If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few decades of observation of partisans, it’s that people who describe themselves as “normies” usually aren’t that normal.

While once used by alcoholics and people with disabilities to refer to those without such, since about the early 2000s the word has been used in Internet-speak to mean people with standard, mainstream views, tastes and habits. So when Internet trolls and others who are most definitely outside the norm use it to describe themselves, well … (as the trolls on the newspaper’s website frequently do, but I’m too tired to go searching for them right now)

I mean, really, an actual normie conservative would be someone with conventional center-right views (like my friend and colleague Rex Nelson, one of the most genuinely kind people I know) who decries extremism of any sort, but especially that which diverts from the concept of leaving well enough alone (no need to try to legislate morality, for instance). A normie liberal would probably be someone like David Pryor, center-left, no slave to extremism, and not interested in “teaching transgenderism in schools” (how exactly would one do that???).

The first rule when assessing how normal someone is might have to be if they call themselves a “normie.” Sorry, that’s not really normal, especially when you call people like Chris Jones and Hallie Shoffner (both common-sense, middle-of-the-road liberals) radical far-left cuckoos (I’m using a much nicer descriptor than I’ve seen), or deride Nelson as a RINO. I mean, seriously, stop calling everything just to the right or left of you “radical,” especially if you are more worthy of that label. I’d never describe myself as normie although most of my beliefs fall firmly in the mainstream; I know that compared to others in the mainstream, my “weird” love of words, cats, offbeat humor, etc., makes me a little looney (the fun kind). Not everyone is on the fringes, nor should they want to be. (Christopher Rufo is one of those on the far-right fringe, but he seeks to present his beliefs as mainstream/normie, in part by ignoring right-wing terrorism and pretending the radical left has so captured the country that it has to be destroyed to fix it. As one of my trolls, frequently says, SMDH.)

First, let’s puncture the delusion that Arkansas Democrats bear much resemblance to those on the national level. Most of the Arkansas Democrats I’ve seen and met are more concerned with actual local issues that affect the people in this state. They’re still mostly of the David Pryor and Dale Bumpers mold, and are exactly the kind of people that used to be elected with ease in Arkansas, more concerned with getting things done for constituents than in scoring political points (yes, there are and have been bad politicians on the left in Arkansas, such as Paul Van Dalsem, who today would probably be considered MAGA, further proof that the parties evolve). They aren’t concerned with culture wars because in most cases they’re imaginary, meant only to scare voters, and they certainly aren’t waging any sort of campaigns to replace capitalism with socialism here (for that matter, let’s recall that pure forms of capitalism and socialism don’t work very well, and what we have in the U.S. is a hybrid system, so that argument has holes). They’re not radical by any stretch of the imagination.

And people like Nelson are exactly what Republicans in Arkansas used to be, back before it all became backlash to Barack Obama being elected and obeisance to all things Donald Trump. Republicans as a whole don’t seem to actually exist in Arkansas as an organized group any longer (Democrats either, for that matter), having been supplanted by MAGA. There are some who still fight the good fight, but it gets harder for them to do much good as time goes on and primary threats continue. That’s a state of affairs that saddens me, especially because they’re good people.

Having grown up watching John Paul Hammerschmidt, Dale Bumpers and countless others modeling how to compromise, work together and get things done, I weep for what we’ve become, and I especially weep for the division that’s been engendered over the past couple of decades, particularly when I see so many people rewriting history (even very recent history we witnessed ourselves) in the name of hyperpartisan politics (ahem, Jan. 6, 2021, was no “day of love”).

Make no mistake: There are extremes in the main national political parties, and always have been, but probably never before have both been so guided by those extremes. Meanwhile, the majority of people in the U.S. fall somewhere in the middle from center-left to center-right, and I’d venture to say that those people are the normal ones, the ones in the mainstream of political thought.

They’re not radical, but have a mixture of beliefs that guide them, such as fiscal conservatism (that’d be for common-sense fiscal policies including not paying for/barreling ahead on projects that aren’t properly funded and bid) and social liberalism (like public education and universal health care). They mostly live and let live; as long as what someone else does isn’t illegal and doesn’t negatively affect the community as a whole, it’s that person’s business alone. And they have little interest in dividing people, or calling them evil because of their political affiliation, because they live and work with those people every day and know that they’re generally good people.

Funny how that works. Neighbors living and working together as a community, without political motive, getting things done for the good of the many. I remember that.

Let’s take back the idea of “normal.” What so many of those who describe themselves as “normies” prefer (including eschewing due process guaranteed under the Constitution to everyone on U.S. soil regardless of status, making women and girls go through pregnancies that are the result of sexual assault and/or could kill them, etc.) are not mainstream (ahem, being loud and obnoxious doesn’t mean that you’re the majority; it just means you’re loud and obnoxious and probably not many people’s idea of a fun person to be around).

Normal people care about their fellow humans and aren’t interested in hurting them. Normal people believe in the rule of law applied equally. Normal people know that the U.S. government is supposed to have three co-equal branches that serve as checks and balances so that no one branch (or person) can arbitrarily sweep away precedent, standards and laws (or heck, whole buildings). Normal people believe in science and the pursuit of knowledge as important to a better future. Normal people know that truth is important, and that if you have a history of lying, you have no right to expect that people will believe you. (I mean, c’mon, anyone would have to be blind not to have doubts about the narrative of how the White House Correspondents dinner “attack” went down, especially considering the overall history of lack of veracity in the players.)

Normal people know these are not normal times.

This is why I need a cat in my lap right now.