Who was it who first said, "Every Republican was born in a log cabin he built himself" ? I know it was Margaret Thatcher, arch-conservative and scariest nanny ever, who said, "There is no such thing as society" because I was living in England at the time of her reign of terror, and she really meant it.

When you can't see the web of society, how we profoundly affect each other in countless ways every day; if you can't see how poor people are poor because of a system that creates poverty; or that vaccines and masks are ways to reduce the spread of a potentially deadly virus, that we are in the midst of a vast public health crisis—at that point the conservatives have done their work and have us just where they want us: atomized, suspicious, self-centred and at war with our neighbours.

I have to add that that photo of MTG with her husband and her firearm is shocking. Willful stupidity carrying a deadly weapon I'm almost used to, it's the smug look that gives me shivers. It's the look of someone who'd shoot you without hesitation, then laugh.