It is now Kristol clear to some long-time Republicans that their political party is not only unblushingly sadistic and nihilistic (even old-fashioned McConnell will use all his tools to keep the Biden Admin from doing anything positive that voters might welcome), but may be both suicidal and masochistic. Read on…
| Bill Kristol here. I’d like to share with you why I’m helping lead the Republican Accountability Project after a long career in Republican and conservative politics. I’ve seen a lot in my time in Washington. From high-level positions in the Reagan and Bush administrations to co-founding The Weekly Standard, I’ve spent more than 4 decades making the case for conservative principles. Then something changed. When Donald Trump became the Republican nominee in 2016, the principles I had spent my career championing suddenly were thrown overboard. The Republican Party became subservient to the whims of one man. I’ve been in Washington long enough to know that Trump and his enablers represent something different. Something dangerous. We’re committed to making sure no Republican escapes the choices they make in this moment. For example, we created the GOP Democracy Report Card to track every Republican legislator, and to see who chose to defend our democracy, and who chose cowardice. I’m glad to have you with us as we hold everyone in the Republican Party accountable, and defend those who did the right thing. Bill Kristol Co-founder, Republican Accountability Project |
For a long time American political conservatism was dominated by those who were born wealthy or envied those who were, those who believed in few regulations on businesses, had faith in economic growth as a source of happiness and were champions of rugged individualism. The Sixties loosened public restrictions on sex, clothing, hair length, rock music, censorship and many other areas of behavior long narrowed under WASP-dominated American culture. That fostered a right-wing, religion-tinged reaction (see W Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Trump and other Vietnam chicken hawks). Reagan was the mouthpiece for that set of beliefs in recent decades though many of these beliefs go back to the beginning of the U.S. The original sin of protecting slavery. The two senators per state, regardless of population represented; Wyoming=California. The Jeffersonian faith in a white, male yeomanry who owned land and was therefore deemed to be dependable and responsible, no matter that the land was wrested from Native Americans by violent genocide. Racism was baked in. A black was equal to 3/5 of a white man in writing in the sacred constitution. The patriarchy didn’t deign to mention women of whom there were zero in Constitution Hall as voting delegates. Jefferson, the ideal founding father, didn’t dare publicly reveal his black mistress and their bi-racial children. In general conservatism came to be the heart of the Republican Party, especially after Civil Rights legislation under LBJ drove the Confederacy away from the Democrats who, until then, had been the most racist, pro-slavery party since the early 1800s. Let us not kid ourselves, those civil rights laws were to quell the city protests and riots so LBJ could focus the National Guard and all American military might on his idiotic crusade in Vietnam. Going back to FDR, who did almost nothing about racism and locked up Japanese-Americans, all the social welfare legislation was done largely to prevent socialist revolt, done out of noblesse oblige. Just as his uncle, TR, was a ground-breaking conservationist so there’d be plenty of ducks and game for the wealthy to shoot.
Reagan was fed the lines and he delivered every one with Hollywood sincerity. Acting like a President was a pretty easy role, plenty of lackeys to do anything that needed doing.
When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder. [A pompous love note to free market economics that hates government regulation.]
Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. [From a man who did nothing to support jobs in America during eight years of rampant off-shoring. And he certainly never opposed the heavy subsidies of U.S. oil and gas companies, or Big Ag.]
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
No government voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see.
Reagan did make mistrust of the federal government a cornerstone of American conservatism. Racists had long clung to states’ rights to prevent spread of civil rights, but Reagan put anti-government emotion in the center of the faith. Right-wing political behavior is a faith, just like any religion. There is no proof of any deity and there is no proof of trickle-down economics, or businesses deliberately creating jobs or corporations acting for the good of the nation or the planet. There is no evidence that a roomful of MBAs will not cheat, lie and rig any system to get more money. That any oil company or chemical manufacturer will be careful with its waste. Deregulation is as faith-based as anything to do with a WASP’s Holy Trinity.
So now we have the Trumped version of American right-wing beliefs, more like those of 100 years ago—isolationist, racist (KKK reborn in 1920s), based in many deep fears (much of the Twenties here in the US was cursed by a belief that Bolsheviks were taking over thus the FBI and J. Edgar), the rich getting richer while the laborers ate shit, near total corruption at the corporate level (1929, 2008. …next?), idiotic tendency to compare the stock market to anything like the real economy, WASP self-righteousness (Prohibition!). Trump played to all the modern versions of that like Reagan had in his time. Beneath every B-grade actor is a fantasist and bullshit artist. But today’s conservatism depends on faith and stopping history. Very hard to maintain. Hey, racists: without immigration the US population will stop growing (see Italy, Japan). Hey CEOs: climate change can be neither ignored nor postponed. When Exxon needs federal aid to move its Texas operations from the coast where will the hands-off, anti-government crowd find their hideout? The demographics are fate. The fastest growing segment of the US population comes from racially mixed families—the quaint idea of some kind of racial barrier or purity is so passe. We have a blond nephew whose wife is Hispanic and they have two kids. Our youngest son’s wife is Chinese. They have two English-born sons. That’s our future. Not some boondocks redneck who won’t eat foreign food or drive a “foreign” car even if it was assembled in Alabama where there are no unions.
I do expect some level of violence, mostly isolated cases. The right-wingers are cowards (see chicken-hawk above). Old patriarchal systems get most violent when they are losing any of the control they took on faith. Examples: today’s Muslim fundies who don’t want women using cell phones or being free…the Catholic Church’s violent Counter-Reformation…China’s repeated attempts to squash freedom, religion or dilute central control…the Confederacy’s repeated violence against blacks…the crime syndicates that use violence to run some Central American areas—El Salvador, Guatemala, etc. Demographics are not in McConnell’s control. Republicans are now the slenderest of the three avowed political positions in America (besides D and I), sharply down from when 9-11 fooled some into hoping W could be an effective President. W’s 80% favorability did not last as long as it took him to invade Iraq. The U. S. numbers are going against the Republican Party and I can only hope covid keeps recycling those anti-vaxxers who think Trump ever told a single truth. And it was reassuring to hear Gen. Mark Milley report that he and the Pentagon were not going to back a Trump coup.
Even the dependably anti-givernment, pro-business Murdoch property, “Wall Sreet Journal,” worries about no poplation growth. Of course, they could never admit that economic ad pop[ulation growth are destroying our only planet.
The elepahnts do seem to have herd immunity–to facts. Take Florida…please. With less than 10% of all U.S. population it now has 20% of new covid cases. Hey, Repubs, covid is not good for most of the economy. So a scared Gov. De Santis, long-time Trump suck-up, is now openly admitting that vaccination can save lives. Oh boy, do his faith-driven voters NOT like that. A true believer would never believe in medicine or science or vaccine, right?
Tags: Catholic Church, conservatism, demographics, faith, Florida, Kristol, population growth, Reagan Revolution, right-wing, WASP
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