Late morning on a damp Black Friday I headed north onI-270. Joining the crowd from I-55 came a worn pick-up truck, a faded Confederate battle flag fluttering from its pole against the tailgate. As traffic merger I noticed a yellow Don’t Tread On Me bumper sticker among several stickers on the glass behind the driver. The truck stayed in traffic till I-44, then headed west on that highway.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch story on the arrest of the accused Catholic Supply murderer noted a yellow Don’t Tread On Me flag in front of his Jefferson County mobile home.
On my nightly walks about Oakville, if I want, I can pass two orthree such snake-themed Gadsden flags in front of middle class homes with niceyards. One house periodically flies the Stars and Bars.
No, I’m not saying that every person flaunting the Tea Party’s de facto logos secretly plots horrible crimes against the innocent.
What I do believe is that a sizeable number of our neighbors – mostly white men, like me – feel threatened by change and have become radicalized by hate ‘for a good cause.’ They see themselves as the true defenders of the right way, their ‘white men know best’ imagining of America.
And, they know in their hearts they’re blocked from the success they deserve by the conniving trinity of liberal media, mouthy minorities, and, sell-out elites.
The main editorial in Sunday’s The New York Times blames the internet:
“It rewards loyalty to one’s own group, providing a dopamine rush of engagement that fuels platforms like Facebook and YouTube, as well as more obscure sites like Gab or Voat. The algorithms that underpin these networks also promote engaging content, in a feedback loop that, link by link, guide new audiences to toxic ideas.”
[NYT 11/25/18 p. 10 SR]
The Times pretty much hit the nail.
Still, even without the internet, without The Gateway Pundit and InfoWars and such, that fear would still thrive (as did the Ku Klux Klan for a century).
A small portion of the American population will, perhaps always, be drawn to fear and loudly share their fear.
That is their Constitutional right. They must be able to fly their flags and shout their stupidity. Only when they attack crowds in Charlottesville do they forfeit their protections to assemble and scream as United States citizens.
At the same time, those few fearful create impacts beyond their numbers. When knocking on doors in my 2016 campaign I learned that one snake flag or bumper sticker quieted a block: no neighbor ever wanted to engage with a candidate. And, no one tailgated that pick-up truck on I-270.
The answer? Ignore the noise. Let the threatened feel threatened. Suppress the do-gooder urge to engage and educate them. Let them stay lost.
Friday when I saw that Confederate flag I was wearing a crisp white shirt, with a black tie and black pants. A somber grey sport coat rested on the passenger seat. My destination: the visitation for a doctor, a veteran who headed a medical team in Vietnam then shared his skills with his neighbors while raising an outstanding family. A life of service well lived.
Fortunately, there are more white men like that then guys who drive old trucks with flags.
Glenn