republicans were initially indignant at the rise of the usurper, Trump. He stole their mass of gullible voters by openly appealing to the nurtured, hidden prejudices.

Formerly it had been mostly between the lines--lots of dog-whistle politics and race baiting. Now the hatreds were much more overt and many citizens, long inured to lies and riddled with resentments, supported the new leader. Their representatives quickly swallowed their pride and followed along. 

Never has there been such a year for the selling of souls. Autocrats demand obedience and fealty. Therefore, oaths have been abandoned; lies are rationalized and denied; outrageous behavior is lionized; degradation reigns. It wouldn't be fair to the scope of the depravity to recognize only individual toadies.

So, the Toady Award this year goes to the whole cast of enablers and shills. Their deference is absolute. Their debasement is complete. Occasionally conscientious objectors arise among them. They are summarily crushed and usually flee. And the new year promises nothing but more of the same.