Kicking the bee hive
While making my usual delicious breakfast of yogurt, fruit, honey, and chopped nuts, a metaphor came to mind. Republican leaders use their base like worker bees for the queen. They lure them with fake pro-gun, anti-vaccine, and anti-abortion causes. They take away their public education, healthcare, welfare and apply the smoke of Fox “News” like beekeepers calming them, as they harvest the golden honey of power and profits. At this point, the GOP is a giant grift whose sole purpose is to keep their base voting to benefit the wealthy and remain in power.
As the January 6th Select Committee kicks the hive, Republican leaders blow smoke to control their bees. For example, pre-Roe v Wade, no one called removing an ectopic pregnancy an “abortion” or was prosecuted for a miscarriage. But GOP leaders created an anti-abortion cause to incite outrage so the hive would swarm to protect their queen, all through fake hypocritical right-to-life smoke and mirrors.
Now, Republicans are planning to steal elections by getting their hive to elect GOP Officials who will refuse to certify primaries. A test run in New Mexico failed after two of three officials finally relented and voted to certify, but a third refused based on his “gut feeling,” even after he was fined and sentenced for his participation in the insurrection.
But my hive-mind analogy is unfair to bees. Bees are intelligent, they can do math and learn. They nurture their environment instead of destroying it. So, a better analogy is a cult mentality. Short of a national de-radicalization program, we’re stuck with a radical minority who insist on drinking the Koo-Aid and following their Pied Piper over the edge.
But we can reach the independents, the indifferent, the disenfranchised. Every election, I reach out to ten friends in swing states asking them register and vote. I am always amazed at their enthusiasm. People who might have otherwise sat it out went to the polls because of my encouragement. Our best de-radicalization program is giving Republicans a wake-up call by voting Democrat in a huge blue wave this November.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.