Those “Special Snowflakes” May Just Avalanche The GOP In 2022

At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moon. All the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon    The rising of the moon   Irish folk song

You all know I’m a proud Irish American, and right now I’m walking on the ceiling. A fleet of 60 County Cork fishing trawlers faced down the mighty Russian navy, and made them run like a clutter of kittens. I swear, If I ever have the honor of actually meeting my long lost cousin, Patrick Murphy, I’ll stand that boyo two pints!

But in my glee and celebration, I suddenly turned reflective, which is not necessarily comfortable or familiar place. But I realized that all of us, no matter where we originally hail from, take a great deal of pride in our ethnicity. And that realization led me to the recognition that the GOP is playing a very. dangerous. fucking. game.

The GOP is cynically using a toxic witches brew of white privilege, white grievance, and overt racism in a blatant attempt to literally rewrite American history, and in doing so, restrict what American children will and won’t be taught in school. Which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising, coming from a breed that has emotionally and historically embedded itself into a history of The Antebellum South that never actually existed in the first place! It is a naked construct.

But I honestly don’t think that the GOP has stopped to consider the ultimate end game of this little charade they’re playing with our children’s education. But whether they actually realize it or not, the end game of this power play is that they want to wipe out the ethnic histories of all of the people who make them uncomfortable.

This is a fatal error. Because our ethnic heritage is what binds us together. It binds our families together, it binds us to our ethnic community, and it binds us to our ethnic communities in the old country. It is our heritage, and each one is rich with its own experience, both here and at home.

The American Polish community still almost religiously celebrates Kazimir Pulaski Day. Cinco de Mayo may just as well be a national holiday in this country, because it sure as hell is celebrated like it is.
And while we’re at it, you just go right ahead and try to cancel St. Patrick’s Day, and see what that gets you. Each ethnicity in this country celebrates our national holidays, and we party hard.

But the GOP isn’t trying to take away everybody’s ethnic pride and celebrations. Oh, no. They are specifically going after the ethnicities that directly threaten their shrinking power base. They want to prohibit any learning that offends their oh so delicate little special snowflake fee-fees. Mainly, anything that makes white people look like the flaming assholes they were, and in some cases, still are. But their ultimate goal is to literally erase those ethnic histories from American history.

And that won’t fly. Because their ethnic history, especially in the United States is what gives them their greatest sense of ethnic pride. They came to this country fleeing suffering and injustice at home, or in some cases forcibly, only to find more suffering and indignity. And yet they have not only survived, they have thrived. They’ve made a life better than what they left behind.

Native Americans have the Trail of Tears, along with Wounded Knee, and too many more tragedies to list to mark their experience with white men in the country they were in first. African Americans still have the anchor of slavery and racism around their necks. Along with the Civil War, Reconstruction, and a century long fight for their basic civil rights. And Hispanics have the historic stacking of the deck to them entering the country legally, forcing them to come in under the cover of darkness, and risking capture and immediate deportation every day.

Those stories are told around the kitchen table, in front of the fireplace, and at family gatherings. Family heroes are celebrated. This shared experience binds the family together, as well as their shared ethnic experience in this country. And now a bunch of pampered, arrogant white assholes literally want to wipe that history from American history. They basically want to make their ethnicity disappear in american schools.

I. Don’t. Think. So. The greatest power these people have is the right to vote. But the GOP already knows that, and is doing everything in its power to restrict that. Spoiler Alert It won’t work. These people had to shed blood, sweat, and tears to get that right, and once they got it, they had to fight constant attempts to restrict it. Hispanic Americans are used to having to show proof of citizenship in order to cast a ballot. African Americans are used to having to stand in line for more hours than most white people work in a day in order to cast their ballots. And Native Americans had to figure out a way to come up with physical addresses for their homes on the reservation, since PO Boxes were standard, and suddenly they were no good for voter registration under state law. And yet they all persevered, and continue to persevere.

How hard do you think they’ll persevere when they believe that the ethnic cleansing of their entire history is at stake? With this boneheaded political stunt the GOP is literally swinging a stick at a hornet’s nest the size of Brooklyn. And if they actually knock over that nest, may god have mercy on their souls. Because none of the denizens of that nest will have any.