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Remember Lon Mabon and the Oregon Citizens Alliance? Those festering reminders of this state’s deep tradition of hatred for non-white/het/male Christians were all the rage in the late-80s and early-90s. The OCA was a well-funded, populist hate hive that battled and failed to crush Oregon’s nodding approval of gays and lesbians. That was back back when we libs were pretty sure we could keep the extreme right out of local and statewide power. (Hey Gail Shibley! Hey gurl!) Well, hoo-doggie! The past has sure risen up and returned with a (vengeful) vengeance! We now have city, county, and statewide political candidates who are so fringey and MAGA-huffed, they’d make Lon Mabon look like a Bill Clinton Republican. If you’re a 2020-election denier and red-blooded white racist, chances are you’ve already decoded the campaign dawg whistles, and you know who’s gettin’ yer vote. But if you’re a marginally informed, pretty-much-uninvolved performative liberal, who believes buying organic is a form of righteous social justice activism, you might not even realize just how close Oregon is to being governed by up-dated exemplars of its racist, queerphobic, mysogenist past. Funny thing about the past — it’ll keep flaring up in angry, pus-filled sores, no matter how much cover you smear on it. Like herpes.

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