Forsaking freedoms for snake oil

By Publisher Mike Weland

The right-wing rhetoric has ramped up since Kamala Harris took the baton from Joe Biden to make the final sprint to the finish line, not just the champion of Democrats but of all who stand in opposition to a second Trump presidency, and the rising virulence is indicative of the threat she and we pose to the malignant MAGA agenda.

“It is the biggest attempt for a communist overthrow that we have ever seen,” one gentleman posted to Facebook. “We are quickly becoming the stupidest generations (sic) in American history. It is wrong to let this happen on our watch. millions (sic) have given up there (sic) lives to protect what we are willing to give up this election if we don’t get the truth out there. We must post in her own words her agenda as much as we can. It is the least we can do for all of those that fought and died for our God given rights to live our lives without the rule of goverment. (sic) She believes the opposite.”

“The liberal left (democrats) are trying to take our country into socalism,” wrote another in response to one of my opinion posts. “If you dont believe it youre either dumb, blind or crazy. I’m thinking the latter. The dems has said as much. They want socialism. You are a party to it. You and i will probably be gone. Me with jesus, you where ever. When it happens. I dont want my kids and grand kids to go through it.” sic sic sic

“Time will tell,” I responded. “It won’t be kind.”

“Your right it hasnt been kind since obummer.”

And despite the crude way it’s conveyed, those eight words offer the sole logical explanation of where we are now and why.

Without the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama, a Trump presidency would have been impossible. With it, one malignant voice was able to reach the ears of those many aggrieved by each step forward in the annals of this nation’s slow and painful march toward an ever more perfect union, each step bringing us closer to the ideal of a society in which all are equal. And the voice of Donald John Trump empowers them.

I had the dubious privilege many years ago of sitting for eight hours in a tiny, windowless federal witness room in Boise with Sea Monkey man Richard Butler, who parlayed the wealth he made from a tiny Salt Lake crustacean into a compound in Hayden where his Aryan Nations “church” cast a stain on this most beautiful region that persists today, still drawing “like-minded conservatives” who think they’ll find not just a haven, but a redoubt.

We were in Boise to testify in the case of the United States vs. Randy Weaver et al.

Reverend Butler struck up a conversation early on asking about my background, what I did. I didn’t tell him all this beyond that I was born in Germany, but my mom was a Bavarian girl born at the onset of World War II who adored Adolph Hitler until she died at age 42, my dad a Missouri farm boy from the area where, in the mid-1850s, pro-slavery Missourians did their best to encourage anti-slavery Kansans, given the states rights choice by the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, to vote Kansas a slave state, thus expanding the political power of slave owners. Dad was a firm believer in the sanctity of white supremacy right up to his death from Agent Orange induced cancer in 1993.

The rotund florid reverend tried to flatter me by telling me I had the look of “fine Aryan stock” and undoubtedly possessed a pure, unsullied bloodline, and he proceeded to preach to me his gospel.

By all accounts, based on who my parents were, I should have been susceptible to Butler’s message of hate, but somehow I was spared that narrow and erroneous view.

“Mr. Butler,” I interrupted, “if you and I are the best this world has to offer as ordained by God, I’d say God ain’t very —- smart and humanity is good and well —-.”

The reverend and I didn’t exchange another word all day.

And there you have the root of all this evil … folks who assume, that in a nation built on the proposition that all are equal, their little faction, be it race, religion, creed, color or whatever, is just a little bit more equal, and they fear the idea of losing the privilege of their position, even if it’s but the ability to look down their noses at those they falsely proclaim inferior.

Have doubts? It’s remarkably easy to prove. Superiority implies competence. Those of the MAGA cult elected to positions of high trust; Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, Matt Gaetz, James Comey, Jim Jordan, Paul Gossart, Josh Hawley et al, are anything but. They put the “fun” in dysfunction, talking much but accomplishing little but confusion, chaos and crisis while insisting the fault lies with those “who has said as much,” who “are trying to take our country into socalism. If you dont believe it youre either dumb, blind or crazy.”

“The democrats are destroying the constitution. I stick with my assessment. You’re bat —- crazy” (sic sic sic and sic.)

No, I don’t believe so. The Democrats, while they, too, have a radical faction, still have the moderate adults in the driver’s seat, quietly and with little fanfare or credit doing the work of the American people. They aren’t the enemy. Harris is a patriot who has served the people. She defends the constitution and upholds the law.

Is her record perfect? Of course not, but it’s far better than portrayed by the propaganda outlets chirping Trump lines and lies. Is she the perfect candidate? Of course not, but she’s the one who stepped into the ring. Will she restore civility and fractious unity to our divided nation? No, but she will preserve and defend its constitution from the clear and present danger of the radical right, buy time for heads to cool enough for a return to civility and rational discourse.

You in the cult of MAGA are in for disappointment if you get your way in November. Those kids and grandkids will soon look back with shame, asking how you could have so callously forsaken their freedoms, the gift of our founders, for a handful of false promises from a snake oil salesman.