You are more important than you ever thought you could ever be, dear fellow denizens of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream.
I’ve been practicing (and malpracticing, in the auguste opinions of defeated opposition) Nevada follytix for over half a century. I proceed from a healthy respect for history, an unfashionable pursuit as we abandon English and revert to ancient hieroglyphics, aka emojis.
It it can’t be placed on a bumper sticker…er, meme…it won’t sell.
So here’s your meme/bumper sticker/subject line for November 2024: “Small Nevada county decides presidency.”
One of the first things I learned in my first statewide election, 1970, was that to win statewide, a Republican must win the north by enough to eclipse a Democrat’s Gomorrah South edge.
Last year, Steve Sisolak and Catherine Cortez-Masto came up from Las Vegas with big leads. Both carried Sparks-Reno-Washoe. Failing to respond to Republican attacks, Gov. Sisolak didn’t carry Washoe by enough to win the north. Sen. Cortez-Masto did. Simple. Put it on a bumper sticker: “Jane flies, Tarzan flops.” (Barbwires Nov. 16 and 23, 2022)
The Barbwire predicted a 2016 GOP win in February with 17 moonhowlers in the race. This did not come from psychic predictions or polling, just experience combined with a healthy respect for scholarship. (“History foreshadows a GOP November win,” Barbwire 2-16-2016)
LIFE IMITATES ART. Brilliant screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is currently wowing Broadway with his staging of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
He wrote both the popular 1995 film “The American President” and its television spinoff, “The West Wing.” In 2005, the final season of the latter, he wrote a scenario in which Nevada provided the margin of victory for the first minority president of the United States, played by Latino Jimmy Smits (“NYPD Blue,” “LA Law”). Alan Alda (“MAS*H”) played his conservative GOP opponent. Recognizing the Republican’s foreign policy experience, the Democrat appointed his former adversary as secretary of state.
Fast-forward to 2008-09. Barack Obama wins and appoints his vanquished primary rival, Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state.
Well-founded analysis of the long cycles of American history foreshadow a Democratic win next year. So why will Washoe become the deciding factor?
The Silver State is now a critical swing state. The GOP candidate will carry all 15 of Nevada’s small counties and the Democrat will sweep Las Vegas and environs. That means Washoe decides.
The Fox-fueled propaganda machine controls the minds of fully a third of the electorate. Democrats are having nightmares over splinter candidates siphoning off enough from President Biden to give the Orange Crusher an edge. It won’t suffice. Those who think Ralph Nader pulled enough from Al Gore in Florida in 2000 have been proven wrong. Gore actually won the state outright but Clarence and the ammosexuals stopped the count.
Non-partisan voters actually split between Busha and Gore. While more Nevadans are today registered non-partisan, they will divide between the elephantine and Donkeyites next year, as always. Most simply don’t want to “waste their vote.”
Sparks-Reno-Washoe will thus have more political power than we’ve ever had before and may never have again.
I strongly suggest you register to vote, get involved and use your power. Democracy is on life support.
Expose yourself to a diversity of media and points of view. Talk to pols and their purveyors.
Us backwater hillbillies will have center stage. Put on a good show and give Aaron Sorkin something new to write about.
BAD MOON ON THE RISE. “Doonesbury” will no longer appear in the Reno Gazette-Journal or Gannett’s almost 400 newspapers in its USA Today network. The RGJ gods own 217 dailies and 175 weeklies.
Combine that with the influence of the Fox Noise conglomerate and Sinclair Broadcasting’s 294 television stations, stir in oily Koch money and the moonhowlers of the political jungle have to be feeling well-greased.
Sinclair controls NBC TV-4, FOX-11, NSN-21 and a host of smaller over-air signals in northern Nevada plus NBC-3 and others in southern Nevada. Envious of Murdoch Fox profitability, they have been polluting their local newscasts with biased, corporate-ordered news-ish-looking items for years.
My heart hurts for all the responsible journalists on Vassar Street forced to see their efforts undercut by company propaganda. I’m not saying don’t watch, I’m saying watch other stations, too. You will find the contrast enlightening.
Reno Gazette-Journal staff apparently had no say in the comics re-shuffle announced last Sunday. It’s easy for a corporation to trash the most powerful social commentary in the country by including a bunch of others.
How powerful does Doonesbury remain after lo, these many years? The weekly re-runs ala “Peanuts” have never lost their punch. Good writing holds up over decades. Doonesbury was the first comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1975. Creator Garry Trudeau has since won three more.
The Sunday strip has always been first-run and retains mass influence. Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks channeled Doonesbury on the PBS Newshour a couple of weeks ago. Doonesbury had correctly lampooned madcap Republican House of Representatives members as “performance artists.” Brooks used the same term describing the impolite screamers who are working to shut the government down in a few days.
Back when we were a daily, the Tribune published Doonesbury despite the same strips appearing concurrently in the RGJ. The more the merrier. (Hey, Sherm. It’s available.)
Go online? Not everyone is wired. The Internet or postage-stamp-sized iPhone screens are not like holding the paper for comics or news.
Given all of the above, I now know how Princess Cassandra felt.
Please don’t let that wooden horse through the gates.
LET’S HEAR IT! The Tribune’s own Kayla Anderson just outdid herself. A couple of years ago, she scored two Nevada Press Association awards. In the 2023 voting just released, she brought our newsroom a gold, silver and bronze. Impressive hat trick, young lady. Well done.
Keep up the good work and the good fight.
Stay safe, get vaxxed and pray for those cruelly afflicted by the cruelly small minds on this small planet, especially victims of our perpetual wars.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbáno is a 54-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com/ Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
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