I shared a warning with a fellow UMM advocate yesterday. Have you followed the news close enough to notice the altered state of the Republican Party, from its traditional outlook? This has been extremely marked. Obviously Trump is the catalyst. But Trump is supposed to be the ex-president. Yet he finds his way to the top or near the top of the news daily. So often, it is with wacky or extreme pronouncements, often with little if any factual backing. We all must be eating it up.
Even if we find a lot of it to be absurd, we are eating it up. It is slowly transforming the nature of our society, to the point where the reactionary element feels emboldened like never before.
This Senator Kennedy of Louisiana asks questions in a hearing as if he is the second coming of Joe McCarthy. Our society had a consensus for a long time that McCarthy was a bad guy. Really pretty incontrovertible. Nothing appears to be incontrovertible now, not even the thumbs-down with Jim Crow. The Supreme Court with Trump's appointees, and with the once-conservative John Roberts trying in vain to put his finger in the dike, is allowing Alabama to essentially resurrect Jim Crow.
Hey, Jim Crow was supposed to be a relic. We all seemed to agree on that for a long time. Incontrovertible. Nothing is incontrovertible now.
I honestly do not consider it overstatement to note that brainwashing is happening, with Ron Johnson of Wisconsin perhaps exhibit 'A'. Or Devin Nunes who emerged over the last few years as a top Trump toady. Oh but he shares that platform with a great many. They are not humbled. They won't answer directly if they think the 2020 election was "stolen" from Trump. Chris Wallace tried getting an answer from Steve Scalise three times on this.
My fantasy is for someone like Chris Wallace to not let go, to just stay on the air indefinitely until Scalise can cough up an answer of some sort. Or, maybe the pol would just get up and walk out. A critic would way he'd "pout." But you can insult these people from any number of directions and it doesn't matter to them. Because they've been brainwashed.
The New York Times has a story on Ron Johnson, the point being "he wasn't always like this." I have heard the same observation about Nunes. Joe Scarborough noted that Nunes was once a deservedly obscure congressman who followed the standard Republican line on such things as taxes, but was basically civil.
Why my hand-wringing on this now? Well, a couple things: for this element of society to continue totally undeterred, to cut slack for the Jan. 6 rioters, to run away from reporters as Kevin McCarthy is doing now, ought to float the specter of a slide to Nazi-level danger. We can all pray that this fear will ultimately be unfounded. At present I feel it is quite well founded.
Welcoming back Jim Crow? Roughing up a witness at a hearing with Joe McCarthy-esque language, not even veiled? Aren't you all shocked we have returned to such things? Let's not be like the frog in water reaching a boil. We need to snap out of our lethargy which has probably grown out of the day-to-day drumbeat that seems monotonous after a while.
You all have friends of German ancestry. They aren't stupid, right? Quite to the contrary. But anyone would have to ask himself: would my German friends of today have been caught up in Nazi-ism? You might scream "no." I would demur on that. Nazis were not born as mentally crazed individuals, they learned their dysfunction and became attracted by Hitler's speeches. Like the Trump rallies of today? What even Fox News does not want to cover anymore? We still see vociferous crowds.
It is a trait of human nature that people get attracted to powerful figures. They want to ride the coattails and to "kiss up." Hitler had his circle. We have seen people around Trump who obviously should have known better. Ron Johnson should know better. He is not stupid, just deluded, vain and intoxicated some on the entrancing mystique of this fellow named Trump, who for a time in his life mastered entertainment from the TV screen.
My arguments here have relevance for our U of M-Morris. I'm finally getting to the "local angle" here. I feel it is vitally important. Someday if things go badly, you'll look back and realize I was prescient. Let's pray that scenario doesn't happen. But look how far the Trump train has proceeded up to now.
Republicans all the way down to the state legislature level are following the lead of the loudest people in their fold. Such as, the anti-vaxxers, Dr. Fauci-bashers and mask scoffers. In other words, decrying the legitimate effort at mitigation in the face of the virus. They decry all this in the name of "freedom." In a normal political environment, we might listen to some legitimate skeptics about the mitigation, because surely there is no "perfect" route.
The virus posed mysteries for a long time and still does.
Mitigation is for the purpose of saving lives. I could name one non-vaccinated person in Stevens County who died. Debate on the masking stance is legitimate, but the Trumpian element gets in our faces, as it were, with this stuff. It's emotional and angry and translates to a 100 percent Republican attitude in voting.
Remember what the Republican Party stands for primarily: to promote the interests of the very richest among us. So much of the other stuff is for deflection, to induce naive and scared folks to get on board.
There is a very real threat to our U of M-Morris at present: this big push by Republicans now to crush the so-called "woke" ideas. "Woke" didn't really enter our vocabulary until relatively recently. It pains me to give credit to Tucker Carlson for anything, but he probably gave traction to the word. And now the reactionary crowd reacts as if presented with marching orders.
Let's acknowledge that our UMM really does reflect a "woke" approach to things, if you want to use that word. We should all be in agreement on that.
Am I comfortable with UMM's approach? Did I say I was uncomfortable? No, that is not my point. I can wrap my arms around UMM anytime. Their intent is good even if a bit overzealous sometimes. It's nothing to rabidly protest against, but we are seeing rabid protests grow against so-called woke attitudes all over the U.S. now. Ethnic studies. Gender awareness. Scrutiny of race-based conflict through history. The scrutiny can be embarrassing for white America. But we must acknowledge facts and history.
Republicans wish to apply the brakes to that now - no reservations. It takes no prisoners. All this has picked up steam just recently.
The supposedly moderate new governor of Virginia, this Youngkin fellow, who was supposed to be keeping his distance from Trump - remember? - is now behaving like a front-row Trumpite. Amazing.
Such is the power of a cult, or of brainwashing. This all happened in Germany once. Heaven help us all. Let's pray for UMM's future. (Or is it "UMN" now?)
Final note: I'm a "white" person but my skin isn't really "white."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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