My Mary Chesnut Moment

 

Where to begin?

I used to love to write. Indeed, at one point, I was a video game journalist with the supremely entertaining job of covering the ever-shifting world of PC gaming. However, as life shall we say progressed, I lost my muse to real-world distractions, resulting in sporadic writing streaks at best, something easily seen just by perusing the publication dates of the entries for this blog.  From what I have heard, it happens to even the best writers. Writing is a habit or a hobby like any other. Once you stop practicing, it begins to fade. Throw Mama from the Train's frazzled writing instructor Larry Donner concluded every class with the reminder that "A writer writes always!" That is the truth of it. 

I want to try to get back into writing because I believe we live in historic times. These times will have far-reaching consequences that we haven't seen since 1861 and the start of the American Civil War. I know that sounds hyperbolic. Perhaps it is. All I can offer in my defense are two degrees in political science and a lifetime spent in the FOX News / conservative talk radio wing of the Republican Party (see below). Speaking as someone from that background, which is to say as someone who once marched alongside some of the same individuals and institutions who have built what would become the toxic MAGA movement, I can assure you that this is a group that isn't bluffing; that these are individuals willing to unleash hell in their revolutionary zeal. Because of that, I believe that America is slipping into a period of fascism that may well spark tremendous upheaval of the sorts not seen since the American Civil War. I don't say this lightly. It is intuition born of education and half a century of political involvement.  Things will get bad in ways that would seem like fantasy just a few years ago. 

Which is why I am calling this my Mary Chesnut moment.  If you are unaware, Mary Chesnut was a diarist who chronicled the slaveholding South's march into rebellion and its subsequent defeat in the American Civil War.  Her writings, later published as "A Diary from Dixie", are considered one of the most insightful chronicles of this pivotal era in American history. They are also some of the most artistically expressed. That is why her writings have always left an impression on me.  Chesnut is the writer I would like to be:  erudite, lyrical, and informative. 

While I have no illusions about my ability to match Chesnut's meticulously detailed descriptions of the heartbreaking events of her days, nor her unceasing chronicle of those days of rebellion, I would like to do my best to bear witness to our contemporary crisis if, for no other reason, than to leave a paltry record by someone who was there when it all went wrong. As Chesnut herself wrote:

My audience is, first and foremost, myself. Mind you, I am blogging this, so I am aware that others will be privy to what I write, but this venue has been chosen for convenience rather than for audience. I just like to blog!  In the end, I just want to know that when all is said and done, I contributed in my own small way to chronicling my time's descent into madness as Chesnut did in her time.  And perhaps, just perhaps, that will prove to be of value to some future students of history examining how the American empire, at the peak of prosperity and technological prowess, decided to, as Lincoln put it, "die by suicide."

As mentioned above, I want to reiterate that I am writing this chronicle from the perspective of a man who, until 2015 and the rise of the alt-right, was a FOX News watching, talk radio listening, and Reagan & Buckley worshipping conservative. This background gives me a somewhat unique perspective on events as I am not a leftist or even a moderate, the usual critics of this administration.  Unlike them, I am intimately familiar with conservative thought and tactics, something that gives me an insight into what is happening with this administration. In the classic WWII movie Patton, George C. Scott as the titular character mocks Rommel's defeat at his hands by shouting, "I read your book!"  The same goes for me, but I read the books of the right-wing pundits.  I know how they think.  That gives me an insight outsiders lack, particularly amongst Democrat pundits. 

(By all rights, I should be a MAGA cheerleader too, as are all of my erstwhile "conservative" colleagues.  But I am not, something that I know is due to the simple fact that I actually believed everything I believed during the years of Clinton corruption and Obama overreach. Stooping hypocrisy is not for me.)

 Time to get started...