The Opinion is about the Perfect MAGA Republican, George Santos
The Theater of the American Dream: George Santos, the sixth expelled from the House of Representatives after Donald Trump’s 2016 term
Should the blessed day ever arrive when Donald Trump is sent to federal prison, only one of his acolytes has earned the right to share his cell: George Santos, who on Friday became the sixth person in history to be expelled from the House of Representatives, more than seven months after he was first charged with crimes including fraud and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty. Santos is a product of Trump’s Republican Party, a con man obsessed with celebrity, driven into politics by ego and the promise of close proximity to rich marks. A House ethics committee report on Santos states he placed his desire for private gain over his obligation to uphold the Constitution, federal law and ethical principles. He is a true child of the movement.
In the hours before the vote that would decide his political future, Santos was unmuzzled in a carnival of media attention that has followed him since he arrived in DC in 2022. “It’s theater for the cameras, it’s theater for the microphones,” he said, referring to the playhouse of American bureaucracy and, ironically, himself. “It’s theater for the American people at the expense of the American people.”
In October, a report filed by the House Ethics Committee claimed that Santos had overstepped his authority as a member of Congress, accusing him on multiple counts of financial fraud and criminal activity. In addition to the charges of wire fraud and conspiracy, the ethics report states that the campaign funds were used to purchase luxury shoes, and onlyfans, a website for adult entertainment. The report waslittered in hyperbole, saidSantos, true to form.
American politics is a circus. Lawmaking and lawbreaking is a form of entertainment in Washington, DC. Since Donald Trump became president, the performance of democracy has been turned into prime time viewing by Republicans. During a press conference on Thursday on the steps of the Capitol as he faced expulsion from Congress, Representative GeorgeSantos said that the reality is that it is all theater.
