I have an honest question for my readers out there (all three of you). Has this country gone from pandemic to time warp?
Some of the headlines of the last week have me seriously questioning not the year, not the decade, but the century we find ourselves in. Surely I'm not alone in thinking a week that includes Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head and voter suppression in southern states has to sit squarely in the 20th century.
The last time all three of those subjects were in the news is a time frame that corresponds more closely to my birth and early childhood than today when age qualifies me for vaccinations and early social security.
I've written this before, but I'll repeat it. Dr Seuss' classic "Green Eggs and Ham" is the greatest book I ever read. I'm thankful I read it before the age of 5 because it guided me throughout my life. If you somehow missed it, the premise of Green Eggs and Ham is you have to experience things to know if you like them or not. I've lived my life this way.
Like most humans on this earth, Dr. Seuss wasn't perfect. He wasn't above falling back on stereotypes that dehumanized people of different races and backgrounds. A few of those stereotypes found their way into some of his children's books.
The foundation that owns the work of Dr. Seuss has decided to stop publishing the six books with examples. It didn't do this under pressure, not by demand from Oprah or Antifa, but through self-reflection and the recognition these stereotypes hurt people. It is clearly the right thing to do.
Unless you suffer from a brain numbing affliction called conservatism. In that case you acted like Dr. Seuss was second only to God in book writing and the audacity of pulling books that could be offensive to approximately 51% of Americans is tantamount to desecrating religious symbols.
I might point out here most conservatives don't think burning a cross on someone's lawn is desecrating a religious symbol, it is preserving our historic traditions.
But Dr. Seuss wasn't the only icon of my youth re-imagined this week. The makers of Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead have decided to de-gender their famous toys. From now on, the toy will be simply "Potato Head". I should point out my first Mr. Potato Head came with no plastic potato head, just the pieces you'd push into a gender neutral potato.
Conservatives heads are exploding because these gender neutral potato heads could fall in love and marry.The image of gender less potatoes pairing up with other gender less potatoes is more than they can bear.
Finally, voter suppression is a popular remedy when your party has no actual ideas except how to hinder the other party. An actual American conservative would be for all Americans voting but modern Republicans aren't really conservatives.
21st century conservatives think John McCain was a communist, Donald Trump a patriot and prophet, and Mr. Potato Head represents America's manhood.
That's not a time warp, it's a time contort.