EDITORIAL OR SPECTACLE?
Is Bandera’s Republican County Chair aspiring to emulate his Inspiration – the injured, embattled innocence of his Special Master – by his claim of a “Bandera Mara- Lago” in the title to his recent, now-weekly, column? In his publicly posted ‘minutes’ of his attempted closed meeting with ‘his’ executive committee last week, indications of discord within county Republican ranks were partly laid bare. A morbidly-curious outsider could only attempt to infer what these conflicts among Republican precinct chairs might actually have been about, as the Chairman’s own melodramatic and very public account of the events could hardly be described as impartial. Was there some dispute over a conjectured replacement of some recalcitrant chairpersons with others deemed to be more compliant with certain present BCR bylaws? Should the public be allowed to see what those bylaws are, that some seem to find objectionable?
These matters could well be considered by Republican faithful as being of no business to outsiders at all, whether they be adversarial, impartial, or even sympathetic -- were it not for the chairman’s in-your-face public posting of these eructions, and his own righteous protestations -- in the place of a weekly Republican issues editorial -- under a title that usurps the great symbol of the outraged fury of the faithful in sympathy with the indignant porcine squalls of that certain personage in Florida in past weeks who was caught and exposed in yet another indefensible national malfeasance? Perhaps Chairman Striegl saw latching onto this outrageous Republican cause celebre as an opportunity to conjure-up sympathy for his own ‘purification’ efforts from Trumpian True Believers who are legion in the county? Was Chrmn. Striegl really intending a comparison of his own (disloyal?) party adversaries with the evil minions of the FBI and the USDJ persecutors?
An inquisitive outsider might just wonder what machinations by Chairman Striegl and his adherents might have warranted a lawsuit from a prominent faction of his ‘own’ party. The chairman continually promises total transparency in all things Republican under his regime, yet his account of this confrontation hardly casts illuminative clarity upon the abrupt intervention (by adults?) to his proceedings that his own plaintive, public bleats oh-so shrilly decry.
The whole brew-ha-ha-ha might well ‘just’ be a matter of insider politics, but the dispute becomes the public’s business if we are all to be assailed by such “dirty linen” in our only local print news organ. This reader can hardly decide whether to be offended by, or embarrassed for this untoward spectacle, apparently incurred and perpetuated by actions or words by this embattled official. I know a lot of people in Bandera who not only identify as Republicans but are also moderate and reasonable folks, otherwise, and I wonder whether Chrmn. Striegl might intend to exert some undue ‘corrective’ influence on some of them?
Comrd. Conrad stated more than once that his group was rightfully dedicated to the fight to “preserve your/our way of life” without specifying just whose way of life he would so passionately protect, and exactly who its assailants might be. As a despised D.i.n.o., I can readily infer whom he probably means, but I surmise also that one can well discern here a big bit more than the teensy tune of a racial/cultural doggy-whistle, without too much ear-or-brain-strain. Maybe I’m just overused to hearing these tones from Republicans, and ‘hear’ what I have come to expect. Maybe all this goes together with Cmmssr. Striegl’s battle to defend/restore this Land of Your/ Our Fathers, his Fatherland.
Gabe Hornblough, Bandera Ingrown '49