tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86401454560282095122024-03-05T12:16:00.340-05:00American Activities"Spirit! are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more. "They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy."Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-35010459934490791202017-11-08T19:32:00.000-05:002017-11-08T19:32:10.436-05:00Kelly's Heroes<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPlNGo3GyYX3dDbroWWoAd3JnhdC2UI_P0nTwxPBNTiy0KW7EPhY67oEkKLdBVGdYSuyeU6RZOGVPJteMvWWfFN3ekcKdZgxj3AGeqTJhhsRI8ZOwrs7Hmr85TeDgzAiMViDPlEh5WNQI/s1600/DonaldTrumpJohnKelly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="1022" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPlNGo3GyYX3dDbroWWoAd3JnhdC2UI_P0nTwxPBNTiy0KW7EPhY67oEkKLdBVGdYSuyeU6RZOGVPJteMvWWfFN3ekcKdZgxj3AGeqTJhhsRI8ZOwrs7Hmr85TeDgzAiMViDPlEh5WNQI/s400/DonaldTrumpJohnKelly.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Donald Trump and John Kelly</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">We’re
all Civil War re-enactors. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the most
dramatic and consequential chapter in our tortured racial history it compels
our concern and provokes our passions. But we seem unable to deal with it
maturely. Instead of facing it and learning from it, we succumb to its
distortions and lies. Instead of settling it, it unsettles us. We fight it
every single day, and it always wins. And on October 30, White House Chief of
Staff, General John Kelly recklessly threw himself into that fight, responding to
a question about Civil War monuments by </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/31/john-kelly-calls-robert-e-lee-an-honorable-man-and-says-lack-of-compromise-caused-the-civil-war">saying</a></span><span lang="EN-US">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would tell you that
Robert E. Lee was an honorable man. He was a man that gave up his country to
fight for his state, which 150 years ago was more important than country. It
was always loyalty to state first back in those days. Now where it’s different
today. But the lack of the ability to compromise led to the Civil War and men
and women of good faith on both sides made their stand with where their
consciences had them make their stand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
this is monumentally </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/did-john-kelly-learn-civil-war-nonsense-from-ken-burns.html">foolish</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. The
entire history of the American republic before the Civil War is one of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://twitter.com/tanehisicoates/status/925289478943633408">endless compromises</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> aimed at
reassuring the South that slavery would not be disturbed. The precipitating
cause of the war was the election of a profoundly conciliatory and compromising
president who merely wished to prevent the expansion of slavery into new
territories, and promised to leave it alone in the states where it already existed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We compromised our ideals for decades, but
that ultimately proved incapable of preventing war with people prepared to
fight to the death to maintain such a monstrous evil. And apparently we need to
be reminded that General Lee (who was a gallant soldier, but a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/">brutal slave-master</a></span><span lang="EN-US">) led an
army intent on destroying the United State in the service of that evil.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
why do we need to be reminded? How does an intelligent person like Kelly manage
to overlook </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/dont-know-much-about-history/544553/">such glaring truths</a></span><span lang="EN-US">? The easy
answer from liberals is: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/samantha-bee-rips-john-kelly-over-civil-war-comments-w510814">deliberate</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://twitter.com/frankrichny/status/925346774243594240">racism</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. In this
view Kelly finds Confederate generals admirable because they’re the heroes of
white power over black bodies. </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/sarah-sanders-snaps-at-april-ryan-disgusting-and-absurd-to-suggest-wh-supports-slavery/">Maybe he even likes
slavery!</a></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://twitter.com/genjohnkelly/status/901313017362690053">cheap</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> and
irresponsible; there is no evidence that beneath Kelly’s bland exterior there
beats a cold racist heart. Indeed, there’s a better, a more subtle explanation,
and it’s the reverse of the liberal accusation. It’s not that Kelly admires men
like Lee because of their white supremacy; it’s that he goes easy on their
white supremacy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because he admires them</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he admires them because it’s too painful
not to. That is, to admit Lee’s evil is to admit American evil and that’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-whitest-guilt.html">something a
conservative can never do</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. Slavery and racism are central to the
American story, and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/02/shelby-footes-civil-war-history-defends-america-insatiable-haters-like-ta-nehisi-coates/#disqus_thread">the inability to
accept that</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> is central to American conservatism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
what’s true for Kelly is true for the millions more – in the South and
elsewhere – who perceive the Civil War in the same way. Some of them are indeed
motivated by outright racism, but most are simply unable to concede that
America committed such grievous crimes. It’s probably true that most people in
most countries are similarly </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1269611/Why-does-Japan-STILL-refuse-face-atrocity-army-revelled-Two-new-films-reopened-old-wounds-Nanking-Massacre.html">unable to face up to their
own national sins</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. But Americans find it particularly painful,
since we invest such emotion in the view of ourselves as noble and enlightened
crusaders fighting for democracy and truth. How can the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_upon_a_Hill#Use_in_American_politics">shining city on the hill</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> have a rotten
foundation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Downplaying American racial
sin to preserve American idealistic self-image is older than the republic
itself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinnvEwh6A9eI0CWPwYj8bjhAq0tkNWHzvlesAQQkNjjD9Ek_eD9kzxvkSZ14ti9yLR8mhKGfsb5owmbDWQkNPe4TU15y_xlgjd7C88dUlpm6O3osFvdR1W9aZcFpD_N_MUAr_4H8xCVS8/s1600/rutherfordbhayes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1384" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinnvEwh6A9eI0CWPwYj8bjhAq0tkNWHzvlesAQQkNjjD9Ek_eD9kzxvkSZ14ti9yLR8mhKGfsb5owmbDWQkNPe4TU15y_xlgjd7C88dUlpm6O3osFvdR1W9aZcFpD_N_MUAr_4H8xCVS8/s400/rutherfordbhayes.jpg" width="345" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Rutherford B. Hayes, who ascended to the presidency <br />in 1877 by agreeing to a backroom deal that ended the<br />federal guarantee of the rights of African Americans</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It’s
because the Civil War presents a direct threat to that self-image that we continue
to fight over it so </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/11/01/john-kellys-both-sides-civil-war-remarks-were-fiction-based-revisionism-paradkar.html">bitterly</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. And in
the period after the war, known as </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Era">Reconstruction</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, we dug
ourselves deeper. When the South lost it faced a profound moral choice: either concede
the horrible wrongness of its war aims, or preserve its self-image by pretending
it fought for other more respectable reasons, and by suppressing the ex-slaves
as lesser creatures whose rights need not be respected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all know what it chose. And, crucially, it
asked the rest of the country to share its </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy">mythology</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. Or rather,
it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">demanded</i> widespread acceptance of
that mythology as the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_1877">price for white reconciliation</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. In
effect, southern whites presented northern whites with a choice of their own,
“Side with us or with our ex-slaves; you can’t have both.” And we all know what
they chose. The mythology became the consensus, and black Americans paid the
price.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Kelly,
and the millions who agree with him, are still making that same choice. They callously
disregard and minimize the death and destruction visited upon black people
under slavery, Jim Crow, and even now, all to preserve white unity and white
pride. But unsurprisingly, callousness is not a constructive strategy. It’s
what impels conservative denial about the continuing harsh reality of black
life in America today. It pushes whites toward white identity politics, even
white nationalism, even outright racism. Its suppressed </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-whitest-guilt.html">guilt</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> makes
conservatives bitter, defensive, resentful, angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It allows them to be manipulated by
malevolent hucksters like Donald Trump. Conservative denial is the very poison
that is killing us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
liberals are immune because they’ve opted out of the old consensus. That’s what
makes them liberals! Starting in the 1950’s and 60’s they determined to expand the
New Deal economic and social success story – which had until then been limited
to whites – to include all Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
effect they rejected the white southern Reconstruction-era choice as a false one
and determined to side with everyone. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
southern and conservative whites refused – even at this late a stage – to
honestly face their historical and current crimes, and liberals, in frustration
and desperation, gave up the project of shared prosperity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the Civil War, northern whites
reconciled with southern whites and blacks suffered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now white liberals side with blacks and reconciliation
suffers. We’re all Reconstruction re-enactors. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
that’s partly because liberal reluctance to surrender American unity has turned
into wild-eyed enthusiasm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals are
happy to see themselves as the good guys, the protectors and allies of black
people, and even happier to see conservatives – particularly southern white
conservatives – as the embodiment of all American evil. Increasingly, liberals
see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America itself</i> as </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/other-peoples-pathologies/359841/">so essentially
compromised by</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/barack-obama-vs-the-culture-of-poverty.html">racial evil</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> that
anyone would be foolish and naive to bestow upon her any </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/between-the-world-and-me-empathy-is-a-privilege/407647/">hope</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> or
loyalty. But liberal racial sanctimony, like conservative racial denial, is
really about unresolved guilt, about attempting to remove oneself from American
sin. Conservatives childishly pretend it doesn’t exist; liberals face it but project
it entirely onto the political Other. Conservatives hold onto American idealism
by denying it’s less than ideal, liberals hold onto it by psychologically and politically
removing themselves from America. The liberal response is more forgivable, of
course, since they do face the truth, and they do hold onto their idealism. But
they do so at the cost of alienation from their own country, that is, from
themselves. And that detachment makes it too easy to indulge the darker aspects
of that idealism and go crusading against conservatives like Puritan ministers railing
against Satan. But unsurprisingly, shaming is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism">not a constructive
strategy</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. But it is an inevitable one when you’ve concluded that
the only way to hold onto your idealism is by rebuking your own country.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
that’s how we’ve hardened into our two sad, familiar camps, defined by our
respective dysfunctional reactions to the horrible contradiction between our
national ideals and our national crimes. But callous denial and aloof
sanctimony are not our only options. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
only hope, and it’s a slim one, is for liberals to see the damage they do when
they so fundamentally deplore their fellow countrymen. Liberals, as the
conscience of America, must be the more mature party here. If they can face up
to American sin, can’t they face up to their own? It’s true that many
conservatives are still outright racist, but </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-deploring-and-deplored.html">most are not</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, and
calling them all racists and labeling them as essentially evil does enormous
harm to our national life. It degrades the discourse and increases mistrust and
resentment, it </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/conservatism-without-bigotry/544128/?utm_source=atltw">hardens people in
their resistance</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
confuses the symptom, racial resentment, with the disease, national pride, and
it angers people who simply want to believe in themselves and their country. It
plays into the hands of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bannon">white nationalists</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/richardnixon">unscrupulous</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-trump">politicians</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. Conservatives
have foolishly conflated believing in America with believing America has never <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> done anything wrong, and they
badly need to educate themselves on the distinction. Many, out of stubbornness
or animus or ignorance, never will. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But many
could, and liberals need to give them the space to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
as liberals, the only effective way we can educate is by example. </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://twitter.com/ifuaskmee/status/927754412034052096">We can</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> do all
three things at once: hold onto our ideals, squarely face our country’s sins, and
honestly accept that they’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our</i>
sins, that we’re inextricably American too. Honest judgment of American history
will never get a fair hearing if it’s not joined to a deep commitment to America
itself, since no one will hear criticism from someone they don’t trust. And we
can be a little more forgiving of those who find it so difficult to hear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If liberals cannot transcend their own
misunderstandings, if they cannot graduate to a more mature and constructive engagement
with our terrible history, if they can’t accept that redeeming America means <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">redeeming actual Americans</i>, and if they can’t
meet them as equals and as fellow Americans – if they can’t do all this they won’t
be honestly addressing our deepest problems; they’ll only be perpetuating them.</span> </span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-59884101472924970462017-03-08T10:07:00.000-05:002017-03-08T10:07:54.458-05:00Staying True<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Nr50rbR51KchGr9EvcHsinlpXWSahuqVHdCtcu1yQ_KCqQ9Fz7LmPihKRxB3q8b96peth9fg_76FBnXiHSrMlv4QHKx1ffitu3PIqGLGUi2a-6d5Y5DOLrchPFBz7RHxw8GZTN_08N4/s1600/oval-office-2014-empty-for-cleaning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Nr50rbR51KchGr9EvcHsinlpXWSahuqVHdCtcu1yQ_KCqQ9Fz7LmPihKRxB3q8b96peth9fg_76FBnXiHSrMlv4QHKx1ffitu3PIqGLGUi2a-6d5Y5DOLrchPFBz7RHxw8GZTN_08N4/s400/oval-office-2014-empty-for-cleaning.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Oval Office emptied for cleaning</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Donald
Trump is not President of the United States.
