From Drew Goins, “An act of God — and one of Satan? — in North Carolina,” The Washington Post, October 4, 2024 at 4:30 p.m. EDT
If you want to see what the American Revivalist Tradition (ART) looks like in American politics, in 2024, this is it at its worst:
I’ve been waiting for Kathleen Parker’s column on the destruction of Hurricane Helene.
She, like me, comes from the Carolinas. She, like me — like everybody — grew up knowing somebody who lives “in the mountains,” plus visiting plenty herself. And we both understood the Blue Ridge Mountains as “chill,” both in temperature and mien.
No longer in Asheville, Kathleen writes, the mountain town that until last week was “a flannel-and-flip-flops mecca for hikers, mountain bikers, foodies and culture connoisseurs.”
She surveys the devastation of the Southeast’s sanctuary, or at least weekend getaway. A son of hers lives there now, and he reports that the place looks bomb-devastated and now smells like mildew, not Christmas trees.
It’s a blow to the very spirit of the Blue Ridge, Kathleen writes: “Something about the mountains nourishes the soul.” That’s what makes this act of God all the more painful.
Elsewhere in North Carolina — an act of Satan?
The archfiend is afoot all over the place, to hear Michele Morrow tell it. She is the Republican candidate for North Carolina superintendent of public instruction, who believes that celebrities harvest the blood of children so as never to age, and the devil works for the United Nations killing people with vaccines. She is in a statistical tie with the Democrat.
This is just the way things go now, Dana Milbank laments: “Republican primaries bring out the far-right faithful, who reward the most extreme candidate in the race. Then party loyalty kicks in, and ordinary Republican voters rally behind the nominee, no matter how exotic.”
As Dana writes, “As if the good people of North Carolina haven’t suffered enough lately.”
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Neville Buch
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