The Politics of Identity
I know it is not a good idea to ask people about their age, but I can reveal mine with impunity. This weekend is the 30th high school reunion. I attended the 10th and 25th. I imagine it will end up being about the same. It comes with a ton of mixed emotions that range from nostalgia, joy at seeing friends nearly forgotten, schadenfreude, and finally sadness.
The sadness comes from seeing what time has done to some people that were close friends in school. I remember having a running conversation with one of them prior to the last election. I think we got to the point where we were talking about the riots and I brought up the story about Trump supporters running Biden’s bus off the road along with the fact that a good portion of the damage in these “riots” was actually done by right wing extremist groups. That apparently was the last straw. We have not spoken since.
Obviously, within the conversation an obvious statement was made. I cannot condone anyone that hurts others or damages property. It was then that I discovered the extent of what had happened. Even though my friend was not a part of those right wing efforts or January 6th, he felt a kin to them and identified with them. So, when I started to criticize them it felt to him like I was criticizing him. If they were deplorable then he was deplorable. That sparked the reaction I got.
The 45th president has continually stoked this along the way. His message seems simple. All of this going on right now is a witch hunt and if they can put him in jail for specious charges then they can do the same to you. If you identify with the former president then it almost feels like they have indicted you. It feels like you are going to jail. They are persecuting you for merely being conservative. Let’s ignore the fact that 45 is not conservative. Let’s ignore the fact that 45 really doesn’t care about his followers. Let’s ignore the fact that he really has committed numerous crimes and wakes up out of bed committing more each day. You will never convince them of that because they have become so wrapped up in it that saying these things about him means you are saying it about them.
This is where the flip side comes in. They continually attack Hunter Biden and Joe Biden because they assume we are the same. They poke fun at him for his age. They question his support because no one carries a Biden flag or wears a Biden shirt. They are confused by this. Do I care that there was cocaine in the White House? Sure, I’d like to know that everyone working for the president is sober. Do I think it belonged to Hunter? Honestly I don’t. It may not have even belonged to a staff member. It was in a place where numerous people from the public could have left it.
Yet, here’s the difference. If it did belong to Hunter then he should go to jail. If it did belong to Joe then he needs to be impeached. If it belonged to a staffer then that staffer should be fired. It’s really that simple. We should definitely investigate this and not just assume anything. Our identity is not wrapped up in who we voted for. It can’t be. For those that find themselves attached to a politician, we really can’t help them anymore. We have to let it go. For those at the reunion, it just means talking about the past. The future for them is all too bleak anyway.
That little plastic bag has frat stunt written all over it. The bag had no fingerpirnts. It was way too clean. If its worth it, just seek out the frat. D.C. has a number of colleges within bounds as well as in nearby Virginia and Maryland. I also would bet that this bag thing could have been worked up by Ivy Leaguers. It would take only about three frat brothers with nothing better to do than play a rather nasty practical joke on certain people and a certain political party.
1I was having similar thoughts, Maggie, but Project Veritas came to mind for me. To my mind they seem related.
2I suppose it matters but it really doesn’t matter all that much. It’s the fact that matters so much to them that is mind boggling. It’s the double standard that is so apparent and yet cannot be seen. Trump’s kids were actually in his administration. Hunter is not. DJT clearly has a drug problem and that doesn’t seem to matter. Why do they care so much?
3My 45th reunion was in 2022.
I didn’t go.
I haven’t been to any of them.
The good friends I have from that time don’t go to them, either. We didn’t have a very good time there.
That said, I hope your 30th is wonderful, Nick! Cheers!
4Someone left a baggie of coke in a publicly accessed area? There’s only a few reasons that I can see for doing that and here are some: A. You just bought it from your dealer and they are in the White House because that’s where everyone goes to get their fix, NOT! B. Because you just finished wiping all evidence of you and your dealer and the hundreds of others that touched that baggy off and you needed to let it air dry in a safe space. C.You’re a rich idiot that has nothing better to do than be the cocaine fairy at the White House leaving little gift bags of cocaine here and there ( better than the easter egg hunt). D. You’re an idiot repugnican’t that thought this would implicate the whole administration as druggies. I think they should do what a teacher who found a bag of marijuana in our school once did, put it out in plain sight and tell the people that it’s been found and if you want it just go and claim it…….I think that baggie is still in the principals office.
5How much you wanna bet that DTJ would be jonesing to go make a claim?
65 years ago I went to my 50th. Knew about 6 people there and only 2 of them were people I hung with back then. They were all Republicans and I never looked back when I left-pretty much what I did back in 1968 when I graduated.
7I agree with Maggie except it’s not a stretch to believe it was a “dirty trick” to keep up the rhetoric about the Biden’s to distract from one DJT. And, if you haven’t seen the selfie videos of jr drumpf, you need to check them out. Talking about someone with a substance abuse problem.
8And Mike, I too had my 50th 5 years ago in Iduhoo (Boise). It was actually pretty fun considering it was in Iduhoo. However, they’re having a 55th later this year and I will not attend. The last 5 years have seen an exponential growth in right wing crap there and I will not subject myself to the frustration. I’d rather remember the good friends as they were before Iduhoo went bright red.
