The title of this post is a little misleading because Magic Ruralism never really went away. In case you are unfamiliar, here's my definition from 2018:
Noun: a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of political fantasy.
Back in 2018 when I conjured up the term, I figured once Trump had been driven from office in, say, 2020, the genre would wither and be replaced with by...
... a new genre of fiction which I predict will breathlessly cover the rise of "The Radical Civility Movement" (tm) -- a brand-new, Middle American, grass-roots, sensible Centrist Party-over-Country thingie which will be massively well-finance and composed entirely of Always-Wrong Beltway Conservatives like Bill Kristol, Joe Scarborough, David Brooks, Matthew Dowd and millions of "Independents" who will swear to God they have never even heard of Donald Trump no matter what their lawn signs and Facebook pages say.
I'm still going to give myself a B- for that.
My prediction hinged on my belief that the legacy media's fascination with the mewlings of MAGA bigots and imbeciles would have dried up had Trump been dealt with as he should have been dealt with: impeached, removed from office, barred from ever running again and prosecuted.
But Running Dog Republicans wouldn't have it. Instead they did the thing every jump-scare movie ever made taught us all not to do: never walk away from the monster thinking it's finally dead and buried without checking to be absolutely positive.
Because sure as shit...
And because it all went down the way it did instead of the way it shoulda, and because now MAGA trolls and orcs and hobgoblins are in control of every branch of the federal government, the accursed genre of Magic Ruralism is back.
The "Ohio diner" is once again on the front face of the Opinion section of The New York Times.
These 11 Republican Trump Voters Love the Venezuela Action, but Greenland …
No comments:
Post a Comment