Mayor Jim Bowlin of Wildwood, Missouri says that he won’t mandate the wearing of masks because the citizens of his city are “fully capable” of doing the right thing.

My question is…CAN the citizens of Wildwood, Missouri be trusted to wear masks in public at all times without a mandate? I would venture to guess that they cannot.

Leaders are elected to lead. They are not elected to deflect to the citizenry. That’s shirking leadership duties.

The mayor’s stance is a ruse. Why?

Because, whether elected leaders admit it or not, people are in fact “led” by their actions. And by their inactions.

People may say they want their “freedom.” They “don’t want to be told what to do.”

But they’re already being led around by the nose. They’re already in the grips of a regime, albeit one that is (unfortunately, temporarily) out of power (in the federal government, at least). The tactics of this regime are not that different, really, from regimes of the past, where charisma, tribalism, and groupthink rule the day.

Indeed, these Trumpian anti-vaxxers are already being “told” what to do…by leaders who are, by their inaction, implicitly telling them that they don’t need to do various things to protect themselves.

So, perhaps I should clarify. These leaders ARE leading … they are leading by example. It’s just that their example is not a good one.

By role modeling this “inaction” for their constituents, they’re not just winking to them and passing the buck. They are ENDORSING belligerence by DEFLECTING to the voluntariness of the citizenry to “do what is right.”

As a two-time war college graduate, I’ve taken a gazillion courses on “leadership.” And none of it involves deception and greed and just saying what the troops want to hear. No. It’s telling the troops the hard truth. And earning their trust that you are there to protect them. That, though you are the one who is entrusted to make the decisions on their behalf, you can be entrusted to have their back.

In the case of Wildwood, Missouri (and elsewhere in the US today), it’s the ELECTED leaders whose job it is to inform the citizens what the most prudent behavior is. And if danger exists – such as installing a bar to prohibit cars from crossing a highway when there are speeding trains approaching – it is the responsibility of the elected official…and the bureaucrats who implement his/her direction – to put mandates in place.

When the very LIFE of citizens is at stake, we don’t blink an eye about prohibiting tainted drywall. And the citizens of Flint, Michigan, were outraged and demanded reform from their government when lead was found in their water.

Why is a global pandemic any different? This is the biggest threat to our safety in decades. Yet one half of the country is in a trance, being “led” by people who seek to use their constituents’ ignorance and belligerence for their own personal advantage.

If not now, when? What exactly is a “leader” elected to do? Not just shuffle papers and sign forms. That’s for us bureaucrats…to EXECUTE policy that is designed and promulgated by the elected leaders – those elected leaders who are periodically held accountable by the very voters they are supposed to be leading.

No, a mask mandate is not dictating to the citizenry and taking away their freedoms. It’s mandating certain critical behaviors that, without a mandate, simply will not occur.

People look to their government, whether they admit to it or not, for guidance. They EXPECT their government to vet food and drugs…

…and consumer products and automobiles.

People want their government to tell them when danger awaits if they buy a defective child car seat. If a treadmill causes children to be sucked underneath it. If an aircraft has a defective electronic system, making the plant more likely to crash.

When one of these products fails…like the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, perhaps…the citizenry EXPECTS the government to step in and inform them. To take those things off the market.

Why is this different?

It’s all about the narrative. This false narrative of “freedom” being taken away. As if somehow Big Brother is coming after you.

Never mind that the government is the reason we have the quality of life that we have today.

Our quality of life is not just about the economy. The market and the economy is part of our high standard of living. But it’s the GOVERNMENT that (historically) sets the rules of the game IN ORDER THAT WE CAN HAVE THE FAIRNESS AND REGULATORY INFRASTRUCTURE THAT FREEDOM REQUIRES. A government that sets up the economy’s Monopoly board and the rules and the sanctions that allow the economy to function in a way that’s successful.

