Hancock high-fived w/ Trump in 2016

Nice to see I may have some untapped potential. Sometimes I see a notice of a "new employee" at an area newspaper and these people come across as so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. It's the proper way to be, right? Maybe not always, as journalists of an earlier time took on the mantle of overthrowing some very dark things. All that happened in my formative years: the Pentagon Papers on how the government had misled us through Vietnam. And then the mess of Watergate. So as a writer, you'd want to go out in the world assuming a lot of bad things about people. Or to just be absurd and attention-getting like Hunter S. Thompson. Never mind that Thompson made a name for himself when he was straight-laced. P.J. O'Rourke joked that there was a generation of young journalists who might consider going to cover the sewage commission meeting "wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses." That's me. Actually my local issue was the public school. I picked up serious scars from having my opinions become known on that. Silly rabbit, I didn't consider them to be "opinions." And I'm not joking.

 

The Wall Street Journal reports that clergy people overall were hesitant to say much about the Roe vs. Wade reversal. That was the Supreme Court doing its thing. The Supreme Court with three extreme justices who were appointed by the last president. 

My pastor mentioned it and I'm not sure in the most delicate way. I was going to confirm what I think he said, last night, but could not find the video on YouTube. I'm not going to check now. Let's just say that no minister, even the most red-bleeding ones (politically) would be advised to say much now. Not with organized religion having already been set on its heels by years of right wing assertiveness. 

For as long as the assertiveness was just words or symbolism, many of us could observe passively. I suppose we still need to be passive. We can be assertive at the voting booth. But the situation looks anything but promising out here in rural America. The South Dakota political officeholders aren't really determined in the election, they are determined though the Republican Party nominating procedure. Governor Kristi Noem wants abortion-performing doctors to be prosecuted. 

So to what extent did our Stevens County join in the mix of what led to Donald Trump becoming president? The immediate city of Morris was not much to blame. 

Outside of Morris the complexion is quite different. 

Hancock wants support for its July 4 celebration. Does the community warrant this type of support? Trump got into the White House in 2016. What followed was four long years of dysfunction and absurdity. Bleach and UV light for covid, to cite one exhibit. People who should have spoken up more, fought back more, were scared. Consider Dr. Deborah Birx. 

Look at what Trump engineered on January 6, 2021. And look how long it is taking to try to get accountability on that. Look how long we had to wait for any kind of committee to even be formed. 

A huge conservative media complex has built up to apologize for many of the craziest elements. Not that these people are propelled, necessarily, by their own rational senses. They appeal to a swath of America that feels grumpy. The swath is in the more sparsely populated parts. Feeling forgotten? Is that it? 

Even churches in rural America probably sense that it's questionable to say much on the Supreme Court now. Be careful what you wish for?

If the Wall Street Journal's assessment is correct, churches everywhere have apprehension about applauding so much. Applauding the clear diminution of women, their needs and rights. Courts generally speaking expand human rights. The curious reversal now is due to how the majority in America does not in fact choose the president. 

When I was a kid, we learned about the electoral college but we just assumed that its winner would also be the winner of the popular vote. It seemed safe to assume as much. And if a surprise happened, I think we'd all assume there would be a push to simply eliminate the electoral college. Because surely, we would want our government to reflect the wishes of the majority. 

It's difficult to make any assumption now. We cannot assume that logic will win over illogic, rationality will win over ignorance, or virtue will supplant evil. 

You'd think that a minister anywhere could stand up and simply be forthright. However, it seems that even "conservative" ministers, or "evangelicals" if you want to trot that out, are not of a mind for spiking the football. I'd curse them on that because they should admit to what they've been part of. They know full well they got on the Trump train. 

I doubt that a single Apostolic in the Morris area voted for Hillary Clinton. I could list several other local churches about which the same conclusion might be drawn. Even with the January 6 committee's revelations coming at us every day, I doubt there is any second-guessing happening among those folks. For one thing, you'd have to feel humility - the humility of examining your past views and perhaps modifying your path. This might mean removing a bumper sticker from your vehicle. 

The odds of Trump supporters doing that? 

Kamala Harris

For a time I had a "Kamala" sticker on rear of vehicle, and I finally covered it with a piece of gray tape. I simply got scared. 

Biden is too old and Harris should be president. There are aspects of Hillary I have never liked, some of them personal, but she would have been exponentially better from 2016 to 2020. 

We don't know any of these people personally. We just have to vote for what's best for us. We needn't be so consumed by politics anyway. We have allowed it to become tribal. Once it becomes tribal, we get outspoken because we simply want to be on the winning side. Like in the old P.E. game of "boomerang" with the two sides throwing balls at each other. In South Dakota you're a winner if you're a Republican. So you get Noem who is as anti-choice as anyone. 

I won't attempt to quote my pastor from yesterday because I'd be going from memory. I think he might have even misspoken a little. Who wants to be "against life?" No one is against life but abortion is fundamentally a women's rights issue with nuances. 

Ministers everywhere appeared hesitant to seize on the Supreme Court decision a whole lot. 

Clicking of heels among the evangelicals and their leaders? I don't sense as much of that as what we might have expected. More like whistling past the graveyard? And why would so many of the robe-adorned people in the pulpits be cautious on an issue that previously they showed such bravado over? I'd suggest it's the oldest reason: self-interest. 

It was several years ago when I was watching a C-Span program and learned the term "nones." It means no religious affiliation. And it's a sector of the population showing growth. The speaker on the show explained that "people who make their living in religion know what's going on." And those people have been gripped with trepidation, though they are not inclined to admit it. They're reluctant to admit it because it would alienate their most zealous followers. But outside of those zealous followers lies the broad population. 

We're looking at the youth who aren't drawn in to the most dogmatic, logic-defying stances. The person on C-Span said people who are professionals in religion see support slipping away because young people have come to see the bond between Christianity and extreme right wing politics. 

 

Getting local

And so we look to the community of Hancock in Stevens County for clues. I wouldn't name names on this unless I had some data. So let's name-drop with Hancock, take a look at the 2016 vote totals. Votes were cast on November 8, 2016. In the Hancock precinct, Trump got 242 votes, Clinton 88. I could say "Trump-Pence" but that seems odd now - Trump supporters were out to commit violence against Pence and his family on January 6, 2021. 

In Moore Township, Trump won 89 to 8. 

So, it is in the hotbed of Trump support that we're supposed to gather for July 4. Fresh on the heels of the Supreme Court beginning to take radical action to re-shape America, with its three Trump-appointed justices. That includes "Justice Brewsky," Brett Kavanaugh. 

We see Clarence Thomas emerging as one of the most embittered public figures in America. And how to describe Thomas' wife Ginni? But these are the big names atop the U.S. political firmament. And the top lawyer for Trump, Rudy Giuliani, he of the excess alcohol consumption and possible dementia? 

Look at others like Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson et al. These are bad people. 

And increasingly it looks like the cabal has been foisted on us by the likes of the Stevens County "conservative" churches. 

And the religion professionals know all too well how in the long term, the foundation for what they do will collapse under them. Young people aren't that stupid. Young people understand global warming. It is not a "hoax." 

So Roe vs. Wade and its 50 years of precedent is shattered. I shared with a friend on abortion Sunday evening:

 

Went to church 2day, I could swear I heard Pastor (name withheld) say he hoped the Roe-Wade decision would be "life-giving." I might confirm this through YouTube. No one is "against life" but the abortion issue is far more nuanced than that. We can blame God for creating the human species the way He did, with the reproductive process. Actually we are hybrid, between Earth primates and space aliens.

 

Addendum: Were there really eight people in Moore Township who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016?

 

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