Letter to a young Republican
Towson women survive with Jeter out
Dear Young Republican,
I get it. I’ve been increasingly dismayed and disgusted by the Republican Party since the moment Sarah Palin first stepped onto the national stage. My interests have shifted to those who are weaving the social fabric at the community level, and if you find a way to make a difference out of government, I salute you.
But we do face a political crisis in this country, and the Republican Party is the epicenter of that crisis. Destiny has placed you, all of you young Republicans, at the crucial spot in the line. We either have two responsible political parties in this country or we do not. And it will be reforming Republicans, with your energies and ideas, that determine the outcome.
The Republican Party is going to hold a lot of power in the years ahead. Even with a losing candidate at the top of the ticket, the
GOP managed to pick up 12 House seats in 2020. It is possible that the Republicans will control the House and the Senate in just two years.
The Democrats have become the party of the educated metropolitan class. There will always be a lot of Americans who do not share the interests or values of that class and they tend to vote Republican.
The party is politically viable, but it is intellectually and morally bankrupt. Under Trump it became an apocalyptic personality cult. But you should know, as I’m sure you do, that there are many Republicans who want to change their party and make it a vehicle for conservative ideas.
These people are energized as never before and feel their whole lives have been preparation for the coming moral, intellectual and political struggle. This is a struggle to create a Republican Party that is democratic and not authoritarian, patriotic and not nationalistic, conservative and not reactionary, benevolent and not belligerent, intellectually self-confident and not apocalyptic and dishonest.
But is it your struggle? I guess I would ask myself two questions:
Are you dedicated to the ideas that are at the heart of current conservatism: the need to hold off the China threat; the need to restrain the power of cultural elites and centralized government; the need to build an economy that functions for the working class. Second, are you attached to actual Republicans? The conservative movement left an opening for Trump because it didn’t understand what was on the mind of actual voters.
The party has the potential to be something truly good for America: a multiracial working-class coalition, a party that serves the interest of all those who don’t fit in with the definition of the good life that is promulgated by the meritocracy. It’s to be a champion for those who didn’t complete college, don’t want to leave their hometown for the big city, do have a set of traditional values centered around their faith.
To become that party, the GOP has to displace the cultural circus with actual policymaking. Trumpism is a media strategy, not a political philosophy; it’s a bid to win endless attention and stoke enmity.
Republicans will beat Trumpism not by confronting it directly but by focusing on policymaking, by becoming a regular party once again. As Sen. Ben Sasse put it, it’s to make the Republican Party about more than one dude. You may have noticed that this week, Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton are teaming up on an effort to raise the minimum wage and enforce immigration laws, two plans to boost working class wages. That’s what there needs to be more of.
Will this work? Is the Republican Party salvageable? Nobody knows. Right now Republicans are rallying around Trump because they believe Democrats and the media are going after him. It’s pie in the sky to ask rank-and-file Republicans to denounce the man they’ve clung to. But, as has been observed, we Americans don’t solve our problems, we just leave them behind.
Suppose new leaders, issues and movements arose? Suppose the shows that premiered in the coming years’ seasons made the shows that premiered in 2016 look tired and passe. The party that moved from Theodore Roosevelt, to Calvin Coolidge to Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump is going to eventually move on once again. That future is waiting to be created.
It’s not my struggle, and maybe it’s not your struggle. But it is certainly a noble way for the right people to spend their lives.
LONDON — The family of six is lined up in front of microphones, ready to perform. The stage: their living room, complete with flowery curtains and family photos. The costumes: for the children, pajamas and bathrobes. The song: Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 raspy-voiced power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” tweaked for the pandemic era.
“Third lockdown,” the father croons, before his son Alfie cuts in: “2021... and it’s a little bit lonely / no one’s ever coming ‘round.”
Meet the Marshes — Ben, Danielle, and their four children, Alfie, 14; Thomas, 13; Ella, 11; and Tess, 9 — a family from the English town of Faversham that has gained unexpected fame for their revamped, tonguein-cheek cover tunes about life in times of COVID. This six-voice choir, with its sweet harmonies and the occasional wobbly note, is creating songs that dramatize the mundane moments of lockdown life, from too much screen time to the horrors of remote learning.
In their version of “One Day More,” from the musical “Les Misérables,” the parents groan about grocery shopping online during the first lockdown as the children lament: “Our grandparents can’t Skype / we’re brokenhearted,” and “Watch our daddy drink / see our mummy sigh.”
