re: #1 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

As I’ve said many times, the hinterland gentry, the local rich and semi-rich, are the heart and soul of the Republican Party. This is the reason they hate Bill Clinton so much. He is one of them, adopted son of a car dealer from Hope Arkansas, yet he has turned his back on them and opposed their interests for his entire adult life. This makes him a traitor in their eyes, and a far different kind of enemy than, say, Joe Biden, a working class guy from the remote world of east coast unions, or Kamala Harris, a coastal elitist (in their eyes) who was seemingly born to thwart their plans.

There seems to be quite a number of poor people in my county who are all in on the GOP. That said, the party is masters at getting people to think of other things for their problems rather than rapacious capitalists.

It was hopeful here in the midterms though in this county. The county seat mayor was ousted and replaced by an independent (baby steps, a Democrat didn’t run). A second Republican ran in that race with deceptive signs which looked like the Democratic Party donkey and blue text; he was trounced.

In the second largest town, the Republican mayor was ousted by a Democrat with 93% of the vote, and the school board flipped to Democratic control.

In Dalton in Cheyenne County (where my school board is; my town is divided in a checkerboard pattern between Bridgeport Public School and Dalton Public School), the school board also flipped to Democratic control. One wingnut on the board was running on the idea of teaching evolution as one of competing theories (the other was not Lamarckism), and he was trampled (he didn’t even get ten votes).