Republicans Panicked As Public Opinion Shifts Against Them

[jayschool2013]

17. Thanks, Patrick.

I hope you're right, but much has changed in the last 55 years, including the advent of the all-volunteer army. I know it may sound illogical to us, but if you're a right-winger, you spend much of your life in fear of the other, and you also have been inculcated with a deep sense of (misguided) patriotism and with the value of martyrdom as a statement of family status.

My family feel it is their duty to do what "overly feminine liberals" won't do — defend their country against all enemies, mostly foreign, and most recently, Muslim. My aunt — who's son was killed in Iraq about 12 years ago in a raid engineered by Suleimani — has two more sons currently in the army, and she wouldn't have it any other way. She currently travels the country wearing her Gold Star status as a badge of ultimate honor, and she basks in it as she tells the story of her son's death to audiences around the U.S. She currently is praising Trump on social media for his bravery in taking out her personal demon.

At a memorial service to my cousin at Fort Richardson in Alaska (I was at a conference in Anchorage at the time, so I was able to go), I went on a tour of the fort. My late uncle — who served in the Marine Corps — told me as we toured, "This is what real men do for a living." I have been a journalist, writer and educator my entire adult life. His message was clear: He'd rather have a dead son than a "pussy" liberal like me.

There's also a death cult that pervades the "heartland" and is only made worse by an evangelical Christian faith that preaches end-times wars in the Middle East as a solution to man's inherent sinfulness.

Peace, my brother, and take care.