Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) recently accused former Special Counsel Jack Smith of perjury at a Senate hearing, only to watch the accusation collapse in real time when it became clear that he and his staff had confused two basketball teams: the Atlanta Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
You’ve probably heard that story. What you might not know is that Schmitt doubled down in interviews later that day, telling TMZ that “the only NBA game that was going on that night was in Atlanta.” Except, of course, there were six NBA games that evening, a fact readily obtainable in about 10 seconds of internet sleuthing. Oh dear…
This episode illustrates the conservative movement’s epistemic collapse over the past decade. Contrary to claims by the commentariat, this is not an act or a savvy political tactic. Sen. Schmitt isn’t in on the joke; he wanted something to be true, so he acted as if it were true. When that was proven false, he simply stepped into a new belief without verifying that one either.
I bring all this up as a lens through which to view Windsor Republicans’ recent resurrection of the Undead Road Diet… cue spooky Halloween music! Rather than a tedious rebuttal, allow me (the accidental public face of the project) to say simply: the Broad Street road diet is dead. Neither town staff, elected officials, nor CTDOT has any intention of revisiting it. Proponents have accepted the results of both referenda and moved on. The Broad Street road diet is, like Generalissimo Franco, still dead. It is deceased, late, expired; it is an ex-road diet.
But the facts are not really the point, are they? Of course not: the point is to gin up a sense of threat and grievance. And, to a degree, it’s working. Democratic candidates were recently pursued and berated by someone upset about the secretive road diet cabal, echoing the harassment road diet volunteers endured during the referendum campaigns.
This is a political movement that cannot perceive the world as it is, and so cannot address real-world problems. This is why we’re about to buy diesel from a global adversary to address an energy crisis created by an unnecessary war we were told would be a short-term excursion. This is why local Republicans ignore real problems and instead beat a road diet that’s already dead. This is what moral panic looks like. This is epistemic collapse: lie, deflect, deny, flood the zone.
So, just to cover all our bases: The Broad Street road diet did not abduct the Lindbergh baby. The road diet was not on the grassy knoll. The road diet does not know the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa. The road diet is not in the Epstein files. Most importantly, the road diet was not at an Atlanta Hawks game on February 3, 2024.