The View From Rattlesnake Ridge
Ruminations from an Unabashed Optimist, an Environmental Patriot and a Radical Centrist
Dismembering the Alamo
Victor Orban’s Fascist Plagarism
Orban Desecrates the memory of a real freedom fighter in his Texas Speech to CPAC as he highlights the Republican lurch to the authoritarian right.
Having just made what I hope is our final move in four years, Kodi and I find ourselves looking out from our porch at the confluence of two great rivers - appropriately bearing the names given to them by the earliest Americans to ply their waters: the Connecticut and the Ammonoosuc.
In the few short weeks we have lived here, we have watched Bald Eagles follow the river’s meandering curves from on high and Osprey and Perigrine Falcons scan the sky and soar high above the trees in search of fish.
Though we are officially residents of Bath, NH, our modest “Sears and Roebuck” bungalow, built in the early 1900s, transported to NH on a railroad car and then borne to the land by teams of horses, is closest to the town of Haverhill and more specifically the Township village of Woodsville. Just over the recently built Raymond Burton bridge, honoring one of New Hampshire’s greatest political leaders of the last century, our home sits on a knoll facing the west.
In just a few weeks I’ve come to love this spot. Neighbors greet us on our walks with “welcome to the neighborhood” and other similar remarks. Never have I felt so welcome in a new place.
Connecticut is an Algonquin language word meaning the “land on the long tidal river”. The river forms the western boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont.
Ammonoosuc is Abenaki for "small, narrow fishing place” though by the time it joins the Connecticut in Woodsville the river is wide and rather lugubrious.
Under normal circumstances, all this natural wonder and neighborliness would be enough to keep my attention from straying to almost anything else, certainly not the uber-crazy world of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. But these are not normal circumstances.
As if the recent news about what the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago has turned up and the firehose of news around the January 6th committee were not evidence enough that the right’s road to authoritarianism has removed its speed limits, both the presence of Orban at CPAC as well as the ideologic makeup of the general audience reveals how far the right has gone off the rails of democracy.
Only two short years ago CPAC actually took steps to prevent overt white supremacists and other extremists from participating in the conference. This year, no such efforts were made. The extremists were welcomed with open arms, and they came in droves.
When Ronald Reagan was president, he was a bit too moderate for the general audience. Back then CPAC represented the fringes of the Republican party, today it iS the Republican party.
Orban’s biggest applause line came toward the end of his speech when he said “The globalists can go to hell, I’m going to Texas.” almost word for word plagiarism of a famous quote from American hero and congressman Davy Crockett when he resigned from Congress and headed for Texas to his final fate at the Alamo. But the context of these stolen words was a complete and utter reversal of the intent of Crockett’s statement and a betrayal of the spirit of liberty inherent in the words of the storied Congressman.
When Davy Crockett resigned from the US Congress he had just been through a soul-crushing battle against President Andrew Jackson and Jackson’s “Indian Removal Act”. Jackson and Crockett were both Democrats and both had been elected on the same ticket but soon found themselves in a fight, the outcome of which would live in infamy.
Crockett opposed the act that would ultimately end in the Trail of Tears - believing that we could find a way for anglos and native people to live with one another and because he believed that we had a moral obligation to honor our treaty agreements.
You may recall that even the US Supreme Court, under John Marshall’s leadership, sided with the Cherokee people on the Indian Removal Act but President Jackson defied their ruling and proceeded to move forward with the removal of Indian people from their rightful homes and lands. Crockett, knowing that Jackson was already taking steps to deny him an additional term in Congress decided that he would deny Jackson the opportunity and he announced his resignation, saying: “You can all go to hell, I’m going to Texas.”
Shame on the attendees of CPAC for dishonoring the memory of Davy Crockett and allowing Orban to appropriate his words - the words of a real freedom fighter - spoken, instead, by a self-absorbed fascist who has led his own once-democratic country down the path of authoritarianism and tyranny and has the unmitigated gall to presume that his example would inspire Americans to follow.
Donald Trump himself served as the other bookend for that day’s parade of crazies at CPAC, a fitting ending to a gathering of even those who once seemed reasonable. Senator Chuck Grassley has recently taken to suggesting that IRS agents armed with AR-15’s were coming for average folks. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul suggested that the FBI might plant evidence during the search of Mar-a-Lago. Dr. Oz has taken to talking about the second amendment as a protection from the government, mirroring the Black Panthers of the 60s and 70s, who at least had historical context for their actions.
Like the view from my porch, the mainstream of the Republican party has flowed into the gathering, rushing tributary of authoritarianism making the confluence indistinguishable.
Ironically, it is only a small rushing tributary, representing no more than 20% of the party - and a still smaller portion of the populace. These people have always been there, hidden, self-marginalized by their own behavior and views but Victor Orban and Donald Trump have given voice to their conspiracies and inane views. Only the voices and views of the mainstream can overcome them but will they? Attrition - the flood of people abandoning the party - and fear have become powerful forces in this historic moment. Is this the death rattle of the Republican Party - The Grand Old Party - or can patriots like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Michael Steele prevail in the long run?
Wayne King is an author, podcaster, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, he was the 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor and the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published four books of his images, most recently, "New Hampshire - a Love Story”. His novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing
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