WHERE DO ELEPHANTS GO TO DIE? THE I.C.U.?

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?

REAGAN COULD BE PROUD

One friend replied thus to this blog: “And I’m sure we’re all putting together litanies of all that Trump
hath wrought. Here’s my update from FDR’s famous list from the 1940s.
The Four Freedoms–Trump Edition:
1. Freedom from Facts
2. Freedom from Accountability
3. Freedom from Shame
4. Freedom from Empathy”

We are reaping the rewards of the Reagan Revolution.  There were precursors to Reagan.  Goldwater tried to popularize mistrust of the federal government in favor of states’ rights because in his day the Supreme Court was liberal.  Nixon widened that circle to include racist voters in the Old Confederacy and a War on Drugs to help imprison more black men.  He pretended to be echoing the War on Poverty from earlier times.  Violence as solution to social problems.

The Reagan Revolution had many ingredients.  Here are a few that haunt us in 2021:

1. Hate the government
2. Close the mental hospitals.  That was allegedly going to lead to more humane community treatment centers, but somehow there was never enough money so it means more shouters on the street corner in poor neighborhoods, more families beset by an ill member of their household. Forget treatment of the mentally ill, give ’em guns. Let him shoot Congresswoman Giffords if he feels so moved. Or bomb AT&T in Nashville. Or attack a synagogue in Pittsburgh. What treatment?
3. Racism central to Republicanism.  I will not repeat any of The Donald’s words here.  But they are easy to find online.  Click here for one brief compilation, if you must.
4. Profit only media—ending the Fairness Doctrine and allowing greater ownership concentration which then enabled the Murdoch/Fox News/Wall Street Journal empire.

Not many Republicans or their rich donors really expected these four pillars of Reaganism to come to dominate.  After all, what the corporations back then and their hired pols really wanted back then was less regulation, lower taxes and global markets. It was really econimic conservtism–let the big money make bigger money and keep government out of it,  That was attainable with enough power.  To keep the mass of voters needed to win in rural areas, however, the party had to play up the above four threads and use slanted media to foster the anger and prejudice at the heart of their party at the grassroots.  Voters in Boondock, Oklahoma, didn’t care much about corporations and global markets.  But you could get them riled about fetus murder or government seizure of your guns or welfare (black) moms driving Cadillacs on tax giveaways.  At the same time bigger and richer plutocrats controlled more and more of American business and more blue-collar work was sent outside the country to save labor costs, and raise profits and at the sasme time, make the angry voters angrier. In the late 90s began the whole social media. That didn’t begin political paranoia, social media just magnified the power of misinformation, conspiracy theories (remember two Red Scares last century, Trilateral Commission and fake walk on the moon?) and organizing public unrest (see Arab Spring).  

An ambitious Republican now who wants attention and money needs to make ever more outrageous claims to get frequent re-runs of video online and on TV.  See Mo Brooks who has said he blames left-wing radicals for the Capitol assault—facts de damned! The best lie is one that arouses and gets repeated. The outrageous can outrage—it’s all good.  Can you imagine every network deciding not to run some outrageous sound bites just to serve the welfare of this nation?  Ratings uber alles.

And even in small, local venues, screaming gets you attention–like in rural Wisconsin. Is this supposed to be some kind of non-violent war?

NOW

We now have aroused domestic terrorism in this nation that is as pernicious as the widespread activities of the KKK before World War II, when lynchings were an expected outcome of white, populist violence across the land.  The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 was our warning and most of the nation and the political world refused to think about it. Many of the mass shootings in the US since then have had a particular political slant.  North Korea or Iraq or Bin Laden or illegal drugs were much more exciting and made better bumper stickers. Just Say No. Axis of Evil.

It is worth nothing how suddenly big corporations are backing away from insurrectionist Republican radicals in Congress—you can’t have a profitable business if there is violence in the streets—see Yemen, Somalia. Turns out a peaceful society is good for business, but it isn’t so good for radical right-wing pols who want the attention and the votes it brings in predominate red states and districts. And that Republicans would decide to praise the economy over public health safety is typical of how far that party has gone. I can’t believe they still allow speed limits in Oklahoma–government meddling with driver freedom! It isn’t hard to see how bonkers the radical right excuse-making can get. Now we hare anti-mask GOPers may have infected fellow Congress members during the riot lockdown.