Without government guidance and regulation…we’d have exploding Ford Pintos all around us. We’d be like some countries that have trails in the jagged mountains with no guardrails…with the hikers not really knowing whether those trails should be “deemed safe” for treading on. Because they don’t know who, if anyone, is doing the “deeming.”

Without government guidance and regulations…we’d have failing infrastructure like you see on the news from developing countries whose buildings all crash down during earthquakes…because they don’t have the mandates that require building codes to be in place to protect the citizenry. I could go on and on…

What’s happened is that people have been fed this narrative of “the government is bad.” Perhaps the genesis of this phenomenon was Reagan’s infamous line, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” It was insulting then. And it’s insulting now.

And as it was then, it is now…this abdication of governance on behalf of the people is a power grab by those who ALREADY enjoy the fruits of society’s labor. Who benefit from not being regulated, whether it be through minimum wage laws or corporate taxes. Who benefit for the workers who live in an entirely different version of America than those who have ruled over them.

Those American oligarchs can pay off elected officials through lobbying and donations…and we get what we get. An elected government of do-nothings…fat cats sitting in the seat of power, unwilling to protect the people through logical laws and regulations.

Instead, they turn it all on its head. They gaslight their constituencies by telling them that regulation is BAD. That it takes away your FREEDOM. That the government wants to CONTROL you.

Ironically, as so often seems to be the case these days, many of us sit aghast at the hypocrisy and obvious self-dealing of these elected officials, who spout a narrative of personal freedom while essentially working to remove the very REAL freedoms that people have come to expect and enjoy. And yet the people don’t even realize it.

We’ve seen now – through the Trump years – what hijacking of the government for personal despotic reasons can do. THIS governance is the scary government. THIS is the untrustworthy government.

But people are apparently more than eager to buy into the trappings of charisma and grievance. And the notion that the “deep state” is out to control them.

It’s turning logic on its head. It’s gaslighting.

People need and want to be led. Why?

Because “the government,” when functioning correctly (and funded properly), takes the most accurate information from all areas and facets of life and makes rules and regulations that protect the people from all sorts of dangers.

The right-wing these days urge hatred for “the government” because they have nothing else to stand on. They have no substantive ideas that can make America “better” through government action. They can only attempt to discredit “the government” and the mainstream (and “the left”). This is in an effort to preserve the status quo and their own standing as denizens of the wealthy class.

They tell people what they want to hear. And mock those (currently in power) who are actually telling the truth. They are leading, yes. But unfortunately, by their inaction and role modeling, they are leading their people to the grave.

It’s criminal, really.

People look for guidance. They look for role models. Even when they say they don’t. Just look at some of the people who are most belligerent in the US today… the most obnoxious in the character that they portray to the world. Their role model exists. And it is macho men like Trump. They think they are not “following,” but they are acting in a way that is the sheer OPPOSITE of being independent-minded and “free.”

Yes, leadership exists whether people want it or not. When a leader like Mayor Bowlin announces that he is choosing to “trust” his citizens, without using the tools of government, to which he has been entrusted, to protect their lives…because people won’t, unless ordered to do so…he’s definitely leading.

Perhaps “misleading” is a better term. But make no mistake…he is leading the minds…the thoughts…of those who follow him. He, along with like-minded politicians representing the upper classes across the country, is CONDITIONING them into continued belligerence. Continued espousal of the dangerous rhetoric behind the notion that “freedom” means “less government.” And to ignorantly and dangerously believe THEY, and not science, know best.

As it increasingly appears, this mentality may well kill them in the not too distant future.

When I was a child, someone told me that the reason men make more money than women is because they have to support a family. Women just work for “extra money.” Seemed logical. I accepted it.

When I was in my teens, at a family reunion, I asked my cousin’s husband, an airline pilot, why more women weren’t in the cockpit. He told me, “Isn’t it better not to compromise safety? Would you want to fly in a plane where the pilots were not the best out there, but were chosen through affirmative action?” Seemed like a good point.

