Submitted by Dana Gordon
An alarm bell has sounded in Greenwich, CT. It’s now official. The Greenwich Republican Town Committee has cooked up a message of vitriol, anger and McCarthy era paranoia and they are spreading it throughout our town. Greenwich voters should be very concerned. Not because anything this group is saying is true, but rather, because this group actually believes the lunacy they are saying.
Today, I was sent an email from a friend that I later found out was circulated widely across town. The email was sent by Gail Lauridsen, who according to the RTC website is the current RTC Secretary and a member of its powerful Executive Committee. The email contained a rather long dissertation from an “unknown author” about how America has become a shadow of its former self.
The hyperbole is laid on thick throughout: America has “moved from a relatively free economy to Socialism” and “has traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.” To be clear, the United States does not have a Socialist economy. For the record, the Cultural Revolution was a ten year effort by Chinese Communists to purge anyone who disagreed with their doctrine, which has a lot in common with how the current RTC in Greenwich gained control of the town Republican Party.
In a clear reference to the January 6th riots at the U.S. Capital, the piece states that in present day America, “Patriotism is called insurrection.” I think most practical people in our community know the difference between patriotism and insurrection, and what we saw on January 6, 2021 was most certainly not patriotism.
It goes on to say in reference to U.S. pop culture and entertainment that “our entertainment is sadistic” and our music is “noise that spans the spectrum of annoying to repulsive.” What an angry message. If this is the RTC’s attempt at converting Independent or Undecided voters, it needs some polishing.
Those Americans who followed pandemic protocols are also not immune from assault; “How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lockdowns and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.” It never occurred to me that taking such mundane safety precautions in the midst of a global pandemic was actually contributing to the destruction of our country’s spirit.
Going into divisiveness overdrive, the missive goes on to say “Our culture is certifiably insane” citing “Men who think they are women” and, of course, women as a group are portrayed as villains; “We slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom.” Going after the relatively small subset of transgender people is simply mean spirited, and picking a fight with women on the heels of the recently leaked Supreme Court draft opinion to overturn Roe vs Wade is downright politically tone deaf.
Their position on entertainment and culture is a step short of censorship. Their apparent goal is to take away or criticize freedoms they either don’t like or that don’t personally affect them. That doesn’t sound like democracy to me.
My friend wrote some prescient words when she forwarded me the email. “I just find it so hard to understand why people who live in such a wonderful town —who don’t have to worry about bombs falling on their heads, or violent crime in their neighborhood or where to find their next meal, or whether they can pay next month’s rent—are so angry?” That’s a great question.
If the Greenwich RTC had any self respect as an organization, it would ask that Ms Lauridsen resign. But they won’t, and the reason is simple. Instead of being embarrassed by something like this, this group actually believes all of the conspiratorial nonsense that was circulated in that email, and that is the most frightening part of it all.