By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 29, 2019 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 29, 2019 |
Michael Sheen is in this season of The Good Fight on CBS All Access, and I cannot tell you how incredible he is in the role. He’s like Donald Trump combined with Al Pacino from Scent of a Woman. I feel like he’s already sealed up the Guest Appearance Emmy. Like Trump, his character is a protege of Roy Cohn, and as an attorney, Sheen’s fentanyl-lollipop licking character just … makes up facts. In last week’s episode, in defending his client for murder, he ends up accusing the … prosecutor of the crime. And he’s got the jury in his hands. He’s got no shame or integrity, and when you have no shame or integrity, you can say anything you want. In his arguments against his opponents, he has no interest in the truth. Zero. So, he will just make up stuff.
Trump mocks immigration lawyers and asylum seekers pic.twitter.com/ekYhGcFLpa
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2019
And it’s not like he bends the truth, or stretches it. He makes up facts, and the more outlandish the lie, the better.
TRUMP: "If Hillary got in… you'd be doing wind. Windmills. Weeeee. And if it doesn't blow, you can forget about television for that night. 'Darling, I want to watch television.' 'I'm sorry! The wind isn't blowing.' I know a lot about wind." pic.twitter.com/tGsUIoUmUQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2019
In this week’s episode, Sheen’s character suggests that not only will Trump win in 2020, but he’ll win a third term, as well. Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) objects. “That will never happen.”
“Oh, because there will be holy hell to pay from Lindsay Graham?” Sheen’s character scoffs.
“People will rise up.”
“[Sarcastic guffaw] Oh, of course, they will. Because that’s what people do when the jobless rate is at 3.7 percent. They get angry and start breaking things. [Chants] ‘We want fewer jobs! We want fewer jobs!’
God, I hate him. But he is uncommonly good at framing a victory for someone else (his client) as a victory for them (the jury).
Within 90 seconds Trump gets his fans cheering policies that represent tax cuts for the rich and taking away health care from poor people. #populism pic.twitter.com/K58H9LKrPC
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2019
Sometimes, Sheen’s character just spews absolute nonsense.
TRUMP: "I support the Great Lakes. Always have. They are beautiful. They are big. Very deep. Record deepness, right?" pic.twitter.com/GCSXHp5RdG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 28, 2019
Not to spoil the episode too much for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but I’ll just say that, when Sheen’s character loses, he doesn’t accept it gracefully. He throws a hissy fit, and then he frames his enemies for crimes they didn’t commit.
TRUMP: "Little pencil neck Adam Schiff. He has the smallest, thinnest neck I have ever seen. He is not a long-ball hitter." #BeBest pic.twitter.com/NW7oU3z4Il
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 28, 2019
Trump dismisses efforts of House Democrats to conduct oversight of his administration: "These people are sick." pic.twitter.com/fpt9MrtHRh
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 28, 2019
Sheen’s character is a horrible, horrible human being, but he said something in this week’s episode that really stung, because it’s absolutely correct. “Trump wins because he sees life as a battle. Not a cause. He uses your strength against you. Liberals never get that.”
He’s 100 percent correct, and that’s exactly what Trump does! Liberals’ efforts to improve the climate?
Trump makes up a story about @maziehirono being surprised when she learned that the Green New Deal meant she wouldn't be able to travel back to Hawaii anymore because planes would be banned. pic.twitter.com/oBBLiBPtGX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2019
Liberals’ efforts to improve health care?
Trump is out here talking about a nonexistent health care plan that he says is an improvement on the ACA as though it actually exists pic.twitter.com/vQovxLklUW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2019
The way liberals advocate for a woman’s right to choose.
Trump falsely accuses Democrats of wanting to allow doctors to execute babies "after birth." His audience responds with huge boos. pic.twitter.com/iMG2V3RYPN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2019
Protecting the First Amendment?
After Trump bashes the media, the crowd responds with [checks notes]… "lock her up!" chants pic.twitter.com/B6SbtrPGRV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 28, 2019
That’s what he does. He diminishes our strengths. At least within his base, he turns our “causes” into our weaknesses with insults, threats, and lies. Our earnest attempts to make the country a better place are used as weapons against us. How do you beat that without burning the world down in the process? I don’t know, and I keep waiting for The Good Fight to figure it out.