@Finn dAbuzz,
Yeah, I missed that you were referring to the Bachman post. She might surprise us but I think her star has pretty much sunk below the horizon. Maybe she should get a reality TV show.
Damn, I had to hang up the "opioid-eater" appellation because it seemed that it was taken as much more offensive than I had intended. I don't throw every enemy of bloated government into this sub-set but it
is an indictment of contemporary US society. Actually, had it not been for a few lucky breaks I might today be counted among that class of hopeless, unemployed, resentful, nodding, rural dropouts. But when I was at my most susceptible, opioids weren't ubiquitous, meth was rare, and cocaine was too expensive (it doesn't have the same effect anyway).
When society faces a public health crisis people are right to look to government for help. Local, state, and federal officials are the ones to coordinate multi-pronged approaches using public and private resources. But as the rural heartland has steadily grown more conservative the constant maligning of government and the political establishment by the right-wing media has led people to distrust, fear, and actually hate the very entities which would be in position to provide help through job retraining programs, community college expansion, and public health services. This has been accomplished through the skillful use of social issues.
For instance, I live near some people who could charitably be described as "lowlifes". They run an opioid distribution network for their customers in the fishing industry. Loud parties every weekend. Guns being discharged all the time. Custody arguments played out on the front porch. Cops showing up with restraining orders. Social workers checking on child abuse complaints. You name it. An anti-abortion bumper sticker, an NRA decal, and remnants of the big "TRUMP!" sign complete the picture. I was talking to one of the guys last year — I used to work with his father — and he told me how he'd been to a Trump rally and how absolutely electrifying it had been. Then, looking right into my eyes, he says with swelling pride, "It's the closest this country will ever come to having a
Hitler!"