When I was in my 20s, I joined the military. I was a lesbian, but Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was in place. I tried to discreetly (without revealing too much) argue that it was a bad policy. People told me that morale would suffer if gays were allowed to serve openly. It’s more important that we don’t sacrifice morale than that we have a social experiment. It will take decades for that to change, if ever. OK.

In the mid-2000s, there was a push for same-sex marriage. It’s not time yet, I was told. People are barely getting used to having openly gay people around. They can’t be expected to accept MARRIED gays…not yet. Not for a long while. Mmhmm.

People are shaped by social norms and expectations. That they just think inside the box. That that’s “just the way it is” – why are you rocking the boat? Are you being obnoxious just to be obnoxious? That’s not ladylike.

To get ahead in this world, you, as a woman, I was told, have to understand that you can’t be too “dingy” (with a hard “g”) or you won’t be taken seriously. But you can’t be too manly or you’ll be thought of as a dyke. And you haven’t earned the right to be manly. Never will. You’re still just a woman.

But I digress.

My point is…

I have thoughts that are shaped by my childhood. Not my parents’ explicit teachings. Not anything the school did intentionally wrong. But the oozings of societal expectations and mores. The things that we as a society have built over time to provide structure. To provide stratification, so we all know where we stand. Don’t step out of your lane. We have put you in that box over there. Sit.

This lack of thinking outside the box – the lack of questioning of our very existence – that has led us to the herd mentality that exists. We must learn to think logically, using science.

It is ironic, is it not, that those who most loudly say they won’t give up their “freedoms” are the very people who have succumbed to the mindless, pigheaded, ignorance that “the government” (at least the GOP-controlled one) wants them to have?

If they would open their eyes…if we would stop the sources of trance-inducing “journalism” from the right wing…perhaps we would begin to see more sanity in today’s “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

I don’t want to be anti-Republican. I really don’t. I think we need more than one viable party – maybe even more than two – so that there is a real check on power.

For years, there was somewhat of a back and forth, reasonable check on power with the Republicans and Democrats. What Joe Biden seeks now – bipartisanship – is now seemingly a pipe dream, but it used to exist to some degree at least, and the nation was better for it.

Now, however, we have a Republican party in disarray and self-destruction. It’s not healthy for any of us.

The way I see it is…conservatives have long argued for “liberty.” Sounds good, right? Well, “liberty” is code for individual freedom. For government staying out of people’s business (except in certain areas like abortion and same-sex marriage (!)).

This meant the government keeping its hands off the “rightful” earnings of the citizens (never mind that earnings are not truly “earned” but the robustness of which is largely based in the overall collective wellbeing of a society that does, despite all rhetoric otherwise, function as a collective).

So, lower taxes. To zero if you can get it there. But, oh, wait, we need a military to protect us from outsiders. There’s that. So we need taxes for that.

Otherwise, cut cut cut. This comes from people who have it made. Who have retirement funds set up. Who can afford health care. Who don’t need a social safety net. Who need taxes really, only for things like roads and bridges (but only to a degree, since increasingly, rich folks use the airways and other more elite forms of travel…so…maybe they’ll support a gas tax which is inherently regressive and taxes a much larger percentage of the low-wage-earner’s income than it does the rich folks’.)

Anyway…largely low taxes. That’s what they always wanted. Trump indulged them with his big tax cut for the rich. Points scored. Trump (despite his disgusting failings) served his purpose.

Couple this with rants about the deficit. We can’t have more social programs – helping out the poor and middle class – because it will grow the deficit!!!

Yes. This nation has a problem with the deficit…with the nation’s collective debt. No one knows for sure how this will impact our children and grandchildren, but the general consensus is that it can’t be good.

So, the GOP uses this as a rationale for outrage.

Until their guy (Trump) blows it up. Then…silence.

Until…the Dems are back in power and seek to govern and raise taxes to pay for the programs.

So, that’s the fundamental difference, historically, between Dems and Republicans. Dems believe in raising the tide that will lift all boats through taxing and spending. Republicans believe in individualism and every-man-for-himself (never mind that those who espouse this view were generally born with a silver spoon in their mouths).

