As soon as Senator Katie Britt started speaking, I knew exactly who she is. She is so many of the pastor's wives and Sunday School teachers I knew growing up in an Evangelical church. Be sweet. Obey.
Excellent insight, Jess. I turned off the volume and watched her, and it was equally creepy. Sen.Britt looked like she was auditioning for a part in a dramatic play. The hand motions, the facial expressions…all over the top. I’m sure she is governing just like she is instructed to do by her pastor and her husband. She looks like a kettle about ready to boil over.
I ended up at your Substack from the link on Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an America”. So glad to have discovered you. This post is very good.
They say in Iran that if you give the mullahs a fingertip, they take your whole hand. It was a bitter lesson they learned when they traded the devil they knew - the Shah- for a much worse one, the Ayatollah.
As in Iran, once these fundies, the religious fanatics like Johnson and Britt, get real power they never relinquish it. We would do well to remember this.
A vote against Republicans is a vote against a US Ayatollah and the destruction of what remains of our civil society.
Britt's performance seemed surreal to me as a purported SOTU response. Agree completely with your characterization of "the fundie baby voice" but also with her choice of affect generally. Indeed, many of the descriptions here in the comments are the same phrases my wife and I used as well while she was speaking last night, including one commenter's observation that she sounded like the voiceovers on SPCA commercials and the like. At one point, I expected that she would fake a tear or two to go along with the mildly quavering voice. After a policy-specific SOTU, her response was simply to double down on over the top culture war generalizations (e.g., stressing a few instances of immigrant violence while conveniently ignoring the substantial evidence of the law abidingness of most immigrants and their financial contributions to our economy) and vague, fleeting references to kitchen table issues (ignoring everything Biden laid out with respect to those problems and their remedies). Almost no specifics, no plan, no vision for the future, just "Biden bad." Ultimately, I suspect that her delivery will be the only thing remembered from her speech, right there with Marco Rubio's water bottle.
Thank you for identifying the thing that made the speech so creepy. The voice. As a 75 year old who escaped Fundamentalism 55 years ago I’d forgotten about the way women were taught to speak and act.
In fact I was waiting for the moment she turned to the stove and pulled a sheet of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven to prove her bonafides. If this is the best Alabama has no wonder they have the judges they do.
If she thinks, as you said, women belong in their home with their children, baking cookies, having supper when their sweet baboo comes home from a long, hard day from working harder than ever to have enough money to ensure they can buy chicken and dumplings for a Sunday dinner, then why the heck is she in Congress?
I only caught the last half of her response and it made my blood run cold. I can understand playing a role as survival, but I didn't see anyone twisting her arm in her perfect kitchen. She stands with evil and that is all I need to know.
I was determined to listen…but I couldn’t. Kept jumping up and leaving the room…going back in…then just muted it for good. Too creepy and odd like a horror movie or skit. How did they think this would impress anyone?
All my friends were nauseated by this performance. A hallmark movie one reported. And a high school play audition another texted. It was insulting and addressed nothing of substance just insinuated that democrats are devils. I was particularly offended by the cross. Oh. And she didn’t even refer to that paragon of virtue the former guy whose morality is such an inspiration to the world. The hypocrisy is beyond belief.
What’s crazy to me is the contrast w her normal speaking voice and how she slipped into character. What does that character say about her voters and herself? I always think about Liz Cheney saying there are a handful of true believers and the rest are faking it.
I read this to my husband and he thought I wrote it, that’s how identical you & I agree.
I wasn’t planning on watching the rebuttal at first, then I heard her speak and, like you, “wtf, I know that tone…” that breathy sexy baby but good moral woman - wink wink, unless you piss me off” BS you KNOW is an affectation. Arrrrgha.
Then you read her credentials- even though I question “one of 19 Valedictorians”?
>A graduate of Enterprise High School, Britt was a cheerleader there and one of 19 valedictorians upon graduation in 2000.< wickipedia
The rest reads fantastic and you’d think “SO accomplished!” Then, she speaks.
WTF did we do WRONG!!!
And the republicans are setting up all of society by their playbook having infiltrated everywhere! They do not even understand that it is THEIR LIBERTIES AS WELL THAT THEY ARE GUTTING.
