Way back in the fall of 1963 I distinctly remember a woman who attended our church express her disgust of John F. Kennedy. "I wish someone would just shoot him," she said. A couple of weeks later Kennedy made a trip to Dallas and Lee Oswald did just that. I have no recollection of her reaction to the murder.
Later, in the mid 1970s I had a neighbor named Bill Snyder. He told me one day over beers the United States would be better off if the government was run by a military man without any interference from a Congress, or Supreme Court.
Yes, the yen for political violence infesting so called Christians and the desire for a benign authoritarian leader with no need for legislative, or judicial restraint have been around for longer than many of us would like to admit. The difference between those quaint times and now being in the past the terrible rubes who believed that shit were rare and they had the sense to keep it to themselves most of the time.
Not anymore.
The vile fuckers are out of the closet and so common sometimes they actually get elected to the very Congress they want to either disband, or turn into a rubber stamp for a dictator who is to their liking. We used to call these clods crazy and worse, now they are known as republicans.
The, Great Awakening, as they say began when an American of African descent won the presidency. Barack Obama was the sum of their fears. He was living proof white people were losing their grip on power. His desire to, "even the playing field," drove them stark raving mad. How else can you explain all the accusations about him not really being an American and snide remarks about having to rename the presidential residence from the White House to the Black House and more. You know, he's going to seize our guns so we can't rise up when the time comes.
When he beat mainstream GOP candidates not once, but twice, it pushed them further to the fringe. Then along came the man who fulfilled all their desires.
He was and still is, loud and inarticulate. He levels crude personal insults against political opponents and is more than willing to publicly repeat every myth and lie they have come to believe. He also has the not so subtle ambition to be the leader for life and no qualms about purging, what quakily became his party, of those who actually think we should be loyal to the republic rather than him. Finally, like the mob who adores him, he has no knowledge, or respect for the Constitution of the United States of America. To him and his fans other than the second amendment the entire document just gets in the way.
This disease isn't just at the top of the party. It percolates up from the bottom where local legislators have set new lows in intelligence and decency. They are busy as beavers on meth restricting voter and women's rights. The aim being simple, if you aren't just like us, you don't get to cast a ballot and if you get raped, even by dear old Dad, it's your problem and you get to carry the beast's fetus to full term.
Indeed, screw democracy. We know what is right for you and the country. After all, as Joe Goebbels once said, "We will reach our goal when we have the power to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us..."
It makes me wonder what ol' Bill Snyder, if he is still alive, thinks about it all.
8-18-22
I wonder how all of these right wingers will feel if the day ever comes when they find themselves - and those of us who knew better than to put him back in power - under the heavy heel of Donald Trump.
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