the physical universe revisited

 In my early teens I exclusively read science fiction,  The magazines not only had stories they also had articles about science fiction.  And they were purists, they felt it was up to them to decide what was science fiction.  Books and stories that were say, set in the future, but maybe did not have the correct science fiction elements (fantasy was strictly forbidden, no magic or ghosts or crap like that.  You could make up an anti-gravity device as long as you gave it a scientific name, but no witches casting spells that that made you immune to gravity), and especially if it was popular with those dolts who weren't really science fiction readers it was beyond the pale.  I don't think the writers of books like that, like Kurt Vonnegut, worried too much about that stuff, but they were obsessed with keeping their label pure.

I guess so it was with the most pure of the folkies who would only allow songs that were written in the old timey days in Appalachia.  Even though the Kingston Trio were singing a traditional folk tune, they didn't like the way it was arranged and particularly they must have hated how it raced to the top of the charts.  They could have ignored it and continued with their own songs but they thought that folk music was being besmirched.  Likewise when Bob Dylan went electric.  When the lily white Rolling Stones started playing old blues songs the old bluesman did not complain at all.  They had been mopping floors before and now they were rolling in dough.

Then there is this:  https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/579527-poll-50-percent-of-republicans-dont-believe-their-vote-will-be-counted

We have seen polls like this before.  Back before the southern strategy we had liberals among the reps and conservatives among the dems.  Afterwards there were fewer and fewer, and the reps believed in like smaller gov and bigger armies, and trickle down, and crap like that, which I abhorred of course, but they were things that could be discussed.  

But in the new Trump era they believe things that aren't true at all.  Remember my boring essays about the physical universe exemplified by the tree in my backyard.  You could argue about whether it was a good looking or ugly tree, or the shading of the leaves or whatnot.  But you could not argue about whether it existed or not, all you had to do was come to my backyard and see for yourself (like all you had to look at were the photos of Obama's and Trump's inaugurals).  But now to reps, the tree is there only if Trump says it is.  And if he says something different the next day it is not there.

You can pretend there are still some old timey republicans who are not Trumpists, but they are few and far between.  Only one of them in congress, and among the rank and file, I think you can tell from this poll, also few and far.  That's why we dems feel like we are the only thing standing between the gains of the enlightenment and the dark ages.