"The breathless speech, the incongruent facial movements and smiles. The cadence of condescension. I am better than you, and here are the ways. I have children. They are perfect. I have a marriage. It is perfect. I am pretty and well-educated. I am a Christian—I am god fearing and I prove it by holding hands with my family and praying for the rest of you. I am better than you."
I think you've nailed it here, Jess. I'm in the process of writing a response to the article on Aaron Rupar's Public Notice post about Planned Parenthood in Missouri. This is in part what I written (but not posted yet) so far:
All women must accept God’s will, according to believers. Women must subjugate themselves to God’s will in all things. Because they were born Woman, which was also God’s will, all Women must accept without question their only role as Women in God’s eyes—to give birth to every seed that is implanted in their womb.
Katie Britt has complied with God's will. Therefore, she has the authority to judge and pity and destroy anyone else who does not accept God's will. That's what I saw in her eyes. That's what I heard in the sudden change in the tone of her voice.
She is out to destroy anyone who does not adhere to her world view. And she's willing to do anything to do so. The change in tone from sweet to pissed is for the purpose of getting your attention, so she can then lie to you about the seriousness of the situation at the southern border. She gets your attention by changing her tone of voice, and shooting of darts of hatred from her eyes and you start to pay attention to see what could possibly justify such a shift in tone, so much contempt. She has to lie about what's really going on, though: 1) follow a GIGANTIC LIE (about Biden inheriting the most secure border ever) 2) with a partial truth (Biden took 94 executive actions in his first 100 days) 3) sandwiched in between another lie ( that destroyed the secure border he inherited) because the truth, the reality, the facts, DO NOT SUPPORT HER LEVEL OF ANGER. Only a complete rewriting of reality, of history, destruction of facts, can accomplish that. So that's what she does.
A truly dangerous woman showed all Republican women how it's done. From the kitchen of her lovely home that was most likely paid for mostly by her husband, a former professional football player for the New England Patriots.
Thank you for explaining what I could not comprehend when I saw this Senator, posed at her kitchen table, speaking as though she was in a trance. Her tone of voice upset me to my core. Being from Maine I have never heard anyone speak that way. I was a child of the sixties, coming of age in the seventies and I am shocked and saddened that all the hard work of the women of that time is slipping away. Are we going back to barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen?
I thought it was creepy too that she wore green like the wives in The Handmaid’s Tale. Shivers…
Excellent insight, Jess. I turned off the volume and watched her, and it was equally creepy. Sen.Britt looked like she was auditioning for a part in a dramatic play. The hand motions, the facial expressions…all over the top. I’m sure she is governing just like she is instructed to do by her pastor and her husband. She looks like a kettle about ready to boil over.
I ended up at your Substack from the link on Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an America”. So glad to have discovered you. This post is very good.
They say in Iran that if you give the mullahs a fingertip, they take your whole hand. It was a bitter lesson they learned when they traded the devil they knew - the Shah- for a much worse one, the Ayatollah.
As in Iran, once these fundies, the religious fanatics like Johnson and Britt, get real power they never relinquish it. We would do well to remember this.
A vote against Republicans is a vote against a US Ayatollah and the destruction of what remains of our civil society.
Britt's performance seemed surreal to me as a purported SOTU response. Agree completely with your characterization of "the fundie baby voice" but also with her choice of affect generally. Indeed, many of the descriptions here in the comments are the same phrases my wife and I used as well while she was speaking last night, including one commenter's observation that she sounded like the voiceovers on SPCA commercials and the like. At one point, I expected that she would fake a tear or two to go along with the mildly quavering voice. After a policy-specific SOTU, her response was simply to double down on over the top culture war generalizations (e.g., stressing a few instances of immigrant violence while conveniently ignoring the substantial evidence of the law abidingness of most immigrants and their financial contributions to our economy) and vague, fleeting references to kitchen table issues (ignoring everything Biden laid out with respect to those problems and their remedies). Almost no specifics, no plan, no vision for the future, just "Biden bad." Ultimately, I suspect that her delivery will be the only thing remembered from her speech, right there with Marco Rubio's water bottle.
Thank you for identifying the thing that made the speech so creepy. The voice. As a 75 year old who escaped Fundamentalism 55 years ago I’d forgotten about the way women were taught to speak and act.
In fact I was waiting for the moment she turned to the stove and pulled a sheet of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven to prove her bonafides. If this is the best Alabama has no wonder they have the judges they do.
