recoil from

As one friend put it a few days before the election: “From time to time, I remember that it’s happening and that the most powerful country in the world might have a mad fascist in charge again, and then I sort of recoil from paying attention.”

Just as the movement behind the initiative operates all the way from the halls of power in Washington to county clerks’ offices and local school boards, so must those who recoil from its vision for America.

Today’s Democrats often recoil from “othering” opponents and back down after ruffling feathers.

Beverly LaHaye, a pastor’s wife whose recoil from 1970s feminism led her to build an organization advancing conservative views of the family, Concerned Women for America, which became a pillar of the Christian right, waging battles against abortion, gay rights and the Equal Rights Amendment, died on Sunday in hospice in El Cajon, Calif., near San Diego.

She writes, “I fight against the tension in my muscles and recoil from Rudy’s grip … filled with rage, I storm through the tent, on yet another quest for Mark.”