Our America turned upside down

"Stop the steal," eh?

Am I living in some sort of alternate world or alternate dimension? What has come over all of us, or so many of us? Even people who are not all-in with the hard right Republicans seem to be consuming the day-to-day coverage and just more or less yawning, just "moving on." 

Can you imagine how the serious gatekeeper journalists of the pre-digital era would have covered January 6? There would have been an absolute presumption that what happened was a national disgrace. The presumption would have suggested very harsh punishment for those who went on the attack, attacked law enforcement people doing their jobs. Those jobs incidentally entailed the very elected people including those on the far right. 

For most of my life we have been aware of the far right nutjobs but largely saw them as an amusement. We ought to be scared out of our wits now that the fringe has gotten so much more mainstream. A considerable chunk of one of our two major political parties now seems all-in with the violent uprising. 

Our former state representative Jeff Backer, definitely of the looney-toon ilk, voted against a measure to condemn the capitol violence. So he approves of violent attacks on our cherished form of government here in America? 

You'll miss it when it's gone, our cherished form of government. You'll even miss the "deep state" which in a sense is sort of a necessary evil. 

But the "deep state" was picking on our president from 2016 to 2020? You believe that? Now we see that the individual in question is absolutely, totally mentally unmoored and with a proclivity toward sheer paranoia. The headlines of this past week really should have made us laugh. A lot of us probably did. But we need to speak out against the steadily growing danger from America's extreme right wing. 

Jeff Backer (kmrs image)

Sane people would like to see that element retreat back in the shadows, from where they could dispense their absurd thoughts from county fair exhibit stands. The Communist Party of America does that too. We always knew the Communists weren't going to get any sort of foothold. Still they had free speech rights. 

But now? The right wing nutjobs are not fading away; those like Backer are able to command attention from a surprisingly large segment of the American people. Holy cow! 

A headline this morning (Saturday) is about Republicans feeling sorry for the insurrectionists who are now in jail. In actuality, these prisoners are being pampered compared to other prisoners. That's not good enough for the GOP wackos. Today's article tells us that Republicans exchanged handshakes and "high-fived" with the prisoners in a visit to them. The prisoners in response intoned a theme of theirs, the article said: "Let's go Brandon." That's code for "fuck Joe Biden." I can imagine Backer echoing that. 

I thought conservatives believed in basic civility, in personal modesty. Mitt Romney still does, but the Utah guy is being pushed down. I think Romney could have been elected if he hadn't kowtowed so much to the right wing, like to go on Mike Huckabee's TV show. Why even do that? Why not tell Fox News to just take a flying leap? 

Romney might in fact have been an admirable president in the mold of Ronald Reagan. He went on the Huckabee show where he was asked "Do you support the Human Life Amendment?" In that setting he could not risk saying "no." 

Politicians must gravitate to the real world. Reagan did, but he had actual experience with a union; he got perspective with life. 

Why have the prisoners in D.C. decided it was worth such a huge sacrifice in their own lives to simply protest the election of Joe Biden? It's like a "Twilight Zone" episode where certain people have just gone mad. I have been spared that weird spell. I could see what Donald Trump was up to from the very day he announced his 2016 candidacy. I knew the phony stuff from which he was made. Am I an outlier? 

Here I am in 2023 reading this Yahoo News article about a contingent of Republicans siding with the imprisoned January 6 rioters. Again, have I fallen into some sort of alternate dimension? Do I find myself in a Twilight Zone episode? Think of how Walter Cronkite would be reporting on this, with the absolute presumption of outrage. 

Are you all so ignorant and stupid that you believe Trump when he tries putting himself forward as a champion of Social Security? Better get out your blankets like when you were asked to take a nap in kindergarten. That's where you belong. Trump promised to make payment of taxes easier. Do you find it has gotten easier? It's the working people who pay the taxes in America. Yet we're all supposed to listen to Elon Musk. 

Can't we all just wake up and smell the coffee? If not, what has come over all of us? Will Trump come back as a Putin-style autocrat? Seems very much on the table. And then we'll all be sorry. And do you know what Trump would say when people notice that Social Security and Medicare are in fact fading, contrary to his promises? You do know, don't you? He'll say "the money isn't there." Of course the Trump tax cuts which benefited multi-national corporations would be the reason. 

And you all don't care?

 

Addendum: Here's a reminder that our congressperson Michelle Fischbach voted against certifying the 2020 election results. Where would that have led us? 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com