And with England crawling through a third national lockdown, they felt the time was ripe for “Total Eclipse” — “Used to be bright eyes / Struggling to tell the days apart / Now we’re Lords of Flies.” It racked up more than 2 million views on YouTube in two weeks.
“We feel a little bit like we can put things into words that sometimes other people wouldn’t say — or struggle to say,” said Ben Marsh, the father, during a Zoom interview from his home,
adding that they hoped to bring people some “fun and family.”
In a time when there has been little cause for celebration, the Marshes are just some of the many people around the world who have embraced music as a way to boost morale or income, and to cope with a pandemic that has confined many people inside. During the first wave, Italians sang from their balconies, mariachi bands in Mexico played in the streets, and the percussion of people banging pots to celebrate front-line workers became a nightly soundtrack in New York and other cities.
The Marshes have not limited themselves to song; their performances have included moments of bickering, dance — captioned “interpretive angst dance” — and dramatic flourishes that have amused an audience around the world.
“This is the first thing that
made me not just smile but laugh out loud,” said one fan online who had been depressed about Germany’s extending restrictions. “Can you adopt me?” another joked.
The fame is new, but the singing isn’t. Ben Marsh, 44, and Danielle Marsh, 43, who both work at the University of Kent, met as students at Cambridge, where they sang in low-budget university productions. Reworking lyrics was a family affair even pre-pandemic.
“We’re always singing songs,” Alfie said. “... It’s quite a regular thing.”
Those earlier spoofs were mainly for their own entertainment. Then the pandemic hit.
In late March, the family was searching for ways to celebrate some birthdays that suddenly had to go remote, including that of Danielle Marsh’s mother. Their gift, they decided, would have to go virtual.
“There was no schoolwork; there was no nothing,” she said. “That’s when the music became a focus for us all.”
Ben Marsh, who writes most of the lyrics, uploaded their “One Day More” parody to Facebook, and within a day, they were online sensations.
Invitations for virtual appearances arrived from Jimmy Kimmel and “Good Morning America.” Fans drew comparisons to “The Partridge Family” and the von Trapps of “Sound of Music” fame.
On that last comparison, Danielle Marsh would like to set the record straight. “I’m definitely no nun,” she said. “I can’t make dresses out of curtains.”
So now they’re famous, but are they cool? Well, no, Ben Marsh said. “I think if we tried to do ‘cool’ it would all fall apart.” But at a time when “so few can sing together in one place,” the
family members hope to use their sudden fame to do some good.
They said they are donating the proceeds from guest appearances to the World Health Organization COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which supports efforts to end the pandemic, and Save the Children. But recently they also decided to take a chance by encouraging people to get vaccines, a departure from their more comedic fare.
“We knew we were sticking heads above the parapet,” Ben Marsh said. But after hearing stories of vaccine fears from friends and others, “it felt like it was territory worth wading into.”
How did they deliver the message? Try replacing “Hallelujah” in Leonard Cohen’s iconic song with this: “Have the new jab / Have the new jab / Have the new jab / Have the new-ewew-ew jab.” (Sung by Tess, in fuzzy pajamas, as her father strums the guitar.)
The Marsh parents are still grappling with all the attention and what they’ll do going forward. They say they want the option to “shut everything down” and return to obscurity. (In perhaps an ominous sign, the cat soiled an archive of newspaper articles Ben Marsh was carefully saving for posterity.)
But they also want to leave their options open. “Nobody’s job is secure in the post-pandemic world,” Marsh said.
For now, while they added a new laptop to mix music, the process of songwriting remains much the same. Someone, typically Marsh, will offer an idea, which is subject to the children’s veto.
Then they experiment to find the right harmonies, before recording after dinner.
Beyond the fame, the online record of their time together has become something of a time capsule. And there have been other upsides.
“I would have never spent this much time with my 14-year-old,” Danielle Marsh said.
Still, the children cannot wait to trade musical renown, and endless days at home, for some normalcy. The government has signaled that it hopes to open schools March 8; they can’t wait.
“I really want to go back to school, and I want to see my friends in person instead of on a screen,” said Tess, the family’s self-proclaimed diva.
Until then, they’re stuck in place, singing to an equally captive audience. Cue “Total Eclipse:”
Once upon a time we could travel abroad,
Now we barely get in the car.
There’s nothing we can do—
We’re totally fixed where we are.
The Towson women’s basketball program got an early glimpse at life without Kionna Jeter. And the picture is rosier than one might think.
Despite their leading scorer sitting out with an injured right shoulder, the Tigers blasted visiting Drexel, 77-62, on Sunday afternoon at SECU Arena to earn a much-needed split and remain in second place in the Colonial Athletic Association standings.