Legally and technically he is, of course. And O. J. Simpson is legally and technically
innocent of murder. What’s legal and
what’s true are not always the same thing.
And it’s not just because Trump failed to win the popular vote. As <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/12/college-education.html">ridiculous</a>
as the Electoral College is, it is our accepted mechanism for choosing the
president, and it did so in keeping with law and tradition. But even though he
lacks the democratic legitimacy we demand of <i>every other elected official</i> – even dog-catcher and county judge –
that’s only the beginning of what’s missing in our present presidential vacancy. Things have felt very strange since Inauguration
Day, and it’s a feeling of something disordered, something uneasy, and – most
strikingly – something lost. America no longer
has a leader. </span><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents nurture and protect the institutions of American democracy. This one
attacks anyone or anything who dares hold him accountable or constrain his
power. He calls the media the “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-media-enemy-of-american-people-2017-2">enemy of the American
people</a></span><span lang="EN-US">”; he pressures CNN to </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/jared-kushner-delivers-critique-of-cnn-to-time-warner-executive-1487292962">remove some</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> of its
anti-Trump commentators; he accuses the intelligence agencies of acting like
those in “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.macleans.ca/politics/washington/donald-trumps-nazi-tweet-and-why-it-is-so-dangerous/">Nazi Germany</a></span><span lang="EN-US">”; he attempts
to delegitimize a federal judge (appointed by George W. Bush) by calling him a
“</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/us/james-robart-judge-trump-ban-seattle.html">so-called judge</a></span><span lang="EN-US">”, and
blames in advance the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/if-something-happens-trump-points-his-finger-in-case-of-a-terror-attack/2017/02/06/8e315b78-eca6-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html">entire federal
judiciary</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> for any terrorist attacks </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/828342202174668800">yet to come</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. When Congressman John Lewis, who marched with
Martin Luther King and was brutalized by racist policemen, criticized Trump, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/15/in-feud-with-john-lewis-donald-trump-attacked-one-of-the-most-respected-people-in-america">Trump characterized
him</a></span><span lang="EN-US">
as “all talk”. There seems to be no
democratic or moral authority he respects.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents make informed decisions, consult with experts and vet policies through
appropriate agencies. This one signs amateurish </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13769">executive orders</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> composed
without legal expertise, with no outside consultation of Congress or federal
departments, and implements them carelessly, with predictably confusing and
chaotic results. He rarely attends </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-intelligence-briefings-skip-2016-12">national security
intelligence briefings</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/does-trump-tweet-about-nordstrom-being-mean-while-in-intelligence-briefings/">may not be</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> paying
attention even when he does! He </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a52362/donald-trump-favorite-books/">doesn’t read</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> and requires
information be brought to him in </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/classified-memo-tells-intelligence-analysts-keep-trumps-daily-brief-short">small, easily
digestible bits</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, with lots of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/us/politics/national-security-council-turmoil.html?_r=0">charts and maps</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. He believes everything he sees on pro-Trump
conservative media like </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-02/trump-s-world-increasingly-shaped-by-fox-news-and-fox-by-trump">Fox News</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, or
right-wing </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://crooksandliars.com/2017/03/trump-doesnt-need-us-intelligence-agencies">propaganda</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> sites like
</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/03/05/trumps-evidence-for-obama-wiretap-claims-relies-on-sketchy-anonymously-sourced-reports">Breitbart</a></span><span lang="EN-US">; and he
irresponsibly passes on their stories, including those unsupported by evidence
or reason.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents take clear policy positions and stand behind them. This one changes his positions </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/full-list-donald-trump-s-rapidly-changing-policy-positions-n547801">weekly, daily, hourly</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. He’s even
been all over the map on his signature issue: controlling immigration. On healthcare, he ran on the promise of
repealing Obamacare and replacing it with “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/249697-trump-replace-obamacare-with-something-terrific">something terrific</a></span><span lang="EN-US">” that
would cover more people and cost less. But at one point during the campaign he </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/270021-gop-senator-hits-trump-over-obamacare-mandate-support">expressed support</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> for the
Obamacare individual mandate, as well as other provisions of the law, such as
coverage for those with existing conditions. But once elected he called for abolishing
the individual mandate, while inconsistently promising “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/1/16/14281206/trump-obamacare-plan">insurance for
everybody</a></span><span lang="EN-US">”. And now he has
finally spelled out </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/2017/03/06/trump-health-care-ideas-sound-like-lot-like-obamas/98704794/">principles
constituting the vague outlines of an alternative plan</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, though hardly
a terrific one, since it would </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/trumps-health-care-nightmare-is-only-just-beginning.html">cover fewer people at
higher cost</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. At
the same time the White House is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/3/6/14838058/trump-obamacare-house-bill">failing to endorse</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> a
Congressional Republican replacement plan based upon exactly those principles! And only now, nearing the end of this very
long process, has he suddenly discovered what every remotely informed person
has known for years: that health care policy is “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/trump-nobody-knew-health-care-could-be-so-complicated.html">very complicated</a></span><span lang="EN-US">”. Was he
aware of any aspect of healthcare policy before this earth-shattering insight? Is he aware now?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents are confident and articulate, able to communicate and persuade. This
one spews word salad, and whines about negative coverage. He exposes his staggering, pathetic need for
approval in front of the Washington press corps and the entire world, as in his
embarrassing meltdown of a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-press-conference-recap-white-house-2017-2">press conference</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> on
February 16, humiliating himself in what </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/five-rulers-and-one-presidential-press-conference">one commentator</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> called a “seventy-seven-minute
emotional striptease”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents disclose their business dealings by, for instance, publicly
releasing their tax returns. This one, during the campaign, claimed his taxes
were being audited by the IRS and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/22/trump-has-no-excuse-to-not-release-his-tax-returns-commentary.html">he could not</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> release
them until the audit concluded, though the IRS denied there was any legal
constraint on releasing them. He </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-tax-returns_us_5884e7cfe4b070d8cad32f89">promised</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> that </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/videos/a52466/donald-trump-tax-returns-timeline/">he would make his
taxes public</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> after the audit finished, but after the
election he (through an aide) </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/22/trump-wont-release-tax-returns/">simply denied</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> he had any
obligation to do so, and, of course, he hasn’t.
