Trump's grievances at CPAC were all about Trump. He got most excited about his election failure, which he still claims was atually a win. How much longer does that story travel? Two more months? Six? Until March 4? March 20? Not until 2024, to be sure.In the short run, Trump's CPAC appearance reestablishes himself as a force within the Republican Party, @HenryOlsenEPPC writes.
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) March 2, 2021
In the long run, however, it might come to be seen as his high-water mark rather than the start of a Trumpian tidal wave: https://t.co/4iIxO7j83Y
What else has he go? “Cancel culture”?
I grew up reading Dr. Seuss. Then again, I’m old enough to get the COVID vaccine based on age alone. My daughter? She read some of them, but they are hardly her childhood favorites (I still remember “On Beyond Zebra” as a favorite of mine. I understand it won’t be republished, but I’m not especially upset about that. I can’t imagine who is.). The Muppets? Disney just put disclaimers on some of the episodes it runs on Disney+. More to the point, who’s watching “The Muppet Show” anymore, and turning that into a political issue? As SNL said, doesn’t the idea of a warning make you want to watch those episodes to see what the “problem” is? I’m reminded of when Jerry Falwell said Bert and Ernie were gay (and trying to mainstream the “gay lifestyle”). That didn’t last very long, either. Mr. Potato Head? Already history.Focused like a laser on the things that are important to the American people https://t.co/CaM29l8NQO
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) March 2, 2021
What does Trump have, going forward? The GOP won’t challenge the COVID relief bill (Joe Manchin is doing that for them); it’s too popular. In fact, they won’t stand against anything, only for negatives (“cancel culture”). Ken Paxton is suing a wholesale electrical supplier for: supplying electricity according to its contracts with its customers. He’s doing it because his owns staff is in court claiming he’s a crook, and the FBI is breathing down his neck. But nobody is confusing Paxton with a populist leader looking out for Texas ratepayers who signed up with wholesale electricity brokers (a minority of Texans anyway).
Even white grievance is old news, and Trump doesn’t dare run openly on that (it’s old but it’s perennial). The argument in that tweet may appeal to rich white UT donors, but it doesn't appeal to UT students or the public at large, even in Texas. Whatever appeal it is, it’s not an appeal with legs.“UT needs rich donors”: Emails show wealthy alumni supporting “Eyes of Texas” threatened to pull donations https://t.co/9Lq2fCTa2E pic.twitter.com/ah92eP0iYw
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) March 2, 2021
Grievance and complaint may generate a headline or two, but complaining about negatives and “what is no longer” is only popular once, or for a little while. You can’t get the band back together on that one. Arguably, Trump never got the band together on that one in the first place. He won the Presidency once by default; he lost it by decision. He lost the House, he lost the Senate. Why would his grievance about an election four years ago be the winning formula in 2024? Who in four years is going to give a wet snap that they have to look for a used copy of “On Beyond Zebra”?
I liked On Beyond Zebra, though I hated to think of having to learn to write all of those extra letters, harder than the standard ones. I'll bet the Republican-fascists would have wanted to cancel him due to his status as a dear old commie. He was the one who did a poster for an anti-WWII poster during the period when Stalin and the old CP were doing business with Hitler, causing a crisis for the commies who had been all Lincoln Brigade before then. I was never a fan of some of it, I think One Fish Two Fish is a masterpiece.
ReplyDelete“On Beyond Zebra” was a revelation in my feckless youth that the alphabet wasn’t a thing, a product of nature immutable and unchangeable, but a construct which could be altered. Long, long before I met new alphabets like the Greek, Cyrillic, etc. And it struck me as very different from the “usual” Seuss.
ReplyDeleteI still think Seuss was more subversive than not, which is why kids love him. Not sure what the objections to the books are; and it’s not really an argument I want to engage. What I think won’t change the publisher’s mind, and I’m not going to hoard copies now that I can’t buy in the future. There are enough copies of his books out there that they will be around a long time, anyway.
He said, "These things are fun and fun is good," and anyone who says that has to have greatness in them.
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