Towson (12-5, 7-3 CAA), which will likely not be able to catch Delaware (17-2, 14-1) for the regular-season championship, was powered by four players in double digits, led by sophomore point guard Aleah Nelson’s game-high 23 points. Freshman power forward Allie Kubek added 20 points, and senior center LaKaitlin Wright and junior shooting guard Shavonne Smith scored 10 each.
The display was a refreshing development for an offense that lacked Jeter, who entered the game ranked ninth in the country in scoring at 23.4 points per game and is being discussed as a possible WNBA draft pick.
“I’m liking what I see,” Nelson, a Baltimore resident and McDonogh graduate, said of the team’s potential without Jeter. “Everybody’s stepping up and just doing different roles. Maybe somebody else will have to step up and play tougher defense. Maybe somebody else will have to look to score more. I know Kionna and I have been the 1-2 punch. If she wasn’t hitting it, I was hitting it, and vice versa. But I think it’s looking bright for our future when she graduates.”
Tigers coach Diane Richardson said Jeter, who wore a sling to protect her shoulder, suffered the injury in a 72-62 loss at Northeastern on Feb. 14 in which she played
26minutesbutscoredonlytwopoints.InSaturday’s71-55setbacktotheDragons,Jeterdidnot start, but played 20 minutes and scored zero points — the first time in her career at Towson that she did not record a point in a game.
Junior Skye Williams made her second consecutive start in Jeter’s place, finishing with five points, four rebounds and three turnovers.
Richardson, who is hopeful that Jeter will benefit from some rest to return soon, said she thought the team was better prepared for Sunday’s game knowing beforehand that Jeter would be absent.
“Today, we were locked in and understanding that she wasn’t going to be here,” she said. “So people had to step up, and we had some players step up.”
Nelson was her usual playmaking self, recording a game-high seven assists in addition to her 23 points. Kubek set career highs in points, 3-pointers (three) and rebounds (14) to register her third double double and first since Dec. 18.
Kubek, who had 14 points and seven rebounds in the first half, said she got a little pep talk from Jeter.
“Before the game, she came up to me and said, ‘I need 15 [points] and 10 rebounds].’ I said, ‘I got you. It’s Senior Day, and you’re out. We’re going to win this for you and all of the seniors,’ ” she said. “So I needed to step up to the plate today, especially without our leading scorer. So I just brought my confidence to the table and shots the shots when I was open.”
Nine of the 10 Tigers players who made it to the floor scored at least two points, and Richardson was delighted by the offensive diversity.
“We can play, and we can score. They just needed the confidence to do that,” she said. “I’ve known all along that we’ve got an offensive-minded team. It’s an equal-opportunity offense. So everybody has an opportunity to score, and they did that today.”
For the second consecutive game, junior shooting guard Keishana Washington paced Drexel (10-7, 7-5) in scoring with 17 points and three assists. Junior power forward Kate Connollycontributed15points,andseniorpoint guardHannahNihillhad11points,buttheDragonswerelimitedtoshooting23.3%from3-point range (7-for-30) after converting 43.8% (7-for16) on Saturday and went 3-of-5 from the freethrow line compared with Towson’s 21-for-23 outing at the stripe.
Nelson said the Tigers stayed primarily in man-to-man defense to contain Drexel.
“I think that really made us be a lot more disciplined,” she said. “We had to stay with our man,beingtheretohelp.Andwe’realotquicker, too,andmoreathletic.SoIthinkitreallyhelped us play on-ball defense and play off the screens and stuff like that.”
Towson also made a living on the boards, outrebounding the Dragons 44-17, including 17-6 on the offensive glass. The Tigers made many of those offensive rebounds count, converting 24 second-chance points to Drexel’s two.
“I think we just boxed everybody out and pursued the rebound,” Kubek said. “That was themainemphasis.Pursuethereboundinstead of waiting for it to come to us.”
AswellasTowsonplayedwithoutJeter,both Nelson and Kubek stressed that they’d rather have her on the floor than without.
“Itwasalittledifficult,”Kubeksaid.“She’sour leadingscorer,andshescores,like,30pointsper game. But we really had to step up to the plate. We really want to play with her, but with her shoulder, she can’t. So we’ve got to do it for her.
“We had to step up, everybody, including myself.”
Key dates for the Orioles’ preseason preparations in Sarasota, Florida:
Monday: First full-squad workout
Feb. 28: First exhibition game vs. Pittsburgh Pirates