The New Silent Majority
Nixon’s nauseating “Silent Majority” speech was nearly 52 years ago. November 3, 1969, to be exact.
In this speech, he painted a picture of two Americas: “a vocal minority,” who try to impose their point of view through protest, and the “great silent majority,” made up of realist, working class Americans. See the speech in its entirety here:
Back then, the “vocal minority” was comprised of anti-war protesters, young and left-leaning. His “great silent majority” were older, more conservative — so-called “Greatest Generation” folks who proved through their actions just how “not especially great” they were.
The following spring, NYC hosted the “hard-hat riots” down on lower Manhattan, where the brave morons (and the cops) beat on war protesters.
So, what’s changed, 50-plus years on?
I’d posit that today we have two Americas as well. Except the roles have been reversed. The right-wing rabble-rousers populated January 6th’s disgrace. The silent majority clucked and chided yet remained — and remain — largely quiet.
Our new Silent Majority needs awakening. It’s all-hands-on-deck. It’s “every vote counts”. Quietly, we get vaccinated and shake our heads as the anti-vaxx Typhoid Mary types walk the malls, supermarkets, and performance venues of ‘Murika’, belittling the vaccinated, antagonizing retail workers, educators, even their own families.
Then they beg for the vaccine as they’re wheeled into the ICU (assuming a bed is available), and hooked up to a vent.
Today’s “vocal minority” has access to the international electronic bully pulpit of the Interwebs. The tiniest, stupidest mice have a vast bullhorn from which to spew their slime.
The midterm elections are around the corner. We are strong in numbers, hold the nation’s pursestrings, appreciate logic and facts and expertise — and yet we sit on our hands.
It doesn’t pay to be polite, when our lives — our futures — are on the line. Let’s get off the pot and make some noise.
And for you, the “vocal minority” — here’s a toast to better days ahead. Drink up, you fools!
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ivermectin-demand-drives-trump-telemedicine-website-rcna1791
