Republicans became the counterculture hippies
"We are forces of chaos and anarchy
Everything they say we are we are
And we are very
Proud of ourselves
Up against the wall
Up against the wall, motherfucker"
"We Can be Together" Jefferson Airplane, 1970
I was in college in the late 1960s. I was "straight." I was "Clean for Gene."
In the vocabulary of the 1960s, straight wasn’t about sexual orientation; it was a look and manner and attitude toward authority and institutions of culture. Politically, straight meant I wasn't radical; I supported the electoral system and didn't want revolution. In clothes and appearance, straight meant I had short-ish hair and wore clothes bought in mainstream stores. Straight meant I wasn't a doper. Straight meant that I went to class and wanted to make progress toward a degree so I could get a job. Straight meant that I was hoping to succeed and prosper in the "establishment" world. Straight meant I was glad there was a U.S. military, but wanted it to fight just wars, not the one in Vietnam. I wore a Strike! tee-shirt, but I didn't strike personally.
I was in the culture, not the counterculture. I believed in the institutions that shape America. I wanted to reform them from within. I thought the radical, doper, hippy people around me were impeding reform. They created more backlash than progress. They welcomed chaos and anarchy. Most of us enjoyed the music of revolution, but some people wanted real-life anarchy and chaos and acted on it, either privately with drugs and sex or publicly with violent politics. I thought both were counterproductive to on-the-ground reform. People old and settled enough to vote--people with jobs and mortgages--generally do not want anarchy. They have something to lose. They will choose safety over chaos, I thought.
I saw a version of the countercultural radical left rise again in Portland last summer and fall. They are marginalized, but visible, to the political peril of Democrats facing election in Oregon and nationally. The political right jumped on the opportunity to make Portland anarchists the face of America's political left. Democratic officeholders condemned them, but not clearly and loudly enough, and they didn't stop them, arrest them, prosecute them, and celebrate their imprisonment. Democrats in authority looked ambivalent and hesitant. The Democratic Party chose Biden--the archetypal straight politician--but the image of radical chaos remains. The GOP sees to that.
The irony is that under Trump the GOP became the party of chaos and anarchy. They are the new radicals and hippies. Republican officeholders scoff at authority and contrast it with freedom. Every institution is suspect in the GOP media and messaging environment. Trump says the FBI is corrupt. The intelligence agencies are corrupt--the Deep State. The health authorities are untrustworthy and indeed may have intentionally infected us with COVID. Our international alliances cheat Americans. Our elections are frauds. Our K-12 system misinforms our children, and our universities teach dangerous theories. Our democracy isn't worth defending, not if democracy elects Democrats. Republican officeholders remain mum when Trump says the election should be overturned, and news emerges that he plotted to remain in office by corrupting our justice system. The Supreme Court--even one with a majority of conservatives--is cowardly and failed Americans.
Hippies of the 1960s were the supposed "free love" people; Republicans defended old customs and virtues. Not now. While Democrats demanded quick removal of Al Franken and now Andrew Cuomo, the GOP dismisses the accusations against Trump and ignores the Access Hollywood revelation. Boys will be boys. It's "nothing to get hung about," as the Beatles observed in Strawberry Fields Forever.
Trump-oriented Republicans now manage the party of "do your own thing." They are the party that says that vaccinations and masks are burdens on freedom--certainly too much to demand for any common good. They are the draft-dodgers in the war against COVID. Popular red state governors say the war is un-necessary and badly waged and darned if they will participate.
Trump-Republicans are wiser than were the hippies and radicals of the 1960s. They claim the flag, the symbol of America itself, even as they flout and condemn its institutions of culture and government. It makes them a more credible revolutionary. They are anarchists on behalf of all-American freedom. Republicans are carrying the American flag. It ic cynical but it is the smart way to undermine institutions and get a revolution done.