@MLClark Back to your "socialism" column of a few days ago ... I'm going through #FloridaToday letters to the editor in February 2010, doing research for my book. I found this letter and it reminded me of your column.
Oh, this reminds me of US outrage when marriage equality was about to be passed - and how some folks in their outrage threatened to move to Canada... where marriage equality had already been law for years. 😂
The sheer bubble many folks in the US live in with respect to other governments. I remember when granny death panels were all over US news. We Canucks kept checking in with each other while watching the panic unfold: "Have *you* been on a granny death panel? No? Me neither."
@MLClark Lots of letters during this time about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Many of them wanted gays out of the military, period. One wrote (paraphrasing), "We can't have guys in the military publicly having sex!"
Uh, since when does anyone in the military "publicly have sex"?!
If anything, the true scandals have been sexual abuse by heterosexual men on female personnel. (1/2)
@MLClark Re the "Granny Death Panel," this has been the GOP go-to card since Newt Gingrich was ascendant. Make up something scary, repeat it over and over, and have Fox News air it so it has credibility.
I remember when it hit our city. One of the GOP council members was using a list of words provided by the party to instill fear of our Democratic council majority. It worked, we were voted out in 1990. (2/2)
And yet, you still have this infectious sense of (grounded, pragmatic) attention to the politics of the day.
That's a gift, Stephen. It can be all too easy to give over to despair when one sees the same tactics, the same hate, the same sleaze, play out one election cycle after the next.
You inspire me with your verve, insight, and attention to the importance of doing what we can in an absurd world, Stephen. Thank you for that. 😊
@MLClark By the way, losing that election put us on the road to running George McGovern's Democratic presidential campaign in early 1991, because we had nothing else to do.
When he dropped out, our defeated mayor (my mentor) decided to run himself.
He didn't win.
That experience eventually turned him to the Dark Side. Long Story.
But it all began with that GOPAC memo.
@MLClark Here's a September 1990 #NYTimes article on the GOPAC memo and how it poisoned American politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/09/us/political-memo-for-gop-arsenal-133-words-to-fire.html
@MLClark Okay, sorry for the deluge, but this is bringing back memories because it's a key time in poisoning modern American politics -- and we were one of the early guinea pigs.
The GOP assigned young David Brock to go after my guy as an early test of Newt's principles at the local level.
https://www.ocweekly.com/there-really-is-a-vast-right-wing-conspiracy-6386757/
Brock eventually made a "face turn" (wrestling term) and wrote a book exposing the GOP smear machine.
https://www.amazon.com/Blinded-Right-Ex-Conservative-David-Brock/dp/0812930991/
You're living in a part of the world where it's very easy to be assailed by the worst toxic propaganda. I can only imagine the defences necessary to maintain some semblance of sanity amid so many wilfully cruel public operators.
I appreciate the deluge, Stephen. There's a lot here to learn from.
💙 I just hope you have respite from the political storms from time to time.
@MLClark I saw a couple Trumpist bumper stickers today on two different cars ...
JOE AND THE HO GOTTA GO is a common one. "Ho" referring to Kamala Harris, which is both racist and sexist.
The other one was new:
TRUMP 2024
THE REVENGE TOUR
Really?!
I'm not going to repeat what was said about Michelle Obama - just highlight that it's status quo with their ilk.
I've seen the "revenge" rhetoric before. Have you read Project 2025? I read the whole darned thing months ago for an article about Heritage Foundation plans for US government if they win... oh, any of the next two or three elections.
It's bleak. You have Republican funders 100% striving to end US democracy. Can't be healthy living with this much always on the line.
@MLClark I've heard of it, but haven't read about it yet, will put it on the to-do list.
Trump and his MAGAs are loud and obnoxious, but they are few. He only won in 2016 because too many decent people stayed at home and didn't vote. Since then, the lesson has been learned, with record turnouts.
I put a lot of stock in Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC on Twitter). He keeps posting the Dems are outperforming expectations in local elections, a good sign that voters are fed up with the fascism.
@MLClark Okay, one more trip down Nostalgia Lane ...
In 1994, I wrote an article for New Political Science about our 1992 Democratic presidential campaign experiences. If interested, you can download it at the link.
It's in the style of submissions at the time -- Courier 12 point, underscore for italics, double-spaced, etc.
Don't feel compelled to read. I know you're busy. Only if interested. 😊
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IC6MWlnsS00wazaJoOcPJAHP-ffuyZep/view
@MLClark Oh, believe me, I have plenty of despair. I just spend my despair where it's needed. 😉
And you inspire me every day with your insatiable desire to write. Your Trekism is a bonus.