Believes nostalgia has backed Republicans into corner
The Plague Year was apparently the Year of Nostalgia for many people — nostalgia for the 1950s — especially for people who did not live through them. Those were the days! Half the country seemingly became Archie Bunker. Who does not pine for the days when men could send their 50-something “girls” out on personal errands? “Delores, get me some coffee? Then pick up my dry cleaning.” Or if she was 20-something, try to get her on the office couch. Or the days when Blacks were found only in service positions, or hard labor jobs, and everybody in a tie was white. Or the days when guys bragged about how many “queers” they rolled last weekend (except for those guys just out of the hospital after trying it with a ballet dancer). Or when abortions were only for the rich, and ordinary women had to risk their lives to get them. Who does not pine for the time when Americans were Christian — period. There were some Catholics and Jews, but they knew their place. Catholics did get uppity and elect a president, but that was the Sixties.
The restoration of the Fifties ethos was the primary platform that got the 45th President elected. Even though enough people found themselves disgusted with that platform and the man who espoused it to cast him out, the Republican Party seems to have found it to be a path to achieving their goals. Not just getting elected, but in turning the clock back (conservatism is, after all, rooted in the past). They have seen the intensity of his followers, their willingness to believe anything they are told, and to do anything they are told, as long as there is adherence to that Fifties ethos. If the GOP can capture that for themselves, somehow make it a Republican thing rather than just a Trump thing, they can bait and switch forever. Ban abortion! But first cut taxes. Outlaw gay marriage! But first let industry dump their poisons in the rivers again. Stop brown immigration! But not the ones who pick our fruit or clean our country clubs for $5 an hour.
They cannot accomplish this without accepting Mr. Trump’s legitimacy. They cannot be seen attacking him. This power crystallized out of a cult of personality (campaign flags read TRUMP, not Trump/Pence). It will be a huge challenge to divert it, and a risk. Hosea 8:7 warned us.
Bill Gillmore
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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