With respect, I must take issue with the letter of March 31 [in “The Readers’ Turn”] and, more generally, with the post-election editorial posture of The Epoch Times.
It’s time to face reality and move on. I would characterize myself as a center/right conservative, and by way of setting the stage, I am in complete agreement with Roger Kimball’s critique of left-wing lunacy on the very same issue. Yet I submit to you that the response to an irrational left is not an irrational right.
Donald Trump was a political unicorn, and I give him credit for both capturing, and in some ways creating, a mood of populist unrest in 2016. He astutely called out the establishment figures on both sides. But let’s look at 2020 with an unbiased eye:
Trump lost the election primarily because of Trump himself; his temper, his ego, and his mendacity led to an undeniable “Trump fatigue,” even among those predisposed to celebrate his policies. At some point, even after inviting the bull into the china shop, it just gets tiring to watch the debris fly.
Trump cost the Republicans the Senate, abetted by a Georgia GOP that had previously managed to find Senator Loeffler a public figure so dull and uninspiring as to lose to Warnock. By saying “get out the vote” as Trump did, in the same breath as “the vote won’t count,” what result was to be expected? Would a coach in the locker room shout “Go get ‘em! The game is fixed ... but go get ’em anyhow!”
The trick is not to ostracize Republicans who are not “on our side,” the trick is to redefine “our side.” The new ”our side” cannot be leftover Trump bitter enders; it’s a losing hand. Hint: Democrats are inadvertently trying to help; the further they drift into the fog of equity and inclusion, the more incensed they become over open dialogue, the easier it should be to capture the average Jane and John Q Public.
Finally: Satire or no, sarcasm or no, no reference even remotely favorable to Q Anon will attract swing voters. QAnon, a bizarre mix of online nut cases, and genuinely scary people dressed up as raccoons-turned-Vikings or something is a ticket to oblivion. Stay away, conservatives, and stay away, Epoch Times, from the Sidney Powell-Chavez-hidden boxes-Dominion paranoia. Just as Trump played Hillary in 2016, so the Democrats played the Republicans in 2020. Don’t keep running into the wall. It’s a centrist nation. Which party will wise up and occupy the center?
Steve McKenna
