Like Aretha Said, R-E-S-P-E-C-T

A friend of mine once said, “…Police departments invented SWAT Teams to deal with that one crazy son-of-a-bitch who won’t listen to anybody…” Lately, a large swath of the candidates and the media have been treating MAGA Republicans as that crazy son-of-bitch. Is it fair? I don’t know, maybe, maybe, not. They hold 30% of the vote and they’re solidly loyal to Donald Trump. Why? If you’ll permit me a couple of generalizations, MAGA voters are people with callouses on their hands. They may be male or female, black, white, or Latino, they farm, work in a factory, build things and repair things, the guys who get your power back on after a storm and nurse you when you’re in the hospital. They use “please” and “thank you” and “sir” and “Ma’am in conversations. They, or a family member, served in the military and they’re proud of it. Other than roadside DUI checkpoints, they respect and support the police. They won’t tolerate a guy taking a piss in the girl’s restroom at a school, but they work with gays and their reaction is a shrug of the shoulders-none of my damn business. But, every day, they see the America they grew up in radically changing and to their point of view, not necessarily for the better. Enter Trump the false prophet, skillfully manipulating fears and concerns when no other candidate will give them an ounce of respect. They won’t budge from Trump until some other candidate or party shows them and their concerns a modicum of respect and listens. If you have friends who are MAGA, they’ll admit that Trump is a phony, no more in touch with middle America than AOC and The Squad, but he’s all they’ve got. It’s kind of like dog breath, it’s better than no breath at all….