Tag Archives: GOP

Hawthorne Understood Mobs

By Robin Bates | Published: January 31, 2021

Hawthorne writes about the kind of mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol in “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.”

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Can GOP Wash Its Hands of Capitol Blood?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 11, 2021

While the Macbeths share many traits with Trump and his GOP enablers, they had least have the capacity for self-reflection.

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Promises on the Year’s Darkest Evening

By Robin Bates | Published: December 20, 2020

When we have a president who is governed by self-gratification, Frost’s famous poem about honoring obligations is what we need.

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Brecht on Trumpian Democracy Attacks

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2020

Brecht has the perfect poem for Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

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Yeats, Not Heaney, for Dark Times

By Robin Bates | Published: December 10, 2020

For social and political barometers, try Heaney for optimism, Yeats for pessimism.

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The GOP’s Monster Continues to Strike

By Robin Bates | Published: November 29, 2020

Many have talked about how the GOP created a Frankenstein’s monster in Trump. They can also be seen as a Circe (from Madeline Miller’s novel) creating Scylla.

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Think of Amy Coney Barrett as Aunt Lydia

By Robin Bates | Published: October 13, 2020

Given Amy Comey Barrett’s rightwing positions on abortion, healthcare, and LGBTQ rights, she can be compared to Aunt Lydia in Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale.”

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Trump-Graham as Dracula-Renfield

By Robin Bates | Published: July 29, 2020

South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham is to Trump what Renfield is to Dracula–and could suffer a similar fate.

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Pratchett Understands Amoral Enablers

By Robin Bates | Published: June 30, 2020

For a spot-on depiction of GOP enablers of Donald Trump, check out the civic leaders in Terry Pratchett’s “Guards! Guards!”

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