He’s denied he has any business connections in Russia, for instance, but
such connections are </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/17/14622504/trump-russia-business-ties-fact-check">well documented</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. It’s reasonable
to wonder if he doesn’t release his taxes because either they would reveal the
depth of his financial entanglements with the corrupt Russian oligarchy, or
they would reveal he </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-income-tax-returns-once-became-public-they-showed-he-didnt-pay-a-cent/2016/05/20/ffa2f63c-1b7c-11e6-b6e0-c53b7ef63b45_story.html">pays little or no
taxes</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsIHESaiRccPafm4sSuyn7KS3Qi4GBT7C3VDtKPrsrmZjjpZ8KKuOPGv_CIGVl2LV93XuFqu7fLzsUj4s9455ST9f9_xf6rBo1ZaNbmqaCsKmEY0RkwEVWr21Tn2na94ehEY0VOyxuSfM/s1600/Trump+and+Abe+at+Mar-a-Lago+North+Korea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsIHESaiRccPafm4sSuyn7KS3Qi4GBT7C3VDtKPrsrmZjjpZ8KKuOPGv_CIGVl2LV93XuFqu7fLzsUj4s9455ST9f9_xf6rBo1ZaNbmqaCsKmEY0RkwEVWr21Tn2na94ehEY0VOyxuSfM/s320/Trump+and+Abe+at+Mar-a-Lago+North+Korea.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Receiving delicate national security information in public</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents don’t use their power and connections to profit themselves
financially. This one uses the presidency to expand his hotel empire in the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/#Dominican-Republic">Dominican Republic</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/#Indonesia">Indonesia</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/#Argentina">Argentina</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/#Saudi-Arabia">Saudi Arabia</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. He </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/business/ivanka-trump-nordstrom-tj-maxx.html">pressures department
stores</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> to stock his daughter’s clothing merchandise. He frequently stays at </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/#Abe-Mar-a-Lago">Mar-a-Lago</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, his own private
club in Florida, which is now charging higher prices for customers hoping to
buy access. American presidents put
their business interests in a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/12/how-republicans-justify-unlimited-trump-corruption.html">blind trust</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, so their
positions and policies won’t be influenced by the desire for profit. This one
put has put his interests in a trust </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/trumps-self-enrichment-gets-even-more-corrupt.html">administered by his
own immediate family</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, doing nothing to eliminate </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/">conflict</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/20/us/politics/trump-conflicts-of-interest.html">of interest</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, and probably
violating the Constitution’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/02/15/trump-conflicts-watch-2-where-trademark-law-meets-the-foreign-emoluments-clause/">Emoluments</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trumps-ethics-train-wreck/513446/">clause</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents protect the democratic process from interference by hostile foreign
governments. This one has done nothing
in response to Russian disruption of last year’s election. His campaign was <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/trumps-ties-to-russia-amount-to-treachery-to-the-republic.html">awash
in connections</a> <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/a-whos-who-of-the-trump-campaigns-russia-connections-w469977">to
Russia</a> and its unscrupulous leader Vladimir Putin, and his administration
is as well. But multiple American intelligence agencies have concluded that
during last year’s election technical experts with Russian intelligence hacked
Democratic Party computers, found information there embarrassing to the
Democrats, and released it through willing accomplices in Wikileaks, and
certain sections of the FBI, with the intent of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.moneysense.ca/spend/real-estate/renovations/renovation-could-void-your-home-insurance/">helping Trump win</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. And all that occurred while his advisors kept
</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html">ongoing communications
with Russian intelligence</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, and while the candidate himself </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-putin-no-relationship-226282">publicly called</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> on the
Putin government to release additional damning information they had on his
political opponent. He </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-loosens-sanctions-russia-prevent-intelligence-agencies-cyberspying-hacking-a7559871.html">has eased</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> some of
the punitive sanctions his predecessor recently applied to Russia in response
to their election interference, and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-sanctions-russia-lift-2017-1">may ease other
sanctions</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> against them. Reasonable
people can be forgiven for </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://tvline.com/2017/02/16/shepard-smith-donald-trump-rant-video-fox-news-russia/">wondering</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> if there
was </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/la-ol-opinion-newsletter-trump-russia-sessions-ambassador-meetings-20170304-htmlstory.html">any direct collusion</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> between the
Trump campaign and the Russian government, though such collusion would be
tantamount to treason. But these worries
aren’t exactly allayed by Trump’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge that Russia
hacked the election, or to voice even the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/republicans-trump-putin-killer-criticism-reaction-news-us-russia/">slightest criticism</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> of Putin
or his government (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2773831/donald-trump-tough-vladimir-putin-sanctions-russia-gives-back-crimea/">though that may be
changing</a></span><span lang="EN-US">), or to </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/27/sean-spicer-arrogant-denials-special-prosecutor-trumps-russian-connections.html">call for</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> an
investigation of this mess.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents have a mature understanding of how the world works. This one
indulges in the most baseless and laughable conspiracy theories. For years he
indulged fever dreams about </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories#Donald_Trump">Obama’s place of birth</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. In office, he has claimed that Obama is
behind his administration’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-leaks/">constant leaking</a></span><span lang="EN-US">; that as
president </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-obama-idUSKBN16B0CC">Obama personally
ordered wiretapping</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> of Trump Tower; that he only lost the popular
vote because </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/24/donald-trump/donald-trump-wrongly-says-14-percent-noncitizens-a/">millions</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/nov/28/donald-trump/donald-trumps-pants-fire-claim-millions-illegal-vo/">illegal immigrants</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> voted
against him; that anti-Trump protestors are </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/02/06/the-paid-protest-lie-the-trump-white-house-is-trying-to-delegitimize-public-protest/">paid Democratic
operatives</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">American
presidents <i>sometimes</i> lie; sadly, it’s
a job requirement. But this one <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeNBC/status/839244090306883584">lies</a> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-administration-lies-100_us_58ac7a0fe4b02a1e7dac3ca6">all the time!</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> He lies about pathetic things, like the size
of the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/24/fact-check-inauguration-crowd-size/96984496/">crowds at his
inauguration</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, the size of his </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-electoral-victory-claim/">Electoral College
victory</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, or how many times he’s been on the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/27/president-trumps-first-seven-days-of-false-claims-inaccurate-statements-and-exaggerations/?utm_term=.04fbd400f23f">cover of <i>Time</i> magazine</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. And he
lies about important things, like </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/27/president-trumps-first-seven-days-of-false-claims-inaccurate-statements-and-exaggerations/?utm_term=.04fbd400f23f">how many non-citizens</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> were </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-house-refugee-travel-ban_us_588fb881e4b0522c7d3c695b">detained under his
travel ban</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, whether rescinding the ban would </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/05/politics/trump-twitter-attacks-judge/">allow refugees easy
access</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> into the country, whether he offered to </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/us-threatens-to-invade-mexico-no-really/">send American troops
into Mexico</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> or yelled at the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/u-s-australia-alliance-rocked-by-trumps-angry-call-to-pm.html">Australian Prime
Minister</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. He’s lied about </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-philadelphia-murder_us_588a5050e4b0024605fe924e">crime</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-racist-retweet-twitter-397567">statistics</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/01/27/trump-agrees-with-bannon-says-media-is-the-opposition-party.html"><i>New York Times</i> subscription rates</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/31/trumps-claim-taking-credit-for-cutting-600-million-from-the-f-35-program/?postshare=9271485863963090&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.f580a4c4cb83">cutting spending on
military aircraft</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/donald-trump-2017-cpac-speech-obamacare-235347">Obamacare coverage
numbers</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, etc., etc., etc. <i>Et
freakin cetera!</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
dishonesty deserves particular consideration, because the dishonesty is at the
heart of the Trumpian madness. It’s not just that Trump and his underlings lie
promiscuously and indiscriminately. It’s not even that they lie without the
slightest compunction or accountability, though that is deplorable. It’s they <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/trump-is-the-perpetrator-of-mccarthyism-not-its-victim.html">have
no respect</a> for even the <i>notion</i> of
truth; to them, the truth is whatever they want it to be. They just say
whatever will help them win. And ultimately it isn’t even winning that matters
to them, it’s <i>appearing</i> to win. All
the other pathologies flow from this essential dismissal of reality for the
sake of appearances. The disregard for
democracy, competence, dependability, consistency, transparency,
public-mindedness, patriotism, maturity, the truth – it all comes from one simple
position: that no principle can distract from the overwhelming, unquenchable
need to appear to be always winning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
the American president <i>should</i> care
about democracy, competence, dependability, consistency, transparency, public-mindedness,
patriotism, maturity, and the truth. Obviously
many presidents have failed to sufficiently defend these principles. But most
cared deeply about them. And the ones
who didn’t still made great pains to pretend they did. That is, they understood
that we, <i>the American people</i>, care deeply
about them. It’s the widespread popular
commitment to those principles that has made American democracy work for so
long. And we shouldn’t accept as president
a <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-devouring.html">strutting
ego-on-stilts</a> who flagrantly flouts and mocks them, who clearly doesn’t give
a damn about them. It’s not clear if he
even <i>understands</i> them! In its open contempt of those values, the
Trump presidency represents a clean break from our past. And even if we never
have another president like him, he very well may do them permanent
damage. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
that’s why it matters that Trump is incapable of “being presidential”. When he steps up to the microphone and lies, and
whines, and accuses, and equivocates, and rants, and brays like a jackass, he’s
betraying what’s best in America. It may seem that his demeanor isn’t important,
but it reveals who he is and what’s missing in him. Being presidential doesn’t
just mean conforming to outdated notions of propriety or formality. Approaching
the job with sobriety and circumspection shows that the president takes
seriously the grave responsibility of leading America, of protecting and
shepherding our republic through our very real troubles. The president has the power
to build and the power to destroy, and the nation and the world are right to
expect that power to be in the hands of someone of maturity and responsibility. That this needs to be said at all reveals the
depth of our crisis. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It
has fallen to us, the honest citizenry, to hold our democratic values tight. We
take our lives and our children’s lives and our country’s future very
seriously, even if Trump’s every utterance proves he does not. We need to keep our standards high, we need
to keep loudly criticizing Trump when he violates those standards, and we need
to keep reminding those of our fellow citizens who have momentarily forgotten,
just how vital those standards are. That’s how we stay who <i>we</i> are. A rather strange set
of circumstances has landed Trump in his current job, but he is simply not
worthy of it, nor worthy of us, and all the Electoral Votes in the world cannot
make him so. And our duty as honest
Americans for the next four years is to keep that firmly in mind.</span></span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-20348991421250044492016-12-02T10:24:00.000-05:002016-12-02T10:24:23.290-05:00College Education<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghVZNqpbHKIgW3pXgZ_6sfFra_Nniyqc-2CtddBl3qUbA7jqnalOk862KgqZnmqh8EvNhj-omzLmMyfDt6HVT66vVtwjBTDZQL9CPrz2T0zj4_mLecv2OgcVkGt3mOmgZJZD5myQ2VhX4/s1600/Electoral+College+Votes+Tallied.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghVZNqpbHKIgW3pXgZ_6sfFra_Nniyqc-2CtddBl3qUbA7jqnalOk862KgqZnmqh8EvNhj-omzLmMyfDt6HVT66vVtwjBTDZQL9CPrz2T0zj4_mLecv2OgcVkGt3mOmgZJZD5myQ2VhX4/s400/Electoral+College+Votes+Tallied.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Electoral College votes tallied in Congress, January 2013</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It’s
become quite obvious that American politics is broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And not just because a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/11/what-have-we-done.html">malign and ignorant huckster</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> has been
elected president, though that is certainly the most glaring symptom of a
disease that’s been worsening for decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the real source of our debilitating political dysfunction is our
profound ideological polarization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve
split into two roughly equal and mutually hostile camps, with seemingly incompatible
instincts and visions of America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a
well-designed institutional framework might have channeled those deep
disagreements into constructive compromise, or better represented them in
government such that consensus or conciliation might be reached.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But our Constitution seems utterly incapable
