Editor of the Reformer,
All voting results indicate that Donald Trump found his major supporters in the less-educated segment of society, while the more educated – centered in the major urban centers where most leading universities are located – rejected him, a fact that ended his presidency. This is not so surprising. By any valid measure of intelligence, Trump doesn’t score very high – a simple fact that encourages the less intelligent to identify with him. But what does that say about the entire Republican Party that fell under his spell? Is each member hopelessly stupid, or is there another element afoot? While there is certainly much of the former, I suspect a large dose of the latter.
To any attentive person, there’s little confusion as to what the Democratic Party advocates: universal health care – government funded if need be; free, fully-funded public education – probably through college; strict environmental laws needed to preserve life on the planet; racial justice, with its concomitant reform of law enforcement; vigilant enforcement of voting rights; and much more that serves a democracy by benefiting the majority – including a national, government-led response to the lethal COVID-19 pandemic.
When asked, however, what the Republican Party stands for, I get a vision of Mitch McConnell singing “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It!” – that hilarious song sung by Groucho Marx when parodying a politico in one of his zany movies. The desperation and lack of either policy or principle in the GOP is such that, since it can’t ascend through democratic process, it must abort that process and resort to authoritarianism. And who better to head that movement than the neo-fascist Donald Trump, who refuses to concede the democratically determined loss of his presidency.
The consoling news is that the Democrat Joe Biden won the presidential election – a rejection of authoritarianism by over 5 million votes, and one that leaves the GOP in total disarray. Can it recoup, and, if so, how? The first step must certainly be the rejection of “stupid” – both in policy (or lack thereof), and in the minority following to which it’s been catering without political success – e.g., the sweep of the House by Democrats in 2018, and the possibly imminent GOP loss of the Senate.
Key to this transition is the dumping of Trump. As champion of the stupid and its epitome, Trump is the current albatross around the neck of the GOP – and the guarantor of its political failure. Some not-so-stupid Republicans know this, and are moving to unfetter themselves from Trump. The guess here is that the anti-Trump movement will grow, and that he won’t be a factor in the 2024 presidential race, as he has promised to be, and which the stupid, in need of a hero, are depending upon.
Andrew Torre
Londonderry, Nov. 24
"stupid" - Google News
November 27, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Letter: The party of stupid | Letters | reformer.com - Brattleboro Reformer
"stupid" - Google News
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