This reminds me . . . has anyone seen a small bag of cocaine?
I can’t imagine where I lost it.
9The other day a woman, maybe in her late 80’s (I’m 76), came up to me at the post office and asked if I was getting any of my mail. She was exasperated because she hadn’t gotten any for four days. I started to tell her she could go online with the postal service and set up their “informed delivery” email notices where they give you a scan of your incoming mail so you know what to expect. Oops. She said she has a friend who owns a business and this friend told her that “the government” is now scanning our credit cards and “how are we supposed to pay now, by just check or cash??” It wasn’t until well afterwards that I thought I should have asked her “The government? You mean Greg Abbott?” Missed opportunity.
10I prefer to butcher a Karen Blixen line . . . . Not pc but appropriate.
I’d like to continue to think of my beloved classmates as “Lip glossed and swift footed girls —because on any given day we had five glosses in our gym bags and wore it religiously when we ran track.
As the state turned seriously red I don’t think I could stomach the reality that some of my classmates are probably Maga.
11I have it on good authority that the coke was found in an area where tourists go. Anybody could have left it there. I went to my 20th reunion and decided that I was done. I transferred to that high school right before my senior year (military). I had a small handful of good friends and didn’t really know anybody else well enough to care. And…also in a seriously red state. I have lost a very dear friend and a few family members to Trump and QAnon and it’s painful.
12I went to my 60th high school reunion about 5 years ago. 3-day event, Orlando, Florida, a long ways from my home in Connecticut. I had a good time, and reunited with about a dozen good friends from back when, plus about 60 others that I don’t remember much about. However, we all decided that this would be the last one, just too many of us have passed to the great beyond, and none of us are getting any younger. Those that still live in or near Orlando will still have some meetings.
13Love the Friday toon of the drug map of druggggsssss everywhere-and these headshaking talking point freak outs. There’s no ‘if’ the Biden’s were in/at the WH during the find; they were not. In addition, that area (as in the entire build(s))is swept daily and it would not be ‘hanging out’ in its little dimebag presence for days.
14Going to my husband’s 60th next month.
15I too have no interest in attending class reunions. My problem? I have a twin brother who does go. He gets mad if I don’t go because he said he spends the time at the reunions answering questions about me. And I think that’s hilarious!
16Seems quite likely to me that the cocaine baggie was a stunt by right wingers. Project Veritas comes to mind, as someone said above. Otherwise I can’t fathom how anyone “accidentally “ leaves their cocaine at the White House! You don’t have to empty your pockets when you visit, I don’t think.
Went to my husband’s 50th reunion last month, in a small town in PA. Quite a big turnout, 80 of the 170-ish surviving classmates. We avoided talking politics for the most part, although I had a little discussion with another spouse who said he had voted for Trump (twice!) but now had turned against him. I asked, WHY he would’ve voted for that man twice & he said he liked Trump’s policies. Hoo boy. I did not “accidentally “ spill a drink on him however.
17This from another page. Guy was a recovering addict, and he said no user would just go off and forget a bag of goodies like that. Drugs would be way too important to him.
18Damn good piece Nick.
19And while I’m not discounting any of the theories about frat boys planting evidence, I gotta remind everbody that there’s just as much chance of a frat boy already coked out going into the West, finding that extra bag in his pocket he forgot about while waiting in line to get in and took advantage of cubbyhole.
Folks, wiping fingerprints woulda been done as mindlessly as wiping his nose.
West Wing
20I’ve been reading about Munchhausen by proxy. I’m beginning to think that that’s the Republican Party— they are Trump by proxy. Really sick from identifying as the patient.
21I really appreciate Joe Biden. He’s gone through more grief ad suffering than most and it engendered compassion which is a testament to his character. His choices as President have gone a long way (so much to do) in repairing the damage that 45 did.
I can’t see well anymore so I don’t comment.
I graduated from an Arizona HS in 1970–I have no desire to return to that brutal racist hellhole. The temperature finally matches it’s character—the Evangelical nutjobs must be surprised—I always knew it was hell. Sorry for the decent folks.
Night one in the books. Everyone knows me as a huge liberal. I got that reputation back in high school. So politics was set aside.
22maggie @1 and Jill Ann @17: I think you’re both right. Project Veritas goons are what frat boys turn into when they get older. In over 40 years of college-level teaching, every case of undergrad cheating I’ve had to deal with involved frat or sorority members. Not “most”, but “every”. They might comprise 20% of the students in my classes, but 100% of the dishonesty and lack of honor.
Of course, it could be they’re only the ones I’ve caught at it. Meaning they’re both cheaters … and stupid.
23Surly @ 23.
Interesting. Cow college did not have a strong frat culture (and no sorority culture ’cause no girls), but it did have a no-cheat honor system.
Until my very last exam, I was never aware of any cheating. Just oblivious, I suppose.
In those days, there was a powerful incentive to cheat, because if you flunked out, you got to go to Vietnam. I had many classmates who did flunk out, so perhaps they were . . . too stupid. too honest?
24Identity politics explained in the gop. Again, language alert. Read at your own risk-
25https://open.substack.com/pub/jefftiedrich/p/republicans-are-racist-assholes-and?r=2di6n7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web