of handling or moderating our deep disagreements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider how, in the Obama Era, the dubious
notion of Separation of Powers actually exacerbated that deadly polarization,
leading to such excesses as the government shutdowns, the debt limit crises, the
Obamacare wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And consider that an
incredibly polarizing and dangerously incompetent extremist has become
president without even winning a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">plurality</i>
of the votes cast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That quite undemocratic
outcome occurred because our system for choosing the president is hopelessly overcomplicated
and confused, and sitting at the heart of that confusion is that embarrassing constitutional
relic, the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)">Electoral College</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Electoral College is our institutional
dysfunction come to life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
Founders created the Electoral College with two principles in mind. The first
was the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">diffusion</i> principle, the
desire that the power to pick the president be spread among all the states,
even the smaller states that might otherwise be overlooked in a national
popular vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second was the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aristocratic</i> principle, the belief that
a collection of disinterested statesmen would prevent the election of a
demagogue or a fool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But these are
practical principles, they weren’t adopted for theoretical reasons, but to
satisfy the interests of the various states at the Constitutional Convention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the founders, including James
Madison, the father of the Constitution, would have preferred direct popular
election of the president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others wanted
Congress to choose the president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
original version of the Electoral College left it up to the various state
legislatures to decide how the electors from their respective states were
chosen; and for the first few decades some of those legislatures chose them
directly, while others allowed their voting publics to decide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But those electors were expected to make
their own decisions, not necessarily rubber-stamp the choices of those that had
put them there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the early 1800’s,
however, as Jacksonian democracy swept the land, all the states switched over
to having their populations choose the electors, and law and custom bound those
electors to represent the plurality vote for president within their respective
states. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
that’s where things stand today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re
stuck with this </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/7/12315574/electoral-college-explained-presidential-elections-2016">bizarre hodge-podge</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, an
aristocratic structure that tries to channel democratic desires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s the worst of both worlds, since it
can override the national popular vote while – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">quite obviously!</i> – failing to prevent a demagogue and a fool from
becoming president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Electoral
College has bitterly failed the demands of both democracy and statesmanship,
and in doing so it has produced something new in the political world: an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unpopular</i> demagogue!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
only remaining remotely defensible rationale for the Electoral College is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">diffusion</i> principle, the desire to
ensure small states aren’t overlooked when choosing the president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the Electoral College does absolutely
nothing to force presidential campaigns to address small states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, it forces them to address <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">battleground</i> states like Florida, Ohio,
and Pennsylvania, states which are split down the middle and can easily go
either way in a given election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
campaigns smartly ignore all dependably red or blue states, small or big, such
as New York or Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there’s no
principle satisfied by ignoring those states, while a national popular vote
would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genuinely</i> spread power to the
entire country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Electoral College
fails the diffusion principle too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
it’s hard to see why the election within each state should be based on majority
rule but not majority rule across the country as a whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should the democratic principle be so
inconsistently applied?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There already is
a mechanism within the federal government that gives disproportionate power to
smaller states: the United States Senate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It should be noted that James Madison and
other Founders </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Compromise">opposed the
undemocratic apportionment</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> of Senators too, but accepted it as a
necessary practical condition for bringing into the Union the small states who
otherwise would not have joined.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Senators represent states, while the
president is supposed to be the leader of the country as whole, the leader of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the people</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was clearly the intent of (many of) the
Founders, and it was clearly the intent of those early 19<sup>th</sup> century
statesmen who gave the choice of electors directly to the people, and it is
clearly the understanding of the present-day voting public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The president is supposed to represent <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> of America.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Electors
aren’t even apportioned according to population, because each state gets as
many electors as it has Representatives in the House of Representatives (which
is proportional to state populations) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">plus</i>
two more for its two Senators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, for
instance, Wyoming gets 3 electoral votes (it has one Representative in the
House plus its two Senators), while California gets 55 electoral votes (53
Representatives plus 2 Senators).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
California had about 37 million people as of the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_Census#State_rankings">2010 census</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, while
Wyoming had only about 564,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
California has about 672,000 people for each electoral vote while Wyoming has
only about 188,000 for each of its electoral votes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means the vote of one person in Wyoming
has 3.5 times as much power as the vote of one person in California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But why should a citizen in Wyoming have so
much more power than a citizen in California when picking the one person who is
the leader of the country as a whole?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Electoral College doesn’t protect small states, it disenfranchises big
ones!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a failure in every
conceivable way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s clearly failed
us this year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW_9Sy0fMgGFE3nmxPJDwswcFJ-lyDV91oOhtci3PLdAzZFdcYAGp1SPam866wnz-AenXsxKQ_M507FOdpfvs1_ycune9bb52s2BsnolItOWRkMXROmy_Vmiju1xwbnY7EN8oI5Weursk/s1600/constitutional-convention.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW_9Sy0fMgGFE3nmxPJDwswcFJ-lyDV91oOhtci3PLdAzZFdcYAGp1SPam866wnz-AenXsxKQ_M507FOdpfvs1_ycune9bb52s2BsnolItOWRkMXROmy_Vmiju1xwbnY7EN8oI5Weursk/s400/constitutional-convention.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brilliant, decent, imperfect, practical men, 1787</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">That’s
not to say that Hillary should be president by virtue of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/133Eb4qQmOxNvtesw2hdVns073R68EZx4SfCnP4IGQf8/htmlview?sle=true#gid=19">winning the popular
vote</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> by over 2 million votes (that’s almost 2 percentage
points, though with 48.2% it’s still shy of an outright majority).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we’d had a national popular vote system in
place for the 2016 election both Clinton and Trump would certainly have
campaigned quite differently, and the popular vote might have gone for
Trump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, a lot of people did take
the time and effort to vote, even in states that were definitively red or blue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, they must have known their votes
couldn’t make a difference in the Electoral College yet they voted anyway; and
that deserves respect in a generally democratic society. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can’t be said that the popular vote means <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And given that the Electoral College system is inherently undemocratic,
it’s not consistent to argue that electors are morally bound to obey their
state pluralities but obligated to disregard the national one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either we respect the wishes of the American
people or we don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it’s not entirely
unfair to suggest, as </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-constitution-lets-the-electoral-college-choose-the-winner-they-should-choose-clinton/2016/11/24/0f431828-b0f7-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html?utm_term=.6066cb9285ac">some have done</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, that the
electors reject the state pluralities and deny the presidency to someone who
not only failed to win a plurality of the national popular vote but who is also
an </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-prick.html">irresponsible
demagogue</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> and a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-devouring.html">dribbling fool</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that case both the democratic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> aristocratic principles would be
satisfied, and that would probably have made James Madison very happy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">All
the logic, all the theory, all our reason and sanity and common sense suggest
the Electoral College should ignore the wishes of the people in the states and obey
the wishes of the people of the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Except for one thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/11/25/the-electoral-college-shouldnt-choose-clinton-a-response-to-lessig/?utm_term=.4739657ac2ce">agreed before the
election</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> that we would choose our presidents in this bizarre,
old-fashioned, ridiculous way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or
rather, history and convention and expectation have stuck us with this absurd
system, and it would just be terribly unfair and destabilizing to change the
rules after the fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People would be
enraged, and rightly so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As tempting as
the thought is of the electors saving us <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deus
ex machina</i> from the Great Orange Disaster, our respect for fair play and
democratic norms renders it unthinkable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No principle is safe if we can’t all rely on the procedures.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
then let Trump supporters stop this dishonest and baseless talk that he has a “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/paul-ryan-declares-mandate-donald-trump">mandate</a></span><span lang="EN-US">”, or he
won because “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/video/pence-the-american-people-have-spoken-804451907955">the American people
have spoken</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No,
he won because the Elector College has spoken (or will soon).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or because enough unrepresentative people in
enough unrepresentative states have spoken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or because we have our heads stuck up our Constitution and can’t create
a better system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those sentiments don’t
make great slogans, but they have the virtue of being true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At strongest, the American people chose
Hillary Clinton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At weakest, their
choice is unclear and muddled, the exact thing an election is supposed to
avoid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
that is the real problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This election,
like 2000, was a virtual tie, but the technical winners will enact policies the
technical losers find frightening and abhorrent. And to add mendacious insult
to juridical injury they’ll likely speak and rule </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/why-donald-trump-is-lying-about-the-popular-vote.html">as if they had</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> actually
won an overwhelming victory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ll
claim a mandate to shred the social safety net and distribute huge tax cuts to
the rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you don’t look closely
the Electoral College appears to give them some plausible cover for that
undemocratic chicanery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that will
just add to the bitter disappointment of the vaguely leftish half of the
country, who now feel, and effectively <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i>,
disenfranchised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For at least the next
two years the comprehensively Republican federal government will trample upon
their deeply held convictions and damage the institutions and programs they
love, even though their candidate essentially tied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t deserve that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We
don’t deserve that.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
we’ll get it, and that’s because of other imperfections of our system,
specifically Separation of Powers and fixed terms in office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_system">parliamentary systems</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, as obtain
in most of the English-speaking world and in Europe, the head of government is
whoever can lead a ruling coalition in the democratically elected parliament (and
many of those parliamentary elections have mechanisms for making sure minority
parties are proportionally represented).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If the party in power governs ineffectively or against sustained popular
opinion then elections are held and the people get to choose their rulers
again, even if the terms of office aren’t close to being over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And such a unified government makes the
ruling party accountable; it doesn’t have independent executive and legislative
branches that can blame each other for government failure or inaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it doesn’t permit the constant war between
those separate powers that results when they’re controlled by bitterly opposed
and sharply polarized factions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
wait, this is about as academic as an argument can get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is as much chance of America renovating
