A referendum on the red hat
I’ve done a couple of things I shouldn’t have. I decided to share a meme I saw on social media on my own Facebook wall. Instead of going into a long-winded explanation I thought I would just show you below. Consider it a bonus cartoon for the day.
Of course, my conservative friends and family were up in arms. The most hilarious exchange came when a former classmate uttered that you know who the bigots are based on who is sporting Biden gear. I naturally pointed out that we don’t buy Biden swag. We don’t buy swag for any politician because we aren’t a cult. Biden could sell bibles, tee-shirts, hats, action figures, shoes, fake degrees, steaks, Vodka, and any other assorted nonsense with his name on it. No one would buy it anyway because our allegiance is to the country and to ideas.
Be that as it may, I thought I would offer a few words on the red hat that our patrons could borrow when talking with their conservative friends, coworkers, and family members. When asking whether a red hat makes you a bigot or not you should consider the very basics. If you are suggesting that you want to “make America great again” then you are suggesting that America is no longer great. So, exactly when was it great? What were the precipitating steps and actions that caused it to no longer to be great? I’d imagine many of those folks would be stuck by some of the verbiage used there, so you might give them a few minutes to collect their thoughts or you might treat them as a hostile witness.
I imagine many of them (if they are older) are thinking of when they were young and everyone “knew their place.” If they are actually young then they are longing for the days their parents or grandparents described. Immediately, two things come to mind. First, memory is a tricky thing. We often remember what we want to remember and forget what we want to forget. If we are unhappy now then we likely remember the past more fondly. This belies the truth because if we are unhappy now then we were likely unhappy then. Secondly, even if life were good for us we have to come to grips with the fact that it was worse for others. So, saying you want life to return to what it was then you are either choosing to ignore that little fact or you are actively bathing in it. My guess for most of those folks is the latter.
Simply put, it is a backwards looking sentiment. I don’t want to look backwards. For one, life quite literally sucked for large groups of people. Even if I could say it was good for me then I would have to acknowledge that conditions are different enough to where that life is impossible to replicate. Of course, there I go again with the big words. I finally went off on a different discussion with a so-called “thinking conservative”. He prattled on and on about how gun control wouldn’t work and so I literally shouted, “then make a suggestion!” That’s the point, They don’t have any. Their platform has literally become, “whatever THAT guy says” and THAT guy doesn’t have any ideas. He never did. We can make this a referendum about the man, but one of the ways to win is to simply point out that THEY have no answers for the problems they are highlighting. They just have grievance. They want to prevent US from successfully passing any of our own suggestions. So, I would say it is put up or shut up time. If you want that mythical great past you long for then it is high time to tell us exactly how we get back there. Spell it out for us. Give us a step by step blueprint. Of course, they don’t want to do that because they know the majority doesn’t think that way. It’s a lot easier just to complain.
Thank you, Nick! Well said.
1They usually enjoy hearing what the top marginal tax rate was back in the 50s and 60s.
2Folks, I have red hats. One is very fashionable, two more are cowboy hats, two more a baseball caps cluttered with sparkle stuff, and one is just a plain old baseball cap without any sort of a name. For some years I have been involved with the Red Hatters, a group of women who simply get together for tea and camaraderie (spelling?). I have been a bit bent out of shape ever since tRump went all red hat and red hate (especially!). Moreover, no one in our group is a Trumper. Red hats and no hate. Rather proud of that, most of all these days.
3Nailed ’em, Nick.
And in possibly related news, a M4.8 earthquake* this morning had its epicenter almost under Komrade Donnei’s Bedminster, NJ golf club and shook up the NE. Maybe Ivana’s rattling around?
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000ma74/executive
The usual MAGAots are already humping it, and innuendoing Biden [despite it’s happening nearly under a tRump property]:
On Xitter:
“Marjorie Taylor Greene
@mtgreenee
God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent.
Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come.
I pray that our country listens. ”
‘Tell it sis…’
.
4* Around here in the middle of the Eagle Ford Shale fracking region, we are getting 4+ magnitude earthquakes every month or so, with M2+ ones every day. The area almost never had an earthquake for millions of years before fracking started ~2009.
