NOVEMBER 18, 2019 – I wonder what my father, an arch conservative who died in 2010, would’ve thought about Trump. Dad never ever voted for a Democrat. I’m sure he wouldn’t have voted for Hillary in 2016, and I know he would’ve dismissed out of hand, every Democrat seeking the presidency in 2020. However, I don’t know how he’d react to the impending impeachment of Trump.
Dad would’ve been disgusted by Trump, I know that much. From a policy standpoint, Dad would’ve been horrified by Trump’s attraction to dictators, particularly Putin. Dad harbored a deep distrust of anything Soviet/Russian. Dad was well read, well educated, thoughtful, analytical, and above all, a decent man of impeccable integrity. He wouldn’t have subscribed to all the Republican excuses and rationalizations . . .
Or would he have?
Dad didn’t watch FoxNews, because he didn’t have cable. He did have, however, long-time subscriptions to other forms of FoxNews—periodicals and newsletters replete with crazy talk. I’d seen plenty before he died; learned more with the mail that was forwarded afterward.
Over time I assemble the pieces that influenced Dad’s thinking.
It began with mention in his writings of someone “at the courthouse” where he worked—someone of conservative views—who’d introduced him to newsletters of the conservative think tank, American Enterprise Institute. I remember those newsletters coming to the house when I was a kid. They were scholarly and took a very conservative view of politics and economics.
Nothing wrong with that. However, in the background, AEI sold freely its mailing lists. I’m sure that’s how Dad heard about and wound up subscribing to Human Events—a weekly newspaper that espoused extreme conservative views. I remember reading that cover-to-cover when I was a young, impressionable teenager.
From there, it was a series of tightly wound righthand turns, with a Ponzi-scam and related financial schemes along the way, all thanks to the selling and re-selling of mailing lists. The publications, newsletters and solicitations got weirder and weirder, ending with vicious attacks on “the communist left,” doomsday prophesies enough to scare all reason out of the reader, and investment schemes based on fear and fraud. To this day I receive solicitations from conservative organizations and politicians addressed to my dad, care of my address. Their unadulterated fear-mongering leaves me aghast.
All of these hate-stirring, fear-mongering, scheme-pushing publications are paper versions of FoxNews and online purveyors of rightwing nonsense. Targeting old folks, this claptrap poisons even decent, educated, and critically thinking minds. Some of it is quite crass, while other content is sophisticated, giving those who feed upon it ostensible moorings for confirmation bias.
And yet . . . Dad donated regularly to The Nature Conservancy. Dad loved nature, and in that realm, was a true conservationist. Once in return he received a white, Nature Conservancy baseball cap. To identify which side I was on at the Trump rally and anti-Trump rally in Minneapolis last month, I wore that cap proudly.
Which returns me to the outset: where would Dad have stood today?
(Remember to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.)
© 2019 Eric Nilsson