its basic constitution as there is of Donald Trump suddenly becoming an expert
on </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Black-Boy-Record-Childhood-Youth/dp/0061130249">20<sup>th</sup>
century African-American literature</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though there are </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact">ways around the
Electoral College</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> that might actually be implemented – and more
power to them!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the Electoral
College, ridiculous as it is, is only a small part of what’s wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One doesn’t have to be a Democrat or bitter
about Trump’s technical win to see the lesson the College teaches us: Our
deeply polarized populace is possessed by rage and vindictiveness, the design
of our political institutions prevents a constructive handling of that
polarization, and that combination is radically undermining our democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it will probably only get worse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It’s
not sustainable, and there are really only two ways this can end: the polarization
can give way, or the institutions can give way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It could still conceivably happen that, as seemed inevitable until
November 8, the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/11/demographics-and-inevitability.html">demographics keep
moving in the liberal direction</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, with the older,
whiter, more conservative percentage of the populace shrinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or populist conservatism could become widely
dominant among the broad middle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or
populist liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If any of those
things happens then the federal government will be safely held by one party
with a clear majority among the people, and that’s a situation the Constitution
can safely handle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Though, if it’s
Trumpian populism it’s not necessarily a situation that liberal democracy can
handle.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO4T8uTdzBhanZmOKlcc9QZeQL0wTOeBtjNqX0EaQW5uNvJuCe-6Fi1wFUYPnXGmKFwmPKDProt31G95EiDzL67LgAohsfDzppbyq7b-sOERF_xewkO1Pk87UrPVy9j0ALOgNVHSrg4m4/s1600/birther-sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO4T8uTdzBhanZmOKlcc9QZeQL0wTOeBtjNqX0EaQW5uNvJuCe-6Fi1wFUYPnXGmKFwmPKDProt31G95EiDzL67LgAohsfDzppbyq7b-sOERF_xewkO1Pk87UrPVy9j0ALOgNVHSrg4m4/s320/birther-sign.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Doing his best to elevate the discourse</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
if none of those scenarios comes to pass, then the institutions themselves will
erode.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Congress and the Presidency
are held by opposing parties the conflict between them will become even more </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/theres-a-chance-american-democracys-not-doomed.html">acrimonious and
destructive</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
our present situation continues – with one party that only represents half the
people holding complete control of the federal government – then the struggle
between feds and locals will become more acrimonious and destruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There could be widespread unrest, with irresponsible
individuals on both sides even embracing violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And all these scenarios end just one way,
with a president accruing more and more police power until he becomes
essentially an elected tyrant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And soon
after, not even an elected one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s
the direction we’re heading if we can’t create a better politics, an understanding
of ourselves that satisfies the interests and aspirations of most of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>America is hurting right now, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> of it, the half that lost and the
half that won.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the only way forward
is toward some new, moderate consensus that respects us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If any good can come from Trump’s win, it
will be to force us to question the old rigid ideologies and blind archaic animosities
that possess us and make us enemies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are fair-minded people on both sides urging tolerance and
conciliation and offering constructive and pragmatic solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But conciliation and pragmatism have little
hope of being well received in an atmosphere of bitter mistrust, a mistrust
happily fomented by special interests, propagandists, ideologues, fanatics, and
fools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when our institutions fail
us, all we have left is ourselves, and our commitments to each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There isn’t necessarily a happy ending here,
only a chance, a hope that the great reserves of good will, common sense and
generosity still possessed by the American people can be marshaled to fight the
polarization that is killing us all.</span></span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-52828049556963364512016-11-17T22:18:00.000-05:002016-11-17T22:18:25.876-05:00What Have We Done?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieNzAjq_Z9zIseTwDK-AVj-O4sJYj-zsfHRRojUAma0TFxnjYeNOmkKdiVWYYlCRN-19_Al7HuHi8w-DnvMHm79UsVbYNLhgZQsL-KycFMcoMK9HHiNtTsVB9R-Za_NORJ-sGGesZL4_g/s400/Trump+Tower.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We're all branded now</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieNzAjq_Z9zIseTwDK-AVj-O4sJYj-zsfHRRojUAma0TFxnjYeNOmkKdiVWYYlCRN-19_Al7HuHi8w-DnvMHm79UsVbYNLhgZQsL-KycFMcoMK9HHiNtTsVB9R-Za_NORJ-sGGesZL4_g/s1600/Trump+Tower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
is a disaster.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">America has just been
dealt a terrible blow, and it’s not clear how we’ll recover.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Donald Trump is as fit to be President of the
United States as a rabid gorilla is to drive a school bus.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He’s an ignorant, bigoted, bullying,
narcissistic clown, and that personal instability in conjunction with the policies
he’ll likely implement (with the eager help of a thoroughly Republican
Congress) will do the country, and quite possibly the world, great damage.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In fact, this is such a comprehensive
disaster that it’s hard to fully appreciate it.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But let’s try.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s take a stark
look at the likely ramifications of America’s self-inflicted wound.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s face up to what we’ve done.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">You
don’t have to be a liberal to contemplate Trump’s coming presidency with dread,
but it sure helps. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump ran,
particularly in the early days, as a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-third-party.html">genuine populist</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, promising
to raise taxes on Wall Street, to protect Social Security and Medicare, to
fight for American workers – all things economic liberals heartily
endorse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as time went by he became
increasingly co-opted on these issues by the Republican establishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now much of his </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/trump-appeals-to-the-center-of-the-gop-donor-class.html">economic program looks
like</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> it was written by Ronald Reagan or – admittedly the same
thing – the Chamber of Commerce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It delivers
huge tax cuts that go almost exclusively to the investor class, it relieves 20
million poorer Americans of their health insurance, it removes constraints on
the financial markets that delivered us so effectively to the Great
Recession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plutocracy’s favorite
ideologue, Paul Ryan, is even </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/republicans-might-be-serious-about-going-after-medicare.html">claiming</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> that the
now comprehensively Republican federal government has been given a mandate to privatize
Medicare!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much for populism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Trump
has become, in effect, a special case of the investor class’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/080507774X">master strategy</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> for
turning populist anger to capitalist advantage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The typical Republican presidential candidate wins by pointing angry
fingers at liberal snobbery, black thievery, and gay buggery; and once elected
proceeds to treat the country as little more than raw resource for capitalist
ingestion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Trump ran against the
script, attacking not just racial, sexual, and religious minorities, but Wall
Street and big business too!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the establishment
that could not stop him was able to work him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Usually the conservative populace is duped into supporting an
investor-class stooge, but this time the candidate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">himself</i> was duped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much
for </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fortune.com/2016/07/19/donald-trump-negotiating-the-art-of-the-deal/">tough negotiation</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
it would be unfair to say Trump has become completely co-opted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the most part he still holds his ground
on the issues of immigration and trade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>American workers will be better off if immigration, illegal and legal,
is more tightly controlled, and if the American negotiators of trade deals are
actually concerned about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
collecting up and tossing out millions of immigrants who are here illegally
would be a humanitarian disaster of unimaginable proportion, one that no
thinking or feeling person could remotely defend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, the typical Trumpian brainless
barbarism spells disaster even on those issues in which he genuinely is looking
out for the American worker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Hillary
had become president, thoughtful patriots of all ideologies might have
pressured her to moderate her globalist attitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But tempering Hillary with practical concerns
would have been much easier than moderating Trump with humanitarian ones. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much for reasonable policy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
our new Trump World isn’t just a unhappy place for working people, it’s also </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/10/us/post-election-hate-crimes-and-fears-trnd/">not particularly
welcoming</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> for blacks, women, Jews, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/politics/japanese-internment-muslim-registry.html">Muslims</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, gays –
basically anyone who isn’t a white Christian male.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Trumpistas, like good </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace">right-wingers</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, rose to
power denouncing the ways that all those non-white-Christian-male types are
ruining things for regular Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Black
are </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/fact-checking-donald-trump-questionable-statistics-tweet-article-1.2443285">criminals</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, Mexicans
are </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/05/pence-yes-trump-called-mexicans-rapists-and-criminals-but-you-keep-forgetting-about-the-other-part/">rapists</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, Muslims
are </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/24/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-election-2016/">terrorists</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/is-there-a-new-american-antisemitism.html">Jews</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> are </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/trump-uses-star-of-david-to-call-clinton-corrupt.html">evil conspirators</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, women refuse
to be </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations">mere playthings</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s true that Trump </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trump-consolidates-gay-rights/">hasn’t targeted</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> gays, but
the restive crowd on his right clearly has no sympathy for the sexually
unorthodox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s the real point:
It doesn’t really matter all that much </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/theres-one-flaw-in-trumps-plan-to-show-hes-not-racist.html">if Trump himself is a bigot</a></span><span lang="EN-US">; what
matters is that he has encouraged bigotry, he’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unleashed</i> it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s <a href="http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/11/16/you-are-still-crying-wolf/">hard to
judge</a> how serious this particular threat is, but you don’t have to be a
minority or a liberal to see real danger here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So much for equality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">way</i> that Trump has re-legitimated
these sorts of hostilities is particularly dangerous. </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That
is, he’s made </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/07/which-tribe-are-you-on.html">white identity politics</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> central to
his appeal. He tells whites that they’re
victimized by those other groups, that their primary loyalty is to each other,
and that their problems can only be addressed if they understand and act upon
their interests <i>as</i> white people. But
this is an invitation to levels of racial hatred which we can now only
imagine. If white Americans come to
broadly think of their own interests in racial terms then every contentious
issue will come to be seen as a zero-sum dispute over limited resources. America would devolve into constant and
bitter infighting, into a war between the tribes, probably leading to greater
and greater violence. Identity politics
has been both a miserable failure for non-whites and huge source of polarization
and discord for us all. If whites adopt
it too, it could mean the desolation of America. So much for national unity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
Trump’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/trumpistan-week-one-the-unthinkable-slowly-becomes-normal.html">authoritarian
sensibility</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> is a dagger pointed at the heart of
self-government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He admires foreign </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/trump-praises-hussein.html">tyrants</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/09/why_donald_trump_loves_vladimir_putin.html">autocrats</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He hopes to curtail </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/02/donald-trump-libel-laws-219866">press freedom</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He threatens political rivals with <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/797844661280899072">lawsuits</a>
and prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thoughtlessly undermines </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/10/democracy-for-grown-ups.html">the democratic process</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s unhappy that </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-freedom-of-expression_us_57dfde58e4b04a1497b54f2f">freedom of expression</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> hampers