And less than an hour later, another earthquake just a mile NW of the tRump golf club.
Signs and omens… Let’s hope that he’s soooo screwed..
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=40.57224,-75.12314&extent=40.92181,-74.37881&range=search&listOnlyShown=true&baseLayer=terrain&timeZone=utc&search=%7B“name”:”Search%20Results”,”params”:%7B”endtime”:”2024-04-26T14:23:20.490Z”,”latitude”:40.7033,”longitude”:-74.7581,”maxradiuskm”:250,”minmagnitude”:1,”starttime”:”2024-03-15T14:23:20.490Z”%7D%7D
5MAGAs hijacked the color red and the American flag. Maybe I’ll have a hat made in blue to say “Make America Sane Again”. If I ever get back to Iduhoo again to visit my maga brother, I’ll wear it. That’ll set him off.
6I remember exactly where I was around 11 a.m. on this date in 1968.
Tricia and I were driving through downtown Raleigh after giving blood to get tested for our marriage license. Just before we reached the old Capitol, the line of cars we were in was stopped, while in the opposite direction about a thousand demonstrators marched toward us, silently, carrying a banner. I no longer recall what was on the banner, but the demonstrators were all my age, students from St. Augustine and Shaw universities making a statement about the murder of Dr. King the night before.
All was serene. A couple of motorcycle cops preceded the parade and a squad car tailed it.
Suddenly a red, jacked up Chevelle with drag tires raced around the black-and-white, pulled in front of the marchers, threw himself into reverse and backed into the crowd, tires smoking.
The marchers scattered. It was a drizzly morning and some carried umbrellas. One guy used his to smash the driver’s window of the car just in front of me. I had my window rolled down, and a student paused as he ran, leaned over and spat in my face. He ran on.
The driver of the car in front of me got out, opened his trunk and took out a shotgun.
I noted his license plate number, drove a block or so and found a telephone to call his description into the police.
I don’t know what happened after that. I was kind of busy: as editor of the cow college yearbook, I was getting that distributed, I was getting ready to graduate and getting set for the wedding.
The rest of that year was violent and sometimes deadly. Things today seem ominous but when it comes to actual violence, 1968 was the real deal.
7There’s Biden swag? Who knew?
Indeed, Nick. If people who wear red hats want problems solved, they can vote for people who will cooperate with Democrats to GET them solved. If they can’t do that, they can shut up and get out of the way.
8I have been thinking about getting t-shirts printed with one word:
vermin
9The MAGA crowd and their allies have no solutions, let alone suggestions, for what ails us. When a sensible & viable solution is presented to them, they wail at how dare we try to take the issue from them. Its like whenever they use the empty platitude of “thoughts and prayers”, its all they got.
10The multiple adulteress and serial liar is a fine one to be talking about repenting.
11Holy Crap! Since the big M4.8 New Jersey earthquake this morning near tRump’s golf club [felt all over the NE US], there have been at least TEN more earthquakes there today!
This happening in an area that almost never has any tectonic activity. Mostly little quakes, but still..
The Big Guy might be trying to tell Komrade Donnei something…
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=40.49814,-75.13138&extent=40.8481,-74.38431&range=search&listOnlyShown=true&baseLayer=terrain&timeZone=utc&search=%7B“name”:”Search%20Results”,”params”:%7B”endtime”:”2024-04-26T14:23:20.490Z”,”latitude”:40.7033,”longitude”:-74.7581,”maxradiuskm”:250,”minmagnitude”:1,”starttime”:”2024-03-15T14:23:20.490Z”%7D%7D
12Holy Shit! And another big earthquake, M4.0, hits almost under tRump National Golf Club!
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000mab9/
13Shucks! You would naturally think that tRump would get the message when his golf property in NJ shakes, rattles and rolls, but you gotta realize that he thinks he is the diety and if he didn’t roll out the earthquake then it had to be a conspiracy of sort stage managed by MAGA haters. After all, there was actually a sudden large hole in the ground at the approach of Mar A Lago not that long ago also attributed to MAGA haters.
14AGREE, good one Nick.
15Ask any great grandmother if she wants to return to “the good old days”.
16