Sheeple Who Need Sheeple
How the Republican Party sold their soul
Editor’s Note: Have a question with no immediate answer? Don’t ask Matt. He prefers simplicity. Maybe Ask Prudence over at Slate. Or Ask Marilyn vos Savant, whose bio says she has the highest recorded IQ in the Guinness Book of World Records. Though if that old bat is as smart as she says, why does she write for Parade magazine, which is geared to about a sixth-grade reading level? Matt doesn’t have the answer to that. He’s just asking questions. Ask him questions of your own at askmattlabash@gmail.com.
Dear Matt,
Over the last few years I've had dozens of people ask me how could fine, upstanding, thoughtful, R's have a philosophical aneurysm and become part of the phalanx, dedicated only to Emperor Trump. I said, "Fear." ( And that's the reason why people call me Captain Obvious.) My brother still calls Trump a Republican, for God's sake. (Mutant is the word I particularly like.) Many of the Trump foot massagers have CV's that are astounding, yet they have debased themselves for life! What keeps them from growing a spine and taking the path of Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger? How can so many of them be bowed by the "angry child" people of the once grand R party?
Brian
I hate to oversimplify, though as a professional opinion-slinger, that’s kind of my job. To break our exceedingly complex world down into easily digestible bites of maxims, anecdotes, and random observations, all tied up in a too-tidy package, and delivered piping fresh to your inbox, so that we can all agree with each other (the ones who don’t cancel their subscriptions in disgust, that is), and congratulate ourselves on our wisdom, discernment, and above-average intelligence. Even though if you were really smart, you’d be asking Marilyn vos Savant, as referenced above, whose SAT scores would spank mine, before sending them to bed without any dinner. Though as I told my fellow classmates (in community college), my intelligence can’t be measured by test-givers.
For me, however, the answer to your question is an easy one, which can be reduced to two four-letter words. The f-word that you’ve already mentioned – fear. Probably second only to pride as the impetus for most of the bad things that happen in this world. (Most of the sins we commit stem from pride, or the fear that results from our pride being injured.) And the other four-letter word would be “math.” The big electoral news of the week – if you can call it “news” – being that a new New York Times survey showed our twice-impeached, twice indicted (with more on the way - here’s a new one that came down as I write), forever seditious former president so far ahead of the 2024 Republican primary field, that short of him expiring unexpectedly from a KFC aortic occlusion or being physically crushed by the weight of his own ego, they might as well hand him the nomination now.