As they traveled, they were approached by a bamboozler who claimed knowledge of a special "cutoff" trail that would save them time and effort. With the promise of an easy transit, The Donner Party peeled off from the others on the Oregon Trail and headed towards its own road to perdition.
It didn't end well. After losing livestock, supplies and time while slowly transversing mountain ranges and deserts, The Donner Party became snowbound in the upper Sierra Nevadas. Their Native American guides perished, and having no food left, some members of the Donner Party ate them. Then other Party members who died were eaten. When local Native Americans approached with food, the Donner Party blasted away at the "wild injuns."
In the end, nearly half of the Party died. The number of those who were cannibalized has never been firmly established, but it seems likely it wasn't a few. The Donner Party became emblematic of bad choices and worse consequences.
All this serves to remind what Rush Limbaugh, the voice of Trumpism and Trump's GOP, said about how Americans need to sack up and stop falling apart because of the COVID crisis. We've been through tough times before, he said, and we need to adapt, like the Donner Party did:
Rush Limbaugh suggests we should eat each other.
"It’s just what was. They didn’t complain about it, because there was nothing they could do. They had to adapt. This is what’s missing. There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to."
As usual, the sheer magnitude of his ignorance (or bad faith) is stunning. But taking Rush at his bloviated word, he seems to equate "adapting" with "acquiescing" or "accepting" what COVID is doing to our country. His idea of "adapting" is to allow the disease to run its course, and we all need to just get over it. This, too, is the prime idea behind the Trump Administration's response. Deny it, belittle it, assign responsibility to others and then blame them. And wait for a miracle, because that's how they roll with their magical thinking approach to everything.
This defiance towards reality has informed nearly all of the Administration's actions, and the reactions by its GOP and media sycophants. Following a particularly stupid and deranged Presidential press appearance, an appalled Anderson Cooper asked CNN White House Reporter Jim Acosta whether there weren't people in the WH that could keep 45 from debasing the Presidency any further. Acosta replied in the negative:
"There are no adults to rein him in."
"We are down to Kool-Aid Drinkers and Next-of-Kin here at the Trump White House,"Acosta explained. Simply put, the President and GOP Leadership are surrounded by ass-kissers and bootlickers. There is no diversity of presentable ideas or debate on different directions. This monolithic subservience towards the Strong Man is indicative of the autocratic, banana republic we have become.
It's kinda like the Republican Party has become The Donner Party. Or even The Jim Jones Peoples Temple Party and their special blend of Kool-Aid. Both featured hapless people that obediently followed leaders who took them down the wrong trail.
Since Rush made these remarks, a few Republican state governors have chimed in with statements and actions that seem designed to let the virus run rampant while hoping for a vaccine or herd immunity (which may never happen).
Governor Kemp of Georgia is suing mayors like Atlanta's Keisha Lance Bottoms to stop their face mask requirements and limitations on public gatherings. In fact, he seeks to prevent them from talking about it at all. He seeks a gag order.
Governor DeSantis of Florida wants public schools to open "at full capacity" next month. He also won't close gyms, because he feels they promote a lifestyle that shields from COVID. He has also fired a Public Health official for not manipulating state COVID statistics. He is Florida Man.
Governor Parsons of Missouri, too, wants public schools to open at full capacity next month. His rationale is close to Limbaugh's: It's inevitable, kids will get it. So let's go. Like many Republicans, he seems to think that because kids are more likely to survive, it's OK... but he doesn't seem to understand that they can transmit it to parents, grandparents, teachers, staff, blah blah blah.
It is kind of numbing, this willful ignorance from the GOP that surrounds us. It is a bit reminiscent of past failed political parties. The Vichy French. The Iraqi Baathists. The Nazis. The East German Communist Party. The Soviets. Officials would use a statement from the Party Strong Man and it would frame their reality, no matter how deranged it was.
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| Baghdad Bob doing his Kayleigh McEnany imitation |
"Sometimes the point isn't to make people believe a lie, it's to make people fear the liar." In a really outstanding article written in The Atlantic, long-time Eastern Europe expert Anne Applebaum has contemplated today's GOP and compares it with how Soviet-controlled countries operated. It's fairly lengthy, but very much worth the time spent digging into it, one of the best articles of the year!
Here is just one of many, many relevant observations on why so many people who ought to know better are fine and even complicit with Trump and today's GOP:
"These kinds of lies also have a way of building on one another. It takes time to persuade people to abandon their existing value systems. The process usually begins slowly, with small changes. Social scientists who have studied the erosion of values and the growth of corruption inside companies have found, for example, that “people are more likely to accept the unethical behavior of others if the behavior develops gradually (along a slippery slope) rather than occurring abruptly,” according to a 2009 article in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. This happens, in part, because most people have a built-in vision of themselves as moral and honest, and that self-image is resistant to change. Once certain behaviors become “normal,” then people stop seeing them as wrong.
Yep! "It takes time to persuade people to stop seeing (corrupt officials' behavior) as wrong." It's only been four years of Trump and his GOP, although it's been 25 years since Newt Gingrich effectively grabbed the GOP helm. Plenty of egregious statements and actions have since sloshed along the street gutter of our collective political memory towards the drain grate of history. The GOP has slowly slid towards the extreme right since the mid-1990's, "inoculating" its followers to accept the unacceptable.
Like suggesting, as Trump has, that the virus be left alone and run rampant while accommodating a mortality rate that would pass well over a million victims. In the end, there will be plenty of victims, but I do hope that the GOP takes up Rush's recommendation - and eats itself.
Please watch these incredible threads which are about what's happening in Portland, from the street perspective, in particular the role of the Portland Moms. Social Justice demonstrations have been happening there for 54 straight days. "The Wall of Moms" are trying to protect the protestors from the mysterious marked and unmarked militarized 'law enforcement' figures that Trump sent in. Most moms wear yellow and some hold up sunflowers - watch for this to become a real symbol of resistance going forward!
Both threads provide plenty of amazing short videos that depict an American tyranny whose rule through fraud has been exposed and must now rely on force:
Mike Baker's wild night with Portland protestors and Moms. (From two nights ago.)
Mike Baker's wild night last night with Portland Moms and Dads! (From last night.)
Sergio Olmos and Moms singing "Hands Up Please, Don't Shoot Me" (From two nights ago.)
It's pretty much Over when you get suburban moms to participate in long-running social justice demonstrations. Trump's Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security will continue to incite and provoke, seeking to create a political wedge for the upcoming election. But it won't work. The GOP took the wrong cutoff trail and is heading towards the political wilderness. It is going to start eating itself as it becomes the new Donner Party.