Of course, there’s the trickle down thing. Where the Republicans say that lower taxes will encourage owners of businesses to “invest” in their employees by raising their salaries and benefits and thus “boats will be lifted” that way. This argument has repeatedly been shown to be bullshit. Owners pocket the money and the rich get richer. If all owners pocket this extra money (from not having to pay taxes), then there’s no competition between them in terms of paying higher wages/benefits and drawing employees. It’s a monopoly. In other words, trickle down economics is, as noted, bullshit.

So, where does that leave us?

The Republicans still are the party, purportedly, of liberty. Of hands-off government.

THE REPUBLICAN COALITION

Thus far, they’ve come to power through cobbling together an assembly of odd ducks, some of which even so, overlap in areas. Genuine respectable conservatives, who believe government should be minimal, while acknowledging some areas where collective taxation must exist for national survival. Evangelicals (who are anti-abortion and anti-gay). Wall Street types (who don’t want to be taxed). Aggrieved straight white males (who resent “uppity” Blacks, feminist women, and “illegal alien” immigrants who they perceive as treading too close to their “entitled” existence of power). The wives of straight white males (who enjoy privilege from the outflow of wealth from their husbands). Oh, and the military and law enforcement (because, well, funding and because that’s the macho thing to support). And a handful of others.

It’s been a delicate balance. Trump saw his opportunity. He knew what political populism was. He had seen it in the strongmen of the world (even when the strongmen had differing economic perspectives). He sought to win over all of the constituents. Low taxes for the rich. Anti-abortion for the religious.

But mostly, to gain power, Trump knew he had to rile up that large dormant part of the country – the aggrieved white male who saw his power waning. Who was losing his coal mining job to clean energy…his assembly line job to automation…his farming job to declining revenues (despite government supplements)…his parts manufacturing jobs to China. And now this white male, who had enjoyed so many glory days in the mid-20th century, rising through the middle class to have a nice home of his own with wife and children in tow, was bereft. Emasculated.

And Trump knew it. He played on this. These men…and their similarly aggrieved wives…became his base. His lovers. His people.

The rest of the GOP knew…and knows…that, without these aggrieved white Trump supporters, there simply won’t be enough of the base left to compete with the ever-growing ranks of the Democrats (who are growing through immigration, births, and, yes, due to their appealing focus on science and logic which seems to be the nemesis of the Trump contingent).

So they’re stuck. These Republicans may voice their disgust with Trump and his people in private, but they know they have to have those votes. Without the aggrieved white unemployed (or underemployed) white man in the Midwest voting for Trump, Hillary would have won in 2016.

The Republican party, then, is beholden to this contingent. This aggrieved, hateful, homophobic, racist, anti-feminist, anti-intellectual part of the party. It’s consumed them. They are what they consist of.

The evangelical movement in the country is in steep decline now, so there’s no hope for growth there.

The writing is on the wall about climate change and the auto industry and others are getting on board because of it, so jobs are changing or leaving.

Even Wall Street is not necessarily reliably Republican any more because they know that infrastructure and collective investment in at least some social programs matter.

After the January 6th violence at the Capitol, Republican voters began to change their party affiliation in droves. They were ashamed…utterly ashamed…to be associated with people, organized and egged on by Trump to violently attack the cops that Republicans have long defended, with their law and order, military platform.

Even the military is changing. When Matt Gaetz rudely questioned the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the military’s approach to addressing issues on race…even by exploring Critical Race Theory…GEN Milley put Gaetz in his place. The military, ironically enough, has been the vanguard of racial equality in this country. Maybe not for the right reasons – the need to beef up the ranks led to recruiting the underprivileged – but the military led the way for the country in terms of desegregation. Don’t f*ck with the military’s people. Don’t denigrate them. We serve you but we aren’t going to buy into this divisive racial rhetoric. It’s corrosive and destructive in the ranks. So there’s that.

