Our human culture has scores of examples of famous meetings. The classic, “Dr. Livingston, I presume” or the famous photo of President Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King. On the lighter side, we might, with tongue-in-cheek consider, “me Tarzan, you Jane.” The streets of downtown Chicago experienced a rather unusual meeting back on January 8th when a march by members of the far-right Patriot Front intruded on a rally being held by March for Life Chicago in the centrally located “Loop” area. You may remember the Patriot Front, they’ve changed their name since their Charlottesville Tiki-torch-light parade where they shouted, “Jews will not replace us!”
The Chicago encounter was not appreciated by the Right to Life group as they referred to the Patriot Front as an embarrassment. They posted on Twitter that they, in no way, are affiliated with the Patriot Front and oppose white supremacy. Well, yes and no. From the national political perspective, they are, yes, affiliated. Both groups are embedded members of the Trump/Republican base. Without each other and the other elements of the Trump/Republican base they would not have near the political clout that they wield as a unit. From this perspective the Chicago streets held an encounter between “strange bedfellows” or to put it another way, as an old saying pointed out: When you lay down with “porcine critters” don’t be surprised if you get covered with… Ah, let’s just say your cause will be identified with theirs and theirs with yours, like it or not.
Charlie Stepanek
Concord