A popular opinion stance now is write an article drawing parallels between US 2021 and Nazi Germany. I think one major difference between here and now, and pre-Nazi Germany: most of our businesses are not tied to making war but having people able to shop, and thus Wall Street and most billionaires do not favor a civil war nor an authoritarian state (see Twitter’s slow but real response).  We are not economically destroyed by a Depression like Hitler’s Germany. We do not have a big revolutionary communist party–we Yanks can’t even do universal healthcare because somebody might shout “socialist” at a town hall. We do have an ill-paid underclass without little or no health care and little dependable social welfare. They are pissed and scared. Then there is the volatility of the white-supremacy ethos as we struggle mightily to remain the world’s first multi-ethnic republic for a long span of time. In the past it took brutal authoritarianism to maintain multi-ethnic peace: Roman and Persian and Moghul and Austro-Hungarian Empires for example. We can do it, if we have the common will and stop the propaganda pushing for domestic terrorism and actually care for our citizens. Community and commonwealth needs to trump competition and corporations–big order in 2021.
So far the only real war the US has lost is the trade and cheap labor war–game over, China rules.
I fear the danger will get greater as climate changes, and China becomes the world’s largest economy this decade. That will begin to make even educated people here angry and depressed (see Brexit, rise of right-wing in France, Poland, Hungary–countries in inexorable decline). I had writtne abut how the American brand is severely damaged. I got this email from an American colleague who has spent decades consulting with overseas media networks, many of whom thought they could copy US methods and manner:
“I thought you might find interesting part of an email sent by an old friend who worked in TV News for many years in Hong Kong and is now living in the Phillippines: ‘Our enemies know we’re vulnerable. A shocking sign of that occurred yesterday. I’m watching NFL highlights on Youtube and the paid advertising is a 2-minute News Commentary from the Xinhua News Agency featuring video of the attack on the Capitol. I’ve never before seen advertising before on Youtube here except for Filipino coffee and headache and cold medicine. China is targeting the Philippines demonstrating the failure of democracy and the US as being ‘not the country of democracy, but hypocrisy.’  It’s the images that will remain with the Filipinos. China also accuses the US of duplicity in its criticizing of China’s handling of the Hong Kong protests…anyway, China didn’t hesitate to immediately use this to do further damage to the American reputation worldwide and they’re really angry over what Trump just did with Taiwan…and, of course, why did he and that idiot Pompeo just do it last week?…making Biden’s job even more difficult I imagine…When I worked for TVB in Hong Kong, just saying the word ‘Taiwan’ on the air would’ve led to my immediate termination’.”

I see the biggest threat right now to be the many cynical Republican office-holders who will support almost anything that keeps them in money and power, though I must admit amazement when McConnell failed to totally kow-tow to Trump. What’s in it for Mitch? you may ask. There were ten Republican House votes for impeachment #2, a tantalizing tid-bit of more concern from Constitution than conspiracy. Now there are reports that three GOP congressmen may have help organize and power the riot planning.

I fear Biden will want that mythical unity and niceness, and not punishment for the rabid and dangerous Trumpians, so once again deadly white-wing nuts will skate free (see Malheur Occupation, Nashville bomber, most cops who shoot black people in US).  I just hope Biden doesn’t interfere with Impeachment #2 in the interest of phantom unity. And that he doesn’t shut down prosecution of the hundreds of rioters in the Capitol, esp. those from militsary or police departments.  I have written before about the long history of hatred and prejudice and violence in this country from genocide of Native Americans to Civil War to KKK and lynchings (up into the 1960s!) to imprisonment of Japanese Americans.  Unity is a myth and right-wing radicals must be met head-on.  Also, we clearly need a robust mental health system, not to punish the loonies but the treat them, and protect civil society.  Why should I be forced to carry a loaded gun because of whackos driving pick-up trucks full of assault weapons and 100-bullet magazines?  Talk about shit-hole country, thanks Donald.  I haven’t even crossed the line into our covidiocy.

MOMENTS IN HISTORY

January 1 was the anniversary of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery in the U.S.

January 2 was the anniversary of the German invasion of the Roman Empire in 366. It also marked the day the Spanish forces captured the last remaining Muslim outpost in what became Spain, 1492. Other stuff happened that year as we all know.

This week in the U.S. our nation will face one the loudest protests against democracy since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The far-right corps in the Republican Party would like to be able to hand-pick the next white, male President simply by screaming and threatening and gesturing. At least one commentator is calling the GOP’s attempted overturn of election results an attempted coup.

In his short essay in the new New Yorker, Adam Gopnik lays out the three greatest weaknesses in our political system that push this nation toward right-wing & fundamentalist minority rule–gerrymandering, two Senators per state regardless of population (Wyoming=California?), Electoral College ( both George W’s first term and Trump’s came as result of less than plurality in popular vote). Gopnik also reminds us that most of our species’ history was lived under authoritarian rule. Patriarchs in the tribe, then various autocrats from emperor to shah to king to dictator.
Gopnik: “The default condition of humankind is not to thrive in broadly egalitarian and stable democratic arrangements that get unsettled only when something happens to unsettle them. The default condition of humankind, traced across thousands of years of history, is some sort of autocracy. America itself has never had a particularly settled commitment to democratic, rational government….”

The idea of electing governments can survive only if enough people are willing to support it. No system is better than the people with the power to make decisions, or not. One tenet of the minority rule/vote suppression crowd is to foster hatred of government. No fool thinks a massive bureaucracy is perfect or even the best idea, but on a crowded planet we cannot leave everything up to bean counters and profit-mongers. There has to be some limits and regulation and maybe even the recognition that freedom works best when everybody is safe, not just the guy with forty-eight guns and unlimited ammo. The popularity of anti-science and fantasy among the right wing is because science tends to lead to firm decisions–masks are safer than no masks. A speed limit can save lives. Guns don’t kill people, bullets do–magazine size matters. For anti-science see: U.S. record-breaking covidiocy and our fellow citizens sick and dying at a rate far greater than many nations with less resources.

By the end of this coming week we may know a lot more about the Republican Party and its elected officials, and just how far the Reagan Revolution (Trust me, I’m from the Republican Party) has carried us toward a brick wall.

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One historian, who uses cliodynamic studies to assess past and future likelihoods, had thought this year would be one of violence and upset in the US. We were due, he wrote… It ain’t over until…