The Cranks Have Become the Levers

The post title is the first one I conceived for the re-launch of the blog, but Events Kept Occurring and I hadn't been able to organize my thoughts around this until now. As often, an external stimulus provided the, uh, stimulus.

A couple of days ago on Bluesky I saw this combination question/judgment posed. I am not linking as it was part of a larger back-and-forth.

All these people who claim to have seen fascism all along, were they also inviting these fascist friends and family over for Thanksgiving and BBQs all along?

Sounds to me like that was permission, and normalizing the depravity to come.

To which I responded:

Yes and I suspect I am not the only one wrestling with this. The difference is now these people are in the driver’s seat instead of being just Racist Uncle or Crank Friend Who’s Fun at Parties.

Frankly I would be surprised if anyone is NOT wrestling with this, unless of course you're on board with the current situation, in which case

I will be Judge Judy and executioner

(Film digression; you're welcome)

I am pretty confident when I say that everyone knows and/or is related to someone like this, which reflects the near-even split in the electorate which btw AGAIN did not deliver an absolute majority to the Republicans.

Before the 2024 election you could compromise somewhat, and I challenge any erstwhile purists out there to search your feelings before casting the first stone on this.

Crank (Racist/Rightwing) Uncle

If you're related there's not a whole lot you can do if someone else is organizing the event and there are other relatives there you really want to see and/or the event is in honor of a relative you like. There have always been Racist/Rightwing Relatives and you become adept at keeping interaction to a minimum. I recall meeting a cousin's boyfriend at a wedding get-together who railed against welfare then admitted, in almost the very next breath, to his family getting Government Cheese when he was growing up.

Crank Friend Who’s Fun at Parties

Similarly I am confident that we all know that one former classmate/co-worker/etc. with whom you've hung out* in various ways for, in many cases, decades. Their politics have always been at least suspect to you but you compartmentalized because I'm pretty sure that's what most people do in these circumstances, plus their spouse is nice so etc. etc.

So what changed? To be fair, the cracks started appearing in the first Trump administration, but now:

(POINTS TO TITLE)

In many/most cases these people are either cheering on the Republicans or, if you are lucky enough, actively and enthusiastically participating in the destruction of the American constitutional experiment. They have declared by their actions that they hate me and will marginalize me, my son but first and foremost my wife and daughter at the first opportunity, because they have been handed the keys.

And do you know what? THAT SUCKS.

• It SUCKS to get hate-filled texts from relatives.
• It SUCKS to have to negotiate a large complex group of friends and acquaintances, some of which are wonderful people and others of which are no longer welcome in your house.
• It SUCKS to have to cancel fun but expensive plans with friends because an unelected illegal immigrant decided foreign aid was unnecessary.
• It SUCKS to have your slowly-growing fear finally confirmed: The US Constitution is just a pinky promise in the absence of seven oath-keeping Republicans (3 in the House, 4 in the Senate).

Maybe that original poster up there had a carefully-curated set of friends and acquaintances with clearly-delineated areas based on political outlook.

Or maybe they are human, just like the rest of us.

Did somebody say Government Cheese?

*wrestled with the prepositional syntax on this one; red-pen suggestions are welcome in comments