17 Comments
User's avatar
Stan H's avatar

Nailed it. When women and Black people knew their place, when people of alternate sexual orientations kept that shit in the closet, and when everyone attended a proper white Christian church on Sundays, those were the days.

Expand full comment
Susan Campbell's avatar

Those days didn’t even work for white make Christians. See: suicides. See: heart disease.

Expand full comment
Sharon Foster (CT)'s avatar

That about sums it up. It's the world they remember from Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best. It's a fantasy America that many of them didn't live in then and don't now. The highest divorce rates, for example, are still in the red states, but I imagine they blame Democrats for that, too.

Expand full comment
Susan Campbell's avatar

It makes no sense. Can people really not separate reality from fiction?

Expand full comment
Ava's avatar

They don't want to and refuse to.

Expand full comment
Susan Campbell's avatar

But to what end? I know I sound like a broken reacord.

Expand full comment
Ava's avatar

Their endgame is the mythical America Sharon describes: white, patriarchal, christianist/pseudo-Christian, straight, etc. etc. That it never existed is only important to people who value facts: they don't. Same end as Germany for so many not that long ago: a return to a past they wished existed. You're looking for rational behavior where it likely will never exist. I fervently wish it did.

Expand full comment
Paul Ashton's avatar

It’s not a new thought but self-loathing has been consuming millions of Americans for some time. People who hate themselves tend to project that hatred towards other people, towards organizations, ideas and especially change. It’s no surprise that these people are attracted by a vessel for their hate. Trump hasn’t so much been a leader as he’s been a model of self-loathing denial and projection for the millions in the MAGA cult.

Expand full comment
Deacon Art's avatar

Good question. I would suppose another question is “When was America great for all Americans” .

Expand full comment
Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

Maybe they want to go back pre-germ-theory, too.

Expand full comment
Susan Campbell's avatar

Well, considering the protests around COVID...

Expand full comment
Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

'zactly. And the widespread much trumpeted lack of understanding of what "infection" means.

I don't know if I've told you this before, if so, apologies: in 1998 I did a gig as a guest lecturer in a biology class where I learned that Republican undergraduates had evidently been deciding that infection was not longer a thing (so why public health? it's all just broken limbs and "bad lifestyles"), and that human beings were no longer evolving.

Expand full comment
Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

And they're definitely pro-unfree-labor.

Expand full comment
Bill Katz's avatar

In the grand old game of politics, one can ask what do things like saving America and so on mean. They don’t mean diddly squat. There is no truth in electioneering. Maybe just a wee bit of truth on the democratic side but both sides throw everything including the kitchen sink to win votes. We have never adequately regulated issues surrounding the web. I can’t begin to figure that one out but I do know that while it may bring good minds together, it certainly is a force to bring bad hombres together, too.

Who knows maybe the owl knows.

Expand full comment
Gayle Anton's avatar

Translation of Republican platform: Keep America dominated by white males and only what they want.

Expand full comment
Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

I don't think they want greatness shared. I think they want it concentrated and presented to The Bestest Worthies. Who are themselves and select designees, and thus nearly entirely White men.

Expand full comment
Tim Sullivan's avatar

I was told years ago to make sure and ask what do you mean by that. It is a pretty important question when you need to clarify what you mean in a blanket statement. It always served me well

Expand full comment