Who’s left? Trump’s base. The racists. The bigots. The homophobes. The ignorant. Everyone else is fleeing. Yet this is who the GOP is. And the GOP reps in Congress know it. To stay in power…to avoid being “primaries” by Trump’s selected people, they have to bow to the altar of Trump. It frankly is unbelievable how much power this one man has over an entire segment of the country…although history has demonstrated that such strongmen have been successful (hence Trump’s adoration for Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi, and, yes, Hitler).

We know this is bad for the Republicans. Liberals can laugh and mock and be gleeful (though cautiously so, given their showing against Hillary Clinton).

But this destruction of the GOP cannot be good for our country as a whole either.

What is happening? Who will stand up? Who is righteous out there?

Rather than courageous Republicans like Jeff Flake, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger being rewarded for their integrity, the GOP primaries them or shoots them down.

It’s a puzzle that needs solving, but really can only be solved from within…and by the vote. Unfortunately, the Republicans beholden to Trump are attacking the right to vote too. At the grassroots level. If they can’t win by building their ever-declining, increasingly-homogeneous base, then they’ll suppress everyone else’s rights. They’ll seek to suppress information by having media mouthpieces like Fox News and ONE preach their rah-rah rhetoric to corral the ignorant.

And, though the Democrats control all parts of the federal government, somehow, Trump, out of power, still dictates the agenda. Still “governs” over the moral decline and decay of this country. He really is a one-man wrecking squad, dredging up and nurturing the grievances of a minority of this country.

Maybe it will take a few election cycles to rid the party of this cancer. Psychologists tell us that the power of charismatic demagogues typically dies upon their own death. There’s no one left to carry that cult of personality.

Of course, the GOP can’t bank on Trump forever. While the fire is hot…while the Democrats are ineffectual and divided…the Republicans are changing the very nature of democracy at the state level. If this isn’t stopped, this country’s election cycles – typically the fix for diseases like Trump – will be more akin to those in Russia. Democratic in name but not character.

And we will no longer be the America that our Founding Fathers aspired to.

Biden just spoke to the nation about the possible (likely?) impending death of our democracy. Except it wasn’t “the nation” who listened. Fox News didn’t cover it. Fox News was talking about Bill Gates’ divorce.

Half of the nation has no idea. Or they are are holed up with like-minded people telling them what they want to hear. How they are victims of the “woke” liberals. How they’re losing their identity. How Blacks want to “rewrite” history and make little white kids squirm out of embarrassment. How “socialists” are taking over…and want to take their money. They don’t hear any other perspective because, well, they have turned off the spigot of information. They only hear and see what they want to see.

In the meantime, our country is being taken over by a sinister force from within. A force that has been festering over the years in the minds and hearts of people who are terrified.

They’re terrified of losing their identity. Their dominance. Their “rightful inheritance.”

“Democracy,” it turns out, was just a slogan to be used when it suited them. It no longer does. “One man, one vote” just won’t allow them to maintain the power they have enjoyed since, well, the founding of the country.

Turns out that power, not fairness…greed, not charity…tribalism, not informed humanity…is what matters. It’s as plain as the nose on one’s face.

I suppose it’s human nature to hole up and lash out. To cheer for the leaders who charismatically reinforce the notions that maybe were previously required to be doubted. These ideas…these beliefs…in racial superiority…in religious superiority…in ethnic superiority…have always been there. They have been out in the open during various periods of our history.

But with the advent of more progressive thought…of science…of supposed intelligence and the realization that humans should not be divided up into superior-inferior groupings because there’s no scientific or moral basis for it…those forces were shunned. They were seen as backward, sinister, evil.

We were taught that “red and yellow, black and white…they are precious in his sight.” But that was as long as white (wink wink) stayed on top as a practical matter.

No longer.

