Home Whaddya say, Ben Cline: Let’s have ourselves a debate on who loves America more
Virginia Politics

Whaddya say, Ben Cline: Let’s have ourselves a debate on who loves America more

Chris Graham
two faces of ben cline
Ben Cline. Photo: © lev radin/Shutterstock

Ben Cline tweeted today about how “(t)he woke liberal media hates America and everything we stand for,” and with that, to borrow from Popeye, I’m at the point of, That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more.

Cline, our MAGA congressman here in the Sixth District, makes this type of pithy observation on a regular basis – be it specifically about the media, or just the “woke left” in general.

I’m “left,” whatever that means, and I guess, to Cline, I’m also “woke liberal media,” again, whatever that means.

Problem for Cline here: I also love America, for all its faults; and as much as I wish I could, I can’t say the same for the likes of Ben Cline, who seems to have a problem with so much of what makes America what it is.

Can you smell what I’m cooking here?

How about it, Bennie – whaddya say, let’s have ourselves a good, old-fashioned, Lincoln-Douglas debate, on our love for America?

He has nothing to fear here; I mean, seriously, a sitting MAGA congressman who regularly goes on TV, if you can call Newsmax TV, to opine on the issues of the day, should mop the floor with a local-yokel woke liberal media guy, right?

I’ll even cede you home-field advantage here, Ben.

You name the place, invite your fans, pick the moderator – I’ll even let you pick the topics, and if you want, you can assign a staffer to prepare your remarks ahead of time so you can read them at me.

Print up signs calling me a “communist” or “fascist” or whatever else seems appropriate and hand them out to your folks.

Have goons on hand to intimidate me.

The whole nine yards.

Be prepared, is all I’d advise.

Because let me tell you, I love America at least as much as you do, and get this, I love it, unlike you, as it is, warts and all.

Yeah, sure, we can do a lot better than Donald Trump as president, but you know what, I’m of the mindset that we can work to correct for that mistake, by mobilizing people who agree that we can do better, and based on how hard you’re working to block the redistricting referendum, it seems to me that you know that there are more people who agree with us than agree with you.

Key point there: unlike you, I don’t view people who disagree with me as “the enemy”; I’m of the opinion that the vast majority of us agree on 95 percent of everything, and that the problem we have as a country right now is, we’ve allowed ourselves to be at each other’s throats over the other 5 percent.

And that it’s people like Ben Cline who are the ones who benefit from us allowing ourselves to be at each other’s throats over the other 5 percent; and that we need to have people representing us in city hall, the local county government center, the state capital, Capitol Hill, who want to do the hard work necessary to tackle the problems we have with inequal and inadequate access to healthcare, the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, the affordable housing crisis, and that’s just at the top of the list.

The Ben Clines of the world, the Mike Johnsons – for that matter, the Chuck Schumers – don’t seem to want to be part of the solution; and they’re not part of the problem, they are the problem.

It’s a game to them; it’s not a game to us.

We’re tired of being divided so that we can continue to be conquered, as the elites rack up untold wealth and privilege at our expense, while we struggle to make ends meet.

They get us to argue with each other about immigrants, diversity and trans kids, to get the attention off their efforts to protect their pedophile rings and invade countries to seize their oil so they can take even more of our money out of our pockets to put in theirs.

To be fair to Ben Cline on that, he’s not one of those elites, not even close; they’re using him like they use us, only, he isn’t aware that he’s just a useful idiot to his handlers.

The Ben Clines of the world are a means to an end for the elites, who need his loyalty in Congress so that they can continue to exploit the rest of us.

They’ve convinced him that he’s one of them; the second he asks the first question about what they’re doing, he’s Thomas Massie, Thom Thillis or Rand Paul, persona non grata, forevermore.

My guess is, he wouldn’t like me telling him that, or any of a number of other things about how he is basically an all-too-compliant rubberstamp for the monied elites, to his face.

If I’m him, I wouldn’t want to be confronted with my utter insignificance, as a mere cog in the wheel in an immoral machine.

I’m really not selling what I’m trying to sell here, am I – that I want Ben Cline to debate all of this with me in a public setting.

Anyway.

Ball’s in your court, Congressman.

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

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