Recently, the supreme court heard arguments concerning encampments of unhoused people in Grants Pass, Oregon. The city passed an ordinance prohibiting these encampments. Without delving too deeply here into the merits of the case or the controversy over where unhoused people “choose” to make a home there is much to unpack.
From FDR's New Deal through LBJ's Great Society Democrats had built a social safety net that included Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This was possible in part because the Democrats enjoyed a long-time lock on the House majority, and because some members of the GOP truly were compassionate conservatives.
Yes, once upon a time there were Republicans who were able to reconcile the common good with fiscal conservatism. And to be fair, there was still a “segregationist” wing—a polite term of the day for the Jim Crow racists—in the Democratic Party, mostly from the Deep South. That situation has seemingly resolved itself into two distinct, if not completely homogeneous, camps over the decades. In fact, with the GOP having driven the likes of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from their midst and the looming retirement of West Virginia’s Joe Manchin from the Senate that shift appears to be nearly complete.
Since the dawn of Reaganomics, the GOP has done its best to unravel that safety net. By the mid 1990’s, in spite of having Bill Clinton in the White House—or perhaps because Bill Clinton was in the White House—that old balance had shifted. Newt Gingrich became Speaker, and his Contract on America moved the nation further on down that road to the right. Today, the safety-net is in tatters. Social Security is under constant threat. Social justice programs are attacked and even dismantled, even those that have been long established. Thanks to what is arguably the most conservative Supreme Court since the 1930s, if not the Antebellum Era, we saw affirmative action disappear overnight—inclusion, diversity, and equity initiatives are being prohibited in Florida and elsewhere. Seemingly established principles of the church/state relationship have been eroded as well. And then came Dobbs and all that the Supreme Court’s majority ruling implied.
Not your grandfather’s party.
In terms of governance, Republican policies have devolved entirely into chaos as they let their narrow majority nearly evaporate while ousting their Speaker, nearly shutting down the government, launching fruitless investigations based on a desire for revenge as the real business of America takes second place to the whims of a convicted felon. And since the ascent of the 45th President, the GOP, and particularly its far- right wing, have seemingly abandoned compassion altogether. With that loss of compassion came the openly pointing to all of “The Others” as the source of every grievance that they've held onto for generations. One has only to look at the Tennessee legislature’s expulsion of “The Justins,” Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, two black legislators who had the temerity to protest in favor of firearms restrictions in the wake of yet another deadly school shooting, to see how empowered the extreme right has become. The spate of anti-abortion laws following the Dobbs Decision is another manifestation of that trend.
Okay, there does remain one area of compassion in the MAGA world. That area would encompass the compassion felt for “some very fine people” that took part in the deadly 2017 protests in Charlottesville, VA; for the “patriots” held “hostage” in jails and prisons for their role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection; and for a twice-impeached, convicted- felon, ex-president facing three more criminal trials and who also owes over a half billion dollars in civil penalties.
So, what does that have to do with Cornwall? These pages have covered the nationalization of local politics. How it began as a long-term project, first truly energized by opposition to Roe. Then, by promoting their anti-abortion agenda, the loudest and most extreme Republicans were boosted in local elections. Those candidates then rose in right-wing stature and eventually found their way to national prominence.
Today we find that movement has spread to school boards where “wokism” is now the new enemy and book bans are no longer the realm of authoritarian regimes or dystopian fiction. One has only to take a critical look at the candidates the GOP is fielding this year, from the top of the ticket to state and local offices, to see the cynicism and anger at play.
Between now and Election Day The Cornwall Democrat will expose those candidates as the MAGA extremists they really are.