I’m really looking forward to attending the No Kings rally here in Salem, Oregon tomorrow. But I’m confused about what Republicans have been calling the Hate America rally.
It sure seems like me and my senior citizen friends love America. However, since President Trump is known for never lying, being even more honest than George Washington, who lied about chopping down a cherry tree (some say this is a myth, but that’s another bit of fake news), naturally I assume that Republican leaders are just as truthful as Trump.
[Note: some people may hear what Trump said at a press conference today and claim it isn’t true that a Hawaii senator said she wants a railroad built across the ocean to her state. Hey, if Trump said it, it must be true.]
So when House Speaker Mike Johnson recently said this, how can I question the veracity of his words?
“They call it the ‘No Kings’ rally. We call it the ‘Hate America’ rally. [It will have] all the Marxists collected, all the antifa people, the [Black Lives Matter] remnants, the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party, and they’re going to be out here screaming and wailing.”
That shook me to the core. Cognitive dissonance is one thing. A split between the reality that I’ve always believed in, and my heartfelt belief that regardless of all their other shortcomings, Trump and his inner circle never, ever tell a lie — that’s a whole other thing.
I mean, I don’t feel that either me or the many liberal old folks that I know are Marxist, members of Antifa, or pro-Hamas. All of us enjoy the blessings of capitalism, don’t wear all black, and aren’t Muslim. (Mostly we’re atheists, which seemingly wouldn’t endear us to Hamas.)
But then it hit me.
Us Baby Boomers grew up in the 1950s. That’s when the brainwashing in The Manchurian Candidate took place. Since as the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction, it seems entirely possible — no, even more, highly probable! — that this movie reflects a painful reality that only hit home when I read Speaker Johnson’s comment about the No Kings rally actually being a Hate America rally. Wikipedia says:
The Manchurian Candidate is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a communist conspiracy. The novel has twice been adapted into a feature film with the same title: the first was released in 1962 and the second in 2004.
Now I understand how Speaker Johnson could be correct about me and my senior citizen friends being Marxist members of Antifa who are pro-Hamas. Those political leanings were unconsciously inculcated in us during our formative years by the oh-so-shadowy machinations of a vast left-wing conspiracy that used hitherto unknown means to transform young kids into sleeper cells to be activated at the proper time by a code word: No Kings.
I don’t know exactly what those means were. We all watched a lot of cartoons. It could be that subliminal messages were inserted into Bugs Bunny animations. Or maybe the cover art of Wheaties cereal boxes contained the brainwashing materials. I spent a lot of time looking at the box when I ate my breakfast.
I’m sharing my astounding discovery in the hope that the truth will set us senior citizens free. Somehow leaders in the Trump administration have known the truth before I worked it out: those attending the No Kings rally tomorrow will be Marxist member of Antifa who are pro-Hamas. Sure, us liberals feel that we’re patriotic Americans who love capitalism, non-violence, and a Palestine without Hamas.
Hopefully our unconscious childhood brainwashing will be de-activated by the power of this blog post. By the way, if any Hollywood screenwriters read this, I’m entirely open to this post being the basis for a new version of The Manchurian Candidate. After all, I’m a capitalist who will sell the rights to my expose of senior citizen brainwashing for a tidy sum.
Discover more from Salem Political Snark
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.