ardent pursuit of the terrorists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
advocates </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/6/29/12058208/trump-waterboarding">torture</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> for its
punitive value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He blithely <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/654890/america-ever-recover-from-donald-trump">dismisses
the norms</a> that make our system function.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He embodies and encourages the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/the-gops-age-of-authoritarianism-has-only-just-begun.html">authoritarian trends</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> growing on
the right side of America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t
have to a liberal or a minority to find this alarming: A corrupt, amoral megalomaniac
has just been given control over our military and our enormous federal
investigative apparatus, one that </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/06/government-surveillance-and-liberal.html">already monitors</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> our emails
and phone calls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he’s certain to <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/donald-trump-and-hitlers-rise-to-power.html">face
no resistance</a> from rival centers of power in a Washington completely
controlled by a cowed and fawning Republican Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much for democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
he has no character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He successfully ran
for president without any solid convictions, without any knowledge of the
issues, with no respect for our democratic traditions, with no compunction
about misrepresenting opponents or himself, with no generosity or ideals or
compassion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The American people should
have kicked this pathetic man-child to the curb for his impossible ignorance
and gurgling malice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as payment for
his lies and his threats and his ungodly vanity he will get to sit in the
office once occupied by Washington, Lincoln, and the two Roosevelt’s and delight
in his own true brilliance and awesomeness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So much for accountability.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
that leads to what’s arguably the scariest aspect of the Trumpian calamity: his
instability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He clearly suffers from
something like clinical <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/frmarcelguarnizo/2016/03/31/trump-is-simply-not-well-n2141510">Narcissistic
Personality Disorder</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trumps-temperament/">little
or no control</a> over his own impulses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He responds bitterly and vindictively to every slight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all">can’t sit still</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> long
enough to read or to learn anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
feels no obligation to conform what he says to what actually is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He casually spreads lies and <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-ted-cruz-jfk-assassination-226020">conspiracy</a>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-birther.html?_r=0">theories</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He feels no responsibility to anything but </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.ca/2016/10/the-devouring.html">his own ego</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s incapable of reasoning and speaking like
an adult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The combination of
authoritarianism and recklessness is particularly frightening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it too far-fetched to worry that he might
use official force against political opponents, or impulsively start a war, or
even casually employ nuclear weapons?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe it is, but consider that we can’t be sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much for security.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TU1e-2R7zc5-Luzd_gd7dXd50CPShuHgT61-WeOcBFGnp2e-ubNn0yI4LhwI0O33P7szjv6_4tCTrE9tDpPKLmU4X9DjUlXWCO9fDnY5G7avhbubQllMB9RoZIgekYkrI0aI10IeleA/s1600/american+flag+wtc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TU1e-2R7zc5-Luzd_gd7dXd50CPShuHgT61-WeOcBFGnp2e-ubNn0yI4LhwI0O33P7szjv6_4tCTrE9tDpPKLmU4X9DjUlXWCO9fDnY5G7avhbubQllMB9RoZIgekYkrI0aI10IeleA/s400/american+flag+wtc.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">An American flag recovered from World Trade Centre site after 9/11</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So
much for America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much for our hope
and our promise and our potential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost
everything we admire in ourselves – our commitment to justice and freedom, our
generosity, our common sense, our openness, our honesty, our idealism, our
optimism – has been besmirched or undermined or threatened by Donald
Trump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect, he’s promised to turn
America into a shambles and now he’s been given the power to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
now that he has won, there is enormous <a href="https://newrepublic.com/minutes/138652/democrats-not-need-accept-trump-presidency">pressure</a>
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/11/14/obama-holds-his-first-post-election-news-conference/93806234/">to
treat this</a> <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-trump-won-clinton-lost-deal-with-it-20161117-story.html">as
just another</a> election and Trump as just another president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As if winning excuses all his sins, or makes
them irrelevant, or means they’re not <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/14/13619146/trump-priebus-bannon">indicative</a>
of how he’ll govern. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wishful thinking,
respect for the democratic transition of power, and the need to feel the world
is safe, all these conspire to lull us into seeing things as not fundamentally changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s just not true, and don’t let anyone
tell you otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The disaster is
real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may not have seen it coming,
but we should damn well recognize it now that it’s here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/how-the-loyal-opposition-will-work-in-trumps-america.html">Jonathan Chait</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> so nicely
put it:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To submit to a world where we say the
words President Trump without anger or laughter is to surrender our idea of
what the office means.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
what’s threatened by casually accepting Trump’s win isn’t just our idea of what
the presidency means, it’s our idea of what democracy, justice, and decency
mean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America</i> means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump did
legitimately win and <a href="http://time.com/4566113/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-president/">he will
be president</a> for at least 4 long years, that’s a fact and we need to respect
it and accept it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we shouldn’t just
treat it as part of the normal course of events and get back to our private
lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>History has taken a terrible turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The name TRUMP is being stamped upon us in 10
feet tall gold-plated letters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should
grieve, deeply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
we should fight back!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should organize
and peacefully march and argue and persuade and vote and keep tight in our
minds the profound seriousness of our situation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we should remember that America is always
at its best when things are at their worst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We need to rededicate ourselves to the best promises of America, while accepting
that those promises are now much farther from our reach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must fully face the disaster and in facing
it find the strength and the determination to fight it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And one very important way we fight it is by refusing
to treat it as anything other than the terrible disaster that it is.</span> </span></div>
<br />Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-76803308802336858912016-11-08T11:06:00.000-05:002016-11-08T11:06:02.651-05:00Breaking America Down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXFXQC896xmB7lI8H8G5EP-GrUlr4JpEYFLIlIjmWyVtNdWE2iLhhVvYIqLymmgabjFy_pHrhVyPvWLQrVuEp2JdrrA9nWYefaVeka3Fhf7ZP500l60f1iZ4MyLz7-XVRZxNEnTyWZsuU/s1600/White_House_Front_Dusk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXFXQC896xmB7lI8H8G5EP-GrUlr4JpEYFLIlIjmWyVtNdWE2iLhhVvYIqLymmgabjFy_pHrhVyPvWLQrVuEp2JdrrA9nWYefaVeka3Fhf7ZP500l60f1iZ4MyLz7-XVRZxNEnTyWZsuU/s400/White_House_Front_Dusk.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Donald
Trump must not become President of the United States. That must be glaringly obvious to anyone whose
reason has <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2016/09/27/hillary-clinton-endorsement/91198668/">not
been overcome</a> by partisanship or bitterness or rancor. He’s a <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/theres-one-flaw-in-trumps-plan-to-show-hes-not-racist.html">bigot</a>
who elicits and encourages the worst impulses of his followers; he’s an <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/the-gops-age-of-authoritarianism-has-only-just-begun.html">authoritarian</a>
with little respect for individual rights or <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/10/democracy-for-grown-ups.html">democratic
institutions</a>; he’s a foolish extremist, advocating, for example, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/07/trump-nato/492341/">abandoning
NATO</a>, and deporting millions of illegal immigrants; he’s utterly and
willfully <a href="http://reason.com/archives/2016/10/27/the-bottomless-ignorance-of-donald-trump">ignorant</a>
of government, policy, or the Constitution; he’s rankly dishonest and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/09/05/trumps-history-of-corruption-is-mind-boggling-so-why-is-clinton-supposedly-the-corrupt-one/">corrupt</a>;
and – most damning – he’s a <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.ca/2016/10/the-devouring.html">huge,
smelly pile of crazy</a>. A President
Trump would be an unimaginable disaster, for the country and the world. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He
represents what’s worst in ourselves, particularly the worst of our popular
culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s vulgar, boorish, thoughtless,
shallow, materialistic, self-absorbed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
he represents the worst instincts of the conservative base. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/donald-trumps-favourite-excuse-for-spreading-inaccurate-and-racially-charged-statements-it-was-just-a-retweet">traffics</a>
in putrid racial and <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/jul/05/donald-trumps-star-david-tweet-recap/">religious</a>
hatreds dredged up from the far-right fever swamps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He indulges the <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-ted-cruz-jfk-assassination-226020">most
brainless conspiracy theories</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
yearns for the days when white Christian men received the deference that was
their due as the only real Americans, and he encourages those same yearnings
among his followers. He scorns all the correct pseudo-Americans: liberals,
blacks, feminists, Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Howard
Stern and Rush Limbaugh could make a baby they’d make Donald Trump.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But,
he also represents the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/16/how-donald-trump-appeals-to-the-white-working-class">legitimate
grievances</a> of white working people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They’ve been derided by cultural elites, exploited by economic elites,
impoverished by mass immigration, off-shoring, de-industrialization, downsizing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are genuine victims, disdained, disowned,
disheartened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feel</i> betrayed because they’ve <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">been</i>
betrayed, by an American elite that feels little obligation to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Trump represents their darker impulses in
response, the impulse to lash out, to destroy, to burn to the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He is
their revenge.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, also, in a
strange and inarticulate way, he is their hope, the hope that America can be
made to work again, to sustain and nurture them rather than exploit and discard
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this moment there is a great
struggle going on within them, but by voting for Trump they’re choosing their lesser
collective self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter who wins today
we must not forget about <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547">these
people</a>, their <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/6/12803636/arlie-hochschild-strangers-land-louisiana-trump">alienation</a>,
their disenfranchisement, their despondency, their self-destructiveness, their
fears, their hopes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are fighting desperately
to be acknowledged, and we owe them that. They are, after all, us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile,
Hillary represents all that’s wrong with our elites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s an epitome of the new aristocracy; an
aristocracy of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Listen-Liberal-Happened-Party-People/dp/1627795391">education
and profession</a>, delineated by manners, <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-deploring-and-deplored.html">condescension</a>,
technocracy, urbanity, even eating habits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s an aristocracy possessed by the sanctimonious, globalist,
multicultural, cosmopolitan distaste for anything tainted by American patriotism
or the <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/2016-election-realignment-partisan-political-party-policy-democrats-republicans-politics-213909">retrograde
notion</a> that American policy should particularly benefit Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a nation without leaders working in its
interests is a nation without leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon,
it won’t even be that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump almost gets
this one right, but he’s too crude to understand that blacks, Muslims, liberals
are part of the nation too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is
the heart of the Trumpian catastrophe: whites went looking for a leader for
America, but they settled for a leader for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White
America</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
paradox of Hillary is that despite her vague post-American-ness she nicely embodies
what’s so good about America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like most
ordinary Americans, and unlike Trump, she’s hard-working, inclusive, and
hopeful in the best way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She really
thinks America can be made to work for everyone, and she’s eager to put in the
effort to make incremental changes in that direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is, more than anything else, pragmatic,
and that’s something very much needed in our current situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the pragmatic willingness to tone
down ideology and to compromise with reality is a cardinal American
virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s too bad that her
post-patriotic sensibilities diffuse her abundant energies; properly focused
they might have greatly helped her own people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
it’s too bad she’s so corrupt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hillary’s
sins are those of political connection: using high office for her own <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/27/wikileaks-bill-clinton-foundation-emails">enrichment</a>,
evading <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system">professional
responsibilities</a>, <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/04/chelsea-clinton-at-nbc-when-nepotism-goes-wrong.html">nepotism</a>.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Trump’s moneyed birth has allowed
him to systematically evade responsibility too: regularly <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/">stiffing
contractors and employees</a>, claiming <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431420/donald-trumps-bankruptcy-lies">bankruptcy</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His celebrity and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201608/does-trump-suffer-narcissistic-personality-disorder">extreme
clinical narcissism</a> have even enabled his outright <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-billy-bush-tape-grab-women-us-elections-republican-a7351371.html">sexual</a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations">predation</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both candidates have taken advantage of unearned
privilege, but he’s been <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/most-corrupt-candidate-ever-is-donald-trump.html">dishonest
and corrupt</a> in ways Hillary <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-scandals/474726/">can
only dream of</a>: he’s <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910">tied
to the mob</a>, he’s been involved in <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/move-over-trump-u-the-new-scandal-the-trump-institute">all
sorts of</a> <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/10/a-brief-history-of-donald-trump-s-get-rich-schemes.html">fraudulent
schemes</a>, he’s <a href="http://time.com/4433880/donald-trump-ties-to-russia/">connected
to Russian oligarchs</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And did I
mention he’s a big stinking slagheap of whack-job?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is a deeply flawed politician, but he is
a nightmare.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3sqJijsCo6V8ps4MlTAXlwAxca3aSm-hkbxpUPFK-0agDufwRp1G5SmGkOt4JaJAY_UpoliCbBxDyIdO9ktM7HjpmR0MrPn8iq0PSU7lqVoWLIAv5hoH2GarXcn-tb8HXEUZiqPIqPNc/s1600/donald-trump-deflated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3sqJijsCo6V8ps4MlTAXlwAxca3aSm-hkbxpUPFK-0agDufwRp1G5SmGkOt4JaJAY_UpoliCbBxDyIdO9ktM7HjpmR0MrPn8iq0PSU7lqVoWLIAv5hoH2GarXcn-tb8HXEUZiqPIqPNc/s400/donald-trump-deflated.jpg" width="400" /></span></a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Happily
for the safety and sanity of us all, Trump </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/">probably won’t</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> be elected
President.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And once he’s lost, and goes
creeping back to his gaudy, gilded towers and his cringe-worthy TV appearances
and his rancid tweets, it will be tempting to dismiss his followers and their
concerns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But consider right now the
very real and terrifying possibility that he might actually win! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let yourself feel the full weight of the disaster
that may be about to engulf us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
frightening demagogue, an ignorant and irresponsible buffoon, a colossally absurd
joke of a person is actually within a few percentage points of being handed the
nuclear codes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now take very
seriously how profoundly dysfunctional our politics must be to have delivered
us to this moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The system is broken,
and we can’t ignore it any more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once
Trump has lost – if there is a God in heaven! – think back to today and
remember how stark and undeniable that brokenness was made by the near-election
of this one-man wrecking crew.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At
that point all our energies must be directed toward healing our country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That may require more generosity and forgiveness
than we’re capable of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all candor, it’s
probably not possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The system is so
broken, and the rancor and mistrust and alienation it so plentifully dispenses just
break it more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>America may <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> be on the path to irrevocable
decline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re all obligated to fight
the brokenness, to not give in to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump’s
gift to us is to make us appreciate the depth of the brokenness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s here to tell us we may not have much
time left.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
that must be the starting point for any serious post-election reconciliation
and healing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All those people out there
are mad as hell, so mad they’re blindly rushing themselves over the edge in a
blind fury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But despite their staggering
irresponsibility, we have to remind ourselves that they’re mostly good people,
and we must acknowledge that if they’re so willing to put America through this torture
then things must be much worse than we had previously thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know why they’re angry: they’ve been
dismissed and exploited and propagandized and disappointed and
discouraged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The system isn’t just
broken, it’s breaking them too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
breaking their hope, and their generosity, and their common sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Trump, whether he wins or loses, is
breaking them – and us – even more.</span> </span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-69069483884573886942016-10-24T20:42:00.000-04:002016-10-24T20:42:16.041-04:00Democracy for Grown-Ups<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGA0jbXt4eWCwPtdDRY18JIKhUZjNutqp2VHx1aEqcSVei-biRQHOfnFRjR3wX-6v6aDOqp652ie5NpGOZ3SfnAjZ9nNU8EYQQmxAaEu5C7hov6lCIhrGLK7oftmPbltYbFFShVraGYw/s1600/third+debate.php.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGA0jbXt4eWCwPtdDRY18JIKhUZjNutqp2VHx1aEqcSVei-biRQHOfnFRjR3wX-6v6aDOqp652ie5NpGOZ3SfnAjZ9nNU8EYQQmxAaEu5C7hov6lCIhrGLK7oftmPbltYbFFShVraGYw/s1600/third+debate.php.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The third presidential debate</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Donald
Trump has been </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/20/politics/republicans-rigged-election-donald-trump-presidential-debate/">roundly</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-presidential-debates/gop-condemns-trump-not-accepting-election-results-would-be-beyond-n670026">condemned</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> for apparently
disrespecting the very notion of democracy, because of an </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/19/the-final-trump-clinton-debate-transcript-annotated/">exchange</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> with Hillary
Clinton and moderator </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Wallace">Chris Wallace</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> in last Wednesday
night’s debate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wallace brought up an
accusation repeated by Trump on Twitter and at public rallies that </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-claims-polling-places-are-rigged-12ba70beb551#.vxzbe6yjp">the election has been
“rigged”</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> to ensure Hillary’s victory; Wallace asked Trump if he
will “absolutely accept the result of this election?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Trump evaded:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will look at it at
the time. I'm not looking at anything now. I'll look at it at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which
seems to mean that come Election Day he’ll be looking for evidence of voter
fraud, and deliver a judgment on the election results based upon his perception
of how honest the voting process has been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He also accused the news media of being in on the fix, calling them “so
dishonest and so corrupt”, and he claimed authoritative evidence of widespread
voter registration irregularities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
he even tried to de-legitimize Hillary’s candidacy itself: “She’s guilty of a
very, very serious crime. She should not be allowed to run.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Behold Trump’s indictment of the vote and the
electoral process more broadly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It’s
not terribly convincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, lately
the media have become quite </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/cnn-panel-can-hardly-contain-itself-katrina-pierson-launches-insane-defense-donald">transparent</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> in their
conviction that Trump is a demented egomaniac who would do the country great
damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be fair, that’s only because
he is, and he would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most members of the
press, being at least as bright as typical 5-year-olds, are perceptive enough
to see it, if not clever enough to pretend not to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s hard to understand why it’s
dishonest or corrupt for the media to provide a platform to the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations">small army of women</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> who are
accusing Trump of just the sort of sexual predation that he himself has so </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/politics/donald-trump-women-vulgar/">brazenly bragged about</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s not clear if Hillary broke the law
(presumably he’s referring to her email scandal), though she’s legally in the
clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s even less clear what
process Trump believes should have prevented her from running, considering that
she is the nominee of one of our two major parties and the democratic processes
that promoted her to nominee endow her with all the legitimacy she needs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
here’s the real point: there is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/10/19/13308020/rigged-election-donald-trump-voter-fraud">no evidence</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/10/18/498297287/5-reasons-and-then-some-not-to-worry-about-a-rigged-election">of significant voter
fraud</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For one thing, it
would be </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/can-you-rig-a-us-presidential-election-experts-say-its-basically-impossible/2016/10/18/7bcc4390-9557-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html">extraordinarily hard
to pull off</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, considering how many election precincts
there are, and how locally organized and controlled they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To really affect the outcome such conspirators
would have to fake thousands of votes in thousands of precincts across the
country, all without accidentally revealing their nefarious plot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For another thing, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/10/19/13322270/pollwatchers-rigged-election-law-trump">it just ain’t
happening</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
Wallace wouldn’t let Trump off the hook:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, sir, there is a
tradition in this country – in fact, one of the prides of this country – is the
peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is,
that at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner. Not
saying that you're necessarily going to be the loser or the winner, but that
the loser concedes to the winner and that the country comes together in part
for the good of the country. Are you saying you're not prepared now to commit
to that principle?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trump
deferred:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I'm saying is
that I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense. OK?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
Clinton, clearly the superior debater, pounced:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 49.25pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 49.25pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, Chris, let me
respond to that, because that's horrifying.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 49.25pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A
minute later she delivered the knock-out blow:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So that is not the way
our democracy works. We've been around for 240 years. We've had free and fair
elections. We've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And
that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a
general election.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
major news outlets have expressed the same horror: Donald Trump will not abide
by the election results because he doesn’t in principle accept majority rule.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
that’s not what he meant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wallace asked
him if he thought the election was rigged, he explained (unconvincingly) why he
thought it was, and then Wallace, though clearly intending to get to the heart
of the matter, changed the subject by asking a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">different</i> question: Do you support the principle of democratic
transfer of power?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, he first
asked Trump if he believed the present election process is honest, and then a
minute later asked him if he was willing to submit to elections in general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Trump, who – how shall we say this? –
misses a lot of subtleties, was still answering the first question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither he nor Wallace seems to have noticed
the question had changed, so Trump just repeated his answer to the first
question, making it seem he was answering “No” to the second one, that he was
explicitly rejecting the principle of popular sovereignty. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump seems to have a knack for sounding more
offensive than he means to, and that’s quite impressive when you consider that
he usually means something quite offensive!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But if we’re going to condemn him, let’s condemn him for what he actually
meant.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">If,
as seems to be the case, he was questioning the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">procedural</i> fairness of this election, and not the authority of
elections in general, then he actually was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">defending</i>
democratic rule, not attacking it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
this point of view Hillary and her surrogates in the press are trying to steal
the election and he’s fighting to protect it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As Trump advisor </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/20/politics/gingrich-clinton-victory/">Newt Gingrich claims</a></span><span lang="EN-US">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are in the worst
cycle of corruption in American history, and in many ways, we resemble
Venezuela and Argentina more than we resemble traditional America.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Hillary
is undermining democracy, turning America into Argentina (is Gingrich making an
</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Per%C3%B3n">Evita</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> reference?)
