How a Political Party Is Perverting American Folklore
Republicans have a weird Johnny Appleseed fetish
American folklore exists to transmit memorable lessons to our children. It distills the best traditions we wish to pass on to successive generations — as symbols, virtues, and ideals. In that one respect, America shares a unity of purpose with some of the planet’s oldest national cultures: Britain, India, China, and Japan.
The ancients had their myths; Americans have folklore.
As youths, we absorbed the tale of a young George Washington and how he could not lie about chopping down a cherry tree. Or maybe we were inspired by the legend of John Henry, the Black railroad builder, who was our 19th-century Hercules and a model of American determination.
But one of the most enduring of folk tales is the history of Johnny Appleseed, the eccentric nurseryman who traveled across several states planting apple trees to cultivate the virgin land. Yet Republicans have seemed to learn the wrong lessons from that folklore.
Take, for example, Herschel Walker. The failed senatorial candidate was revealed to have fathered multiple children, as well as having compelled his lovers to get abortions. If ever there were an argument for mandated vasectomies in red states, it is Mr. Walker.
So, while there was a national benefit to Johnny Appleseed’s mission of spreading apple seeds, that does not extend to the DNA of former football stars. Unless, of course, there is some secret eugenics program sponsored by the National Football League.
That I doubt. Nonetheless, we should agree that Walker’s prolific talents are unfit to pass on to children.
There is also Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who seemed determined to spread the coronavirus as far across the state as it could roam. No masks, no vaccines, and no Dr. Fauci would deter him from making Florida a welcome petri dish for one of the deadliest plagues in human history.
But the most egregious Republican perversion of folklore has been provided by Donald J. Trump. We have seen that the former president is under investigation for removing White House documents and planting them on the premises of Mar-a-Lago. That breach of national security invited suspicions that other classified papers could be found at other Trump properties.
We know now that speculation was not unwarranted.
So, with the discovery of more Trump stolen documents at a storage locker in West Palm Beach, the nation now should ask: what else and where? Did Trump plant briefs about Area 51 in his desk at Trump Tower? Did he plant schematics for the next generation of electromagnetic pulse weapons at his golf course in Scotland?
Or did he scatter his instructions from Vladimir Putin at his resort in New Jersey — that is, the blueprint he evidently has been following on how to dismantle American democracy? Trump’s dispersion of secret documents could encompass more territory than Johnny Appleseed ever roamed.
Forget the search for Hillary’s emails. This April, our national security may require deputizing the nation’s Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for a special Easter egg hunt. That may be necessary to find all of the government documents that Trump has recklessly scattered — from sea to shining sea.
And unlike little George Washington who could not be dishonest, Trump continues to lie about those misappropriated files — in addition to every fact about his presidency.
Hence, I submit my case: Republicans seem inclined to pervert American folklore. True conservatives laud personal responsibility as one of their cardinal principles. But whereas John Henry can be read as the model of the American work ethic and personal responsibility, both Herschel Walker and Donald Trump are the most bizarre illustrations of irresponsibility.
I can only hope that school board zealots whitewashing school curricula — including those in Florida — recognize Walker and Trump as laughable political cartoons. I also hope they teach impressionable children that both men are examples that never, ever should be modeled. They instead deserve the ridicule of grade school kids.
Trump’s middle name is John, but he is neither a John Henry nor a Johnny Appleseed. Truth-telling, responsibility, and dedicated work for the public good: If some Republicans can desecrate these virtues inherited from our folklore, what isn’t beyond their reach to debase?
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