As a latchkey kid of the 80s, I grew up in a very different America, not merely because of the parenting styles. I remember well the Gipper, and his shining city on a hill vision of America. I remember his thrilling speeches, so well crafted and optimistic. Say what you will of his politics (and I’ve come to see them very differently as I’ve aged), but the man was an orator. Problems were things to solve; strangers were people to welcome; America was a place that all could have a chance to thrive. At least that was the message; and as a kid that message really permeated.
This new Republican party is a parade of cruelty though. If the actions look like cruelty and sound like cruelty… that’s what it is. Believe a person when they show you who they are, to paraphrase Maya Angelou. Let me show you who they are, our betters, our leaders, our government.
Here’s a Twitter post, by our Whitehouse — presenting what later was found to be mostly illegal — abduction of people as a form of ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. ASMR has become a popular online video genre for people to distress by watching or hearing certain sounds and activities. To equate the sounds of transporting people away suddenly, without proper due process, as a soothing act of stress reduction, belies the whole game of this administration. Trump and Miller show their hand. They are cartels of cruelty.
There are so many more, but I don’t want to drench this page with all of it. Suffice it to say, this is far from the America of Ronald Reagan. It’s unrecognizable to me, as we teeter toward cruel totalitarianism.
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