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, 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 ...

I mean, really, an actual normie conservative would be someone with conventional center-right views (like my friend and colleague Rex Nelson) 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.

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 radical far-left cuckoos (I'm using a much nicer descriptor than I've seen), or deride Nelson as a RINO.

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 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. 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, 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.

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 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). 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 with those people every day and know that they're generally good people.

Funny how that works. Neighbors living together as a community, without political motive. 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, 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).

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.

Normal people know these are not normal times.

Assistant Editor Brenda Looper is editor of the Voices page. Email her at blooper@adgnewsroom.com. Read her blog at blooper0223.com.

blooper@adgnewsroom.com

Brenda Looper joined the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as a news clerk in April 1997, and worked as a feature writer, reviewer and copy editor on the news side before moving to the opinion section in July 2011. She handles letters to the editor and edits columns for the Voices page, as well as proofreads the editorial and Perspective pages. Brenda also writes a weekly column that appears on Wednesdays.

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