and Trump is bravely standing up to her.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2nsZ42WTcp05rmswEHq3tzDx7ZVH5ceedCXdot-CXsmdFRGYOVMm3AgCmbePT09YFGXc4tHuBV6EY3Nei_V2I5z4zuR1ytX67EPhb-d1iLPicAhp4q16ccN-KXjNqtkxmsOnrTLqrtQ/s1600/voting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2nsZ42WTcp05rmswEHq3tzDx7ZVH5ceedCXdot-CXsmdFRGYOVMm3AgCmbePT09YFGXc4tHuBV6EY3Nei_V2I5z4zuR1ytX67EPhb-d1iLPicAhp4q16ccN-KXjNqtkxmsOnrTLqrtQ/s400/voting.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It’s
ridiculous, of course, since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">there is no
reason</i> to think the voting process is being interfered with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wallace was actually stumbling toward a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">third</i> question: Isn’t questioning the
system without any real evidence as destructive as questioning the principle of
popular sovereignty itself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer,
of course, is “Yes!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two have the
same effect: the erosion of public trust in our political system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elections are the accepted mechanisms for
peacefully resolving social conflict, and it’s frightening to imagine what would
happen if that acceptance lapsed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put
another way: making a charge of electoral fraud is so dangerous, so potentially
destructive of social cohesion, that one should only do so very carefully, with
extreme caution, and only with convincing evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do so </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/trumps-gettysburg-address/505106/">recklessly</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/20/politics/donald-trump-i-will-totally-accept-election-results-if-i-win/">flippantly</a></span><span lang="EN-US">,
thoughtlessly, does almost as much damage to democracy as actually stealing
elections.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
Trump, to wildly understate the matter, is not known for speaking with </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-prick.html">responsibility or
circumspection</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed,
he constantly casts mistrust upon our public institutions and the people who
run them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his view, the leaders of
our society are all crooks or fools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Business sends your jobs overseas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The government deliberately refuses to secure the borders, and steals
your tax money to make life soft for the illegal immigrants of questionable
ethnicity who then so easily enter. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finance
enriches itself while gambling with our economic well-being, and collects
bailouts while you have to keep paying your underwater mortgage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Academia indoctrinates your children with
snobbish intolerance disguised as moral sophistication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The only ones left that are still genuinely noble and good are the
American people themselves, especially the white working class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But America is a sham.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile
Hillary represents just the opposite view, that the system is working well, or
at least good enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basic
trajectory of post-Cold-War life – increasing globalization, identity politics
at home, professional-class meritocracy, free markets – is positive and
promising, and the more of it the better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She parrots all the same old clichés about how we’re stronger together,
and diversity is our strength, and we must open ourselves to the world, blah,
blah, blah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She doesn’t mean it and no
one believes it, but it’s part of the charade that our politics have degraded
into, a charade that Hillary’s donors so desperately want us all to keep
playing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">What
Trump and his supporters get right is that they want to end the charade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They see clearly the central truth of our
current situation: American elites don’t really care about America, only their stunted,
self-serving ideologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we are
really living through, what Trump really represents, is a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/10/jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-donald-trump-us-white-poor-working-class">crisis of faith</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s why Trump’s supporters are so ready to
believe in stolen elections and why they’re not alarmed at Trump’s appalling </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://theweek.com/articles/654890/america-ever-recover-from-donald-trump">flouting of democratic
outcomes and norms</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
support Trump <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because</i> they’ve </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/10/24/trumps-right--the-system-is-rigged-and-we-dont-owe-it-our-default-acceptance-n2235980">lost faith in the
system</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">What
the Trumpians miss is their own culpability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Large sections of the grassroots gladly went along with all the foolish
mistakes of the last decades, mistakes our elites sold us like so much </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil">snake oil</a></span><span lang="EN-US">: financial
deregulation, free trade, the Iraq War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And now that all of those are seen for the disasters they really are,
those same grassroots righteously rise up in rebellion against their foolish
masters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main ingredient in Trump’s
snake oil is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">irresponsibility</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
if the whole system is corrupt, and none of us regular people is at fault, then
anything that cleanses that corruption is justified. Cynicism plus
irresponsibility equals rage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
the real danger, and the real fear lurking behind Wallace’s questions and the
media’s horror: that mistrust of the system leads to </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/trumps-rigged-game/504299/">civil disorder</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, to </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/sheriff-openly-calls-for-riots-as-trump-says-election-is-rigged-dfe1a7ffc2b#.ptjty3cod">violence</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the dark beast skulking in the heart
of our current political chaos, the beast that Trump so </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-tells-his-supporters-to-watch-polling-places-in-majority-black-cities-63c985af5a0d#.2wxt8iutu">carelessly</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/13/donald-trump-says-he-may-pay-legal-fees-of-accused-attacker/">summons</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
strange thing about this Trump-disses-democracy controversy is that by
questioning the voting process Trump is picking on one aspect of the system
that actually works the way it should.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is, the mechanics of our voting system are quite clean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our democracy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> being stolen, not by treacherous conspirators shuffling around
buses of illegal immigrants to multiple polling stations, but by a campaign
finance system that allows donors to weed out real challengers, and by two
ossified and brain-dead parties with a stranglehold on the process, and by a
media more addicted to horse-race and spectacle than to political substance, and
by propagandists encouraging anger and fear rather than generosity and
sobriety, and by social justice warriors undermining freedom of expression by sniffing
out the tiniest whiffs of dissent, and by elites who feel more allegiance to their
hypertrophied cosmopolitan vanity than to their fellow countrymen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now by a public too cynical and too
irresponsible to want more than to throw bricks through the windows.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
Hillary’s windows don’t need to be broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They need to be rattled by crowds of citizens loudly demanding an
economy that works for Americans workers, and an elite culture that doesn’t disdain
popular sensibilities, and a political system that responds to people’s real
needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But those crowds need to accept
their obligation to constructively engage with our problems, rather than just
vent their frustrations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Trumpian
diagnosis is largely correct, though quite overstated, and contaminated by white
nationalism, and led by a deranged and dangerous </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://patriotpost.us/opinion/45499">clown</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hillary is at least an adult, and as such proposes
some <a href="https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/">marginally beneficial policies</a>,
but the status quo she represents is not sustainable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t buy the Trumpian line that </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.claremont.org/crb/basicpage/the-flight-93-election/">America is dying</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, and don’t
let Hillary lull you with happy talk while proposing to tinker around the
edges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect, they’re both cynical;
they’re both saying that fundamental constructive change isn’t possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that’s a copout, and a recipe for
national decline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t give in to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not easy striking a balance that’s
realistic without being cynical, and idealistic without being utopian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that’s what maturity demands of us. And
that’s how we positively address our very real problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s how we fight for democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-82144509018408806452016-10-13T12:10:00.000-04:002016-10-13T12:10:12.018-04:00The Devouring<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSmMMly9sFQt6-rOza8d-f_KDsN5Ar-_ijtOgR1XsX1wuIKvLhqEWz-sK3DzC0hPmKojxAA5GR2_jOuDs1QfnY20uggoaqdkU_ruZbNIEb_INAu_uJBVz1-7foF-4RQymSuITFtl7z8BA/s1600/trump-screaming.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSmMMly9sFQt6-rOza8d-f_KDsN5Ar-_ijtOgR1XsX1wuIKvLhqEWz-sK3DzC0hPmKojxAA5GR2_jOuDs1QfnY20uggoaqdkU_ruZbNIEb_INAu_uJBVz1-7foF-4RQymSuITFtl7z8BA/s400/trump-screaming.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I am ego, hear me roar!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Donald
Trump is actually quite a simple person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All he cares about is his ego. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
knows he’s just so amazingly awesome! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he has the garish wealth and the hot babes
to prove it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there another way to
measure a person’s value?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To him the
world is only raw material waiting to be consumed, just a collection of objects
to be possessed and people to be dominated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And anyone who declines is an enemy to be crushed, a small person who
can only be motivated by petty spite and envy, a loser.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This simplicity is sometimes lost in the blizzard
of his abusive and blustering speech, but it’s always his essential motivation,
his bottom line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone must worship
him as he worships himself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
that leads to his defining feature as a public figure: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">his utter disregard for anything else</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The demands of his ravenous monster-ego are
so overwhelming that he literally can’t stop to consider any other principle,
including civility, or reason, or truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And this gives him a kind of grotesque transparency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems to have no ability to censor
himself, <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trumps-temperament/">to
control his impulses</a>, to consider the consequences of his actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All that matters is that his ego be sated,
which, of course, it never can be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
his comprehensive irresponsibility also <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Assholes-Theory-Donald-Aaron-James/dp/0385542038">gives
him an advantage</a> in any confrontation with critics, since words utterly
unconstrained by meaning or consequence are tough weapons to fight against.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s hard to argue with someone who doesn’t
care about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anything</i> but winning.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s
consider some of the things he doesn’t he care about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He quite obviously feels no responsibility to
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">civility</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He crudely denigrates Mexicans, Muslims,
disabled people, etc. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He brags about how
beautiful women are <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-billy-bush-tape-grab-women-us-elections-republican-a7351371.html">toys
created for his pleasure</a>, and how less attractive ones <a href="https://mic.com/articles/155524/donald-trump-loves-to-call-women-ugly-and-weak-and-his-twitter-feed-proves-it#.HObCEGaGM">rightly
earn</a> <a href="http://www.vox.com/culture/2016/9/27/13072666/donald-trump-rosie-odonnell-feud-debate-explained">his
scorn</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their feelings, their hardships,
their dignity – those matter nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump
has even <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/5/donald-trump-gives-supporters-permissions-be-viole/">encouraged
violence</a> among his followers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He doesn’t
understand that civility matters because society cannot function if we don’t
respect each other, even when we vigorously disagree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s ridiculously obvious, yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>
it is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He
feels no responsibility to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Republican
Party</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When that <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/politics/donald-trump-women-vulgar/">tape appeared</a>
in which he makes dehumanizing comments about women and brags about sexually
assaulting them, party leaders urged him to do everything he could to control
the damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They begged him – in his own
interests and those of down-ballot candidates – to fully apologize, to drop the
issue, and to not dredge up <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/in-1999-trump-said-he-couldnt-be-president-because-of-the-women-hed-sleep-with/">similar
actions by Bill Clinton</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead he
doubled down, holding a press conference with Bill’s accusers from the 90’s and
before, even giving them seats in the audience at the second debate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In response, many of those party leaders, notably
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/10/politics/paul-ryan-said-he-wont-defend-donald-trump/">House
Speaker Paul Ryan</a>, have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/07/republicans-rush-to-condemn-trump-and-distance-themselves-after-lewd-video-of-trump-emerges/">publicly
distanced themselves</a>, out of varying degrees of self-interest and moral
revulsion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Trump’s responses throughout
were never in doubt: he went on the crude offensive, first against Bill
Clinton, then against those unhappy party bosses, attacking them as weak,
pathetic, disloyal non-leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
an egotism so overwhelming that it can’t even get out of its own way!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A shrewder nominee would have conceded some small
amount of stature by being conciliatory with his fellow party members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Trump can’t do that, even though it would
help him win the presidency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
narcissism is so short-sighted that it even subverts itself!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
that’s a recurring theme. There was, for instance, absolutely no electoral
advantage in deliberately and repeatedly denigrating the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://theweek.com/articles/628384/why-donald-trump-wont-stop-talking-about-judge-curiel">Hispanic judge in his
fraud trial</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, or an overweight </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/how-clinton-and-trump-made-alicia-machado-the-new-khizr-khan.html">Hispanic beauty queen</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> from the
1990’s, or the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438692/donald-trump-gold-star-khan-family-can-trump-cross-fitness-threshold">father of a slain Muslim
American soldier</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, in each of these three feuds he came off as bullying a
sympathetic figure, and in each case he persisted in his attacks, thereby
keeping the story alive in the public mind long after it would otherwise have
died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In each case he was incapable of
doing the smart thing: ignoring the criticism and moving on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that almost certainly lost him votes with
minorities, and probably with moderate whites as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that just wasn’t as important as </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/black-hole-within-donald-trump-000000238.html">protecting his vanity</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His ego simply would not let him back down or
let it go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
there’s another recurring theme, his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/30/donald-trump-did-a-cnn-townhall-last-night-and-it-was-a-classic/#annotations:8906757">inability
to apologize</a>, to consider that he’s <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/trump-has-never-sought-forgiveness/">done
anything wrong</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, he feels no
responsibility to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">morality</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right and