Those racist beliefs never went away. Within the darkest recesses of even the most liberated minds reside doubts. These doubts question the taught notion that all people, when given true opportunity, in a world without systemic injustice, can be similar. Can be “equal in his sight.” Those doubts have always been there. These white people, all along, have “known” that they are superior.

Now those core beliefs are overtly sanctioned. Endorsed. Embraced. Defended. With pride.

Those who recognize these thoughts for what they are – intrinsic biases woven like sinewed threads through the recesses of one’s mind – can call them out for what they are. Even when they are ashamed to admit that they exist.

These “woke” progressives…even with all their flaws…know that they too contribute to the embedded, unconscious racism of society when they, while walking hand in hand with their child through a grocery store, clutch their child’s hand a little tighter when passing by a minority. At least they know these biases exist, even when they don’t recognize individual instances, of which they’d be utterly ashamed. They seek to eradicate them.

Others, however, feel those same biases…sense the same prejudice. And see their leaders give them the go-ahead to embrace them as some sort of fact. Because, surely, if you feel these thoughts, if you just “know” that Blacks and Mexicans are lesser-than, that Jews are greedy bastards, that Asians are the model minority, then there MUST be some truth to it. Right?

Our country used to at least teach our schoolchildren that those ideas are wrong. Very wrong. We passed laws to purportedly overcome systemic racism. We made it evil to use the “N” word. We found that being called or considered a “racist” was not-who-we-are!

No longer. Those inner gut feelings that were relegated to the supposed scrapheap of disgusted, embarrassing history are renewed, rejuvenated. And embraced. The leaders of the Republican party – either overtly or by omission of reprimand – have given the go-ahead to rally around this brand of populism that will ultimately destroy our country.

We can’t kid ourselves that the laws passed, the measures taken, to eradicate systemic oppression were done with great effect, or even always with enthusiastic implementation. But at least they were something.

They say power corrupts absolutely. Currently, conservatives – righteous or otherwise – in power realize that their political futures rest on the embrace of or quiet silence regarding these feelings. Those who have scruples, who appear to be very few in number, will get out of this cesspool of the current GOP. Will refuse to go along to get along.

What have we come to as a nation? Who are we? Never before has there been such a bandwagon. When Trump meant to say “herd immunity” but said “herd mentality,” one wonders whether he slipped just because he had so consistently been citing to the latter in his scheming behind closed doors. Because that’s exactly what’s happened.

Once we as a nation emerge from this trance…this half-conscious state of denial…this embarrassing period of inaction…we will have dodged a major bullet. That is, if we emerge at all.

If we emerge intact at all, we will be fortunate indeed.

I am an introvert. Yet I love to express myself. I rant. I attempt to explain, as if I have something worth explaining.

And I love the rain. I love storms. They keep me indoors and guilt-free…about not having to go outside and do stuff. I get to stay inside. And read and learn. Pontificate via a blog.

The way I see it, storms are a metaphor for life. Life is full of ups and downs, ecstasies and tragedies, births and deaths. I think of my favorite Indigo Girls lyrics…The Wood Song. The Girls sing essentially that life would be boring and nearly meaningless but for the storms that come along. The storms suck to endure. But they build character. And in the end, it’s the storms that provide context. Reference. Substance. Meaning. They give life…while we still have it.

“We’ll make it fine if the weather holds. But if the weather holds, we’ll have missed the point. That’s where I need to go.”

Ironically, as an introvert, my “storm” might be a sunny day. A day in which I must go outside and pretend to be an extravert. Outside my comfort zone. Out in the vast, dark, complicated world.

That troublesome zone of life about which I seek to hereinafter blog.

Decided after I hit the half-century mark that my old “fortiesblog” wasn’t going to cut it any more. So here I am. I like to write stuff. I’m a retired Air Force JAG. Have two awesome teenagers…one’s heading to college this Fall. I love to learn and take classes. And check things off. Cuz that’s just how my neuroses operate. I’m a federal bureaucrat now in the DC area. And am trying to contemplate what to do for the rest of my life.