T'was the day after election

In a post I wrote on April 18th regarding Jennifer Strahan as a candidate for Georgia's 14th Congressional District, I wrote, "The ultra-right culture in this district is so deeply ingrained and wide spread that I doubt if anyone except Jesus could defeat Trump and by association Marjorie Greene." Though I actively supported a different candidate, Dr. Charles Lutin, I expected Marjorie to win, but not with 70% of the total votes. I had thought that a number of moderate Republicans, independent conservatives and even cross-over Democrats would vote in opposition to her simply to remove an obviously irrational individual from congress. It is clear that I was very, very wrong. 

On my previous post an anonymous reader this morning commented, "Congrats, your boy got 2%. Why don't you be a positive conservative and back the new leaders of the party like MTG?" Normally I delete anonymous comments but two terms struck me as worthy of thought..."new leaders" and "the party." 

What party? The disparate collection of headline-grabbing individuals, the "new leaders" like MTG are attempting to highjack the Republican Party and turn it into something else. What that is I don't know, but the hit lists - those who voted to impeach Trump, those who oppose the lost election theory, Biden and Pelosi being "communist Democrats who hate America, hate God and hate our way of life" strongly resemble MTG's "gazpacho police." Perhaps the goal is for the Republican Party, or what's left of it to form a military wing. Whatever it is, there is a movement, an evolution taking place. It somewhat reminds me of another movement some 60 years ago.

For those of you who weren't around at the time, the 1960s and early 70s was the era of the hippie movement. It had quite an impact on the American scene. It was basically young people (it almost always is) who formed a counter-culture that essentially rejected the social mores of the day. Free love, carefree irresponsibility, wealth denial, and trips to an Indian guru to seek wisdom were some of the hallmarks of the movement. One of their rallying points was the Vietnam War. Anti-war protests were daily events. "Make love not war" and "Peace" buttons and banners were seen everywhere. One incident about that era will always stay with me.

I had just completed six months of basic training at Fort Leonard Wood and was on my way home on a thirty-day leave. I was standing in the St. Louis train station wearing my dress uniform, and on my shirt was an expert rifleman badge I had been awarded for marksmanship with the M1 Garand. A group of young people were standing near me, when a girl left the group and walked over to me. She loudly shouted that I was a killer, tore the badge off my shirt and melted back into her group. I was too stunned to do anything, but I did think a lot about it on the train back to Milwaukee. Most hippies were not that obnoxious but as with any movement it was the extremists who set the tone and shaped the public image.

The war was their enabler...their catalyst. It gave them license to disregard established norms and to exercise their individual freedom by trampling on the freedom of others. When the war ended hippieism began to fizzle and then faded from the scene. Those hippies who aren't dead are today living the normal life of old folks, indistinguishable from main-stream seniors.

The rallying point of the present Republican Party movement is Donald Trump. He's the enabler; the catalyst, the would-be emperor. MTG and her ilk are eagerly lined up to do Trump's biding - to help fashion the new party with new leaders. I wonder, if Trump were to disappear would Trumpism continue? I think that it would for a while, but then like the hippie movement it would fizzle and die. But not completely. There is always that unexplainable mob mentality laying just below the surface ready to follow a Putin or Hitler or Trump or Greene. 

There's another election coming in November. MTG and Hershel Walker will be on the ballot. Looks like I'll be forced to vote Democrat again.