If she thinks, as you said, women belong in their home with their children, baking cookies, having supper when their sweet baboo comes home from a long, hard day from working harder than ever to have enough money to ensure they can buy chicken and dumplings for a Sunday dinner, then why the heck is she in Congress?
I only caught the last half of her response and it made my blood run cold. I can understand playing a role as survival, but I didn't see anyone twisting her arm in her perfect kitchen. She stands with evil and that is all I need to know.
I was determined to listen…but I couldn’t. Kept jumping up and leaving the room…going back in…then just muted it for good. Too creepy and odd like a horror movie or skit. How did they think this would impress anyone?
Did anyone think of Amy Coney Barrett?
All my friends were nauseated by this performance. A hallmark movie one reported. And a high school play audition another texted. It was insulting and addressed nothing of substance just insinuated that democrats are devils. I was particularly offended by the cross. Oh. And she didn’t even refer to that paragon of virtue the former guy whose morality is such an inspiration to the world. The hypocrisy is beyond belief.
What’s crazy to me is the contrast w her normal speaking voice and how she slipped into character. What does that character say about her voters and herself? I always think about Liz Cheney saying there are a handful of true believers and the rest are faking it.
https://x.com/SenKatieBritt/status/1765944735154274774?s=20
My first thought was I was listening to a commercial for SPCA.
I read this to my husband and he thought I wrote it, that’s how identical you & I agree.
I wasn’t planning on watching the rebuttal at first, then I heard her speak and, like you, “wtf, I know that tone…” that breathy sexy baby but good moral woman - wink wink, unless you piss me off” BS you KNOW is an affectation. Arrrrgha.
Then you read her credentials- even though I question “one of 19 Valedictorians”?
>A graduate of Enterprise High School, Britt was a cheerleader there and one of 19 valedictorians upon graduation in 2000.< wickipedia
The rest reads fantastic and you’d think “SO accomplished!” Then, she speaks.
WTF did we do WRONG!!!
And the republicans are setting up all of society by their playbook having infiltrated everywhere! They do not even understand that it is THEIR LIBERTIES AS WELL THAT THEY ARE GUTTING.
"The breathless speech, the incongruent facial movements and smiles. The cadence of condescension. I am better than you, and here are the ways. I have children. They are perfect. I have a marriage. It is perfect. I am pretty and well-educated. I am a Christian—I am god fearing and I prove it by holding hands with my family and praying for the rest of you. I am better than you."
I think you've nailed it here, Jess. I'm in the process of writing a response to the article on Aaron Rupar's Public Notice post about Planned Parenthood in Missouri. This is in part what I written (but not posted yet) so far:
All women must accept God’s will, according to believers. Women must subjugate themselves to God’s will in all things. Because they were born Woman, which was also God’s will, all Women must accept without question their only role as Women in God’s eyes—to give birth to every seed that is implanted in their womb.
Katie Britt has complied with God's will. Therefore, she has the authority to judge and pity and destroy anyone else who does not accept God's will. That's what I saw in her eyes. That's what I heard in the sudden change in the tone of her voice.
She is out to destroy anyone who does not adhere to her world view. And she's willing to do anything to do so. The change in tone from sweet to pissed is for the purpose of getting your attention, so she can then lie to you about the seriousness of the situation at the southern border. She gets your attention by changing her tone of voice, and shooting of darts of hatred from her eyes and you start to pay attention to see what could possibly justify such a shift in tone, so much contempt. She has to lie about what's really going on, though: 1) follow a GIGANTIC LIE (about Biden inheriting the most secure border ever) 2) with a partial truth (Biden took 94 executive actions in his first 100 days) 3) sandwiched in between another lie ( that destroyed the secure border he inherited) because the truth, the reality, the facts, DO NOT SUPPORT HER LEVEL OF ANGER. Only a complete rewriting of reality, of history, destruction of facts, can accomplish that. So that's what she does.
A truly dangerous woman showed all Republican women how it's done. From the kitchen of her lovely home that was most likely paid for mostly by her husband, a former professional football player for the New England Patriots.
Thank you for explaining what I could not comprehend when I saw this Senator, posed at her kitchen table, speaking as though she was in a trance. Her tone of voice upset me to my core. Being from Maine I have never heard anyone speak that way. I was a child of the sixties, coming of age in the seventies and I am shocked and saddened that all the hard work of the women of that time is slipping away. Are we going back to barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen?