Dear Elaine Gennawey ...

A letter to the president of the South Orange County Republicans

Dear Elaine Gennawey:

You’re the president of the South Orange County Republicans. You seem lovely. Truly, lovely. Warm smile. Red cheeks. Optimistic attire. Were I looking for someone to play Mrs. Claus at the next Christmas parade, you’d be my first choice—and you’d kill it. I know you’d kill it.

And, to be clear, I’ve got no big beef with you. You’re a Republican, I’m a Democrat. All good. But, well, I stopped by your group’s booth a few days ago at the the Sea Country Festival, the annual weekend-long carnival held in Laguna Niguel, and I have to ask: What happened to you people?

Seriously, what happened?

Y’all lingered there, before a life-sized cardboard cutout of Donald Trump, urging folks to pose for photos with the president. And I cannot, for the life of me, how a woman with your background justifies standing up for a man who has been accused of sexual assault 18 times. Who bragged about grabbing women by the pussies. Who cheated on wife 1 with wife 2, wife 2 with wife 3, wife 3 with a porn star he paid off in hush money.

Elaine, you loved Ronald Reagan—with good reason. Do you think Ronald Reagan would be cool with masked ICE agents in unidentified vehicles grabbing up brown men in front of Home Depots? Do you think he’d agree with Donald Trump that no actual reason needs to be presented—because these people are “scum”?

Do you think Ronald Reagan would greet bad economic numbers by firing the economist who delivered the numbers? D you think Ronald Reagan’s approach to homelessness would be grabbing tents and sleeping bags of the unhoused and throwing them away? Do you think Ronald Reagan would mock people as fat, ugly, stupid, dumb, gross, slobbery? Do you think Ronald Reagan would disgrace the Oval Office by wearing a hat like this?

Do you think Ronald Reagan would fire every military leader who wasn’t devoted to Ronald Reagan? Do you think Ronald Reagan would repeatedly complain about not winning the Nobel Peace Prize? Do you think Ronald Reagan would use the FBI and CIA to ensnare political opponents? Do you think Ronald Reagan would sit by and watch as supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol? Then, in the aftermath, do you think Ronald Reagan would pardon every single Capitol attacker?

Being sincere, Elaine: What mental gymnastics have you had to undertake to land here, backing the world’s biggest scumbag? Also, how can you justify slamming Gavin Newsom’s redistricting plan while uttering nary a peep over the political takeover in Texas?

At some point, I’m guessing, you viewed politics as an honorable and worthy endeavor. One where right trumped wrong and debate was to be encouraged, not snuffed.

So, I ask, how did you get here, Elaine?

How did you get here?

— Jeff