MAGA flags flap in the smoggy mist

In my local travels as a driving-addicted resident of the greater San Gabriel Valley, I am often witness to MAGAs flying colorful Trump flags from various parts of their vehicles. Some are not exactly family friendly. Now I don’t know what you do with your feelings, but I cannot imagine that the parents of young children are excited to see torrid four letter expletives displayed in such eye-catching ways.

“Mommy?” asks the small yet earnest voice in this scenario. “What does (bleep) Biden mean?” Hands tighten on the wheel, angry eyes flash in the rearview mirror. So who do you think mommy won’t be voting for in the next election? MAGA!

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to have a brief traffic-light conversation with an intense-looking dude about the two flags he was flying from the roof of his quasi-patriotic Honda Civic. One banner advocated for a 2024 Donald Trump presidency while offering advice on what you should do about any related feelings. The other conveyed a blunt four letter assessment of President Biden.

“Excuse me,” quoth I in my most concerned voice. “Have you considered that the language on those flags is not exactly helping your cause? Parents of young children in particular don’t appreciate that kind of talk, you know.” He replied by suggesting what I should do with myself and then, tires smoking, squealed off into the smoggy mist. Flags flapping.

There has been a lot of quality commentary about the reasons for the massive failure of the Newsom recall. All quite analytical stuff, drawn from the deep issue-oriented wisdom you’ll often find on the very pages of this paper’s Opinion section. But is that really what helped Gov. Gavin Newsom crush the radicals with effortless aplomb? Issues? Or was it something else?

History buffs will recall that Ronald Reagan, when he commenced his political career by running for governor of California, made significant political hay by lambasting trouble-making college hippies. This from the June 8, 2004 edition of the UC Berkeley News:

“Ronald Reagan launched his political career in 1966 by targeting UC Berkeley’s student peace activists, professors, and, to a great extent, the University of California itself. In his successful campaign for governor of California, his first elective office, he attacked the Berkeley campus.”

Richard Nixon manufactured potent presidential pixie powder in 1969 by invoking something he called a “silent majority.” Here is how Wikipedia describes it:

“The silent majority is an unspecified large group of people who do not express their opinions publicly. The term was popularized by U.S. President Richard Nixon in a televised address on November 3, 1969, in which he said, “And so tonight — to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans — I ask for your support.” In this usage it referred to those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War, who did not join in the counterculture.”

That was then. Nowadays the disruptive countercultural crazies are on the radical right, and Californians want precious little to do with them, either. Newsom apparently took a bit of his inspiration from both the Nixon and Reagan playbooks and roughed up the MAGAs for optimum political effect. Extremist Larry Elder, with his close relationship to Trump, helped send California’s 2021 Silent Majority sprinting to the Newsom camp.

Are MAGAs now filling a similar punching-bag role for the Democrats that rioting campus radicals played in the political careers of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon back in the 1960s? Yes, it appears that MAGAs are the hippies of our time. You ready for 2022, man?

John Crawford publishes the Sierra Madre Tattler.