What do Republicans fear?
Muslims? Political correctness? Taxes slightly higher than zero?
Having to adapt and compete with everyone, not a select few? Fully funded and functional public goods? Obamaphones?
Hearing strange languages? Waiting a little longer at the all-you-can-eat buffet line? Not being able to hunt deer with a rocket launcher?
Equality? Opportunity? Their own aging genitalia? Falafel?
Or maybe they fear for their wallets. Fair enough. I worry about my economic future, too. But, you know what? Economics is a policy question. Economics is not a science. If it were, we'd be doing the optimal thing all the time.
You know what is a science? Medicine. Reproductive health. Environmental studies. Geology. Biology. Meteorology. Science is a frikkin' science! Believe me!
I think they're scared of losing a dream of what they could have been. They're nostalgic for a past that never existed. Norman Rockwell -- painter of Great America -- was married three times and one of his wives tried to burn his house down with him inside. There was never a perfect world.
"Make America Great Again"? America's been great forever, but that doesn't mean it's been great for everyone.
I would love to be proven wrong. I mock, but I'm eager to learn, because right now, it makes no sense:
Republicans seem to fear being slightly uncomfortable. The rest of us fear being slightly dead.
I'm afraid of losing my health insurance because I have a pre-existing heart condition. I manage it well -- my numbers are low and under control -- but I know if I don't have insurance I might have to choose between surgery and a roof.
I'm afraid I might not have the economic freedom to be an entrepreneur or start a small business or leave an inefficient or exploitive job because I'll be shackled to insurance so my son will have a father.
I'm afraid of nuclear war and having to learn Russian or Mandarin.
I'm afraid of schools that will focus more on the bible and teaching dogmatic, revisionist, blindly patriotic history than on endowing my child with the critical thinking skills and fact-based knowledge he'll need to thrive in the 21st century.
I'm afraid of potholed roads and crumbled bridges and failing power grids.
I'm afraid of doctors and firemen and policemen guided by faith and prejudice and an inadequate education rather than modern medicine and expert training.
I'm afraid of the guy in the pickup truck (with no taillights but a large Trump sticker) who ran me off the road the other night, then stopped, looming next to my car for two whole minutes, revving his engine, waiting for a sign to fight while I stared straight ahead, letting the Wookie win.
I'm afraid of being shot in a movie theatre, an office, a place of worship.
I'm afraid I'm going to need plastic surgery to install gills because we're on the tipping point of making Waterworld real.
My friends are afraid of getting beat up, abused or killed because of the color of their skin, the gender of the hand they're holding, the direction of their prayer, the story of their heritage.
My friends are afraid of attacks in their bedrooms, schools, workplaces, and along public streets.
They're afraid they're not going to see their friends and family, that they're not going to be able to have a family. They fear for their marriage, for their parents, for their homes, safety, health and well-being.
Since the election of Donald Trump, we've watched the appointments, policy positions, hate crimes, leadership voids and cavalier disregard for centuries of human relations and we fear for the future of our Life, Liberty and Pursuits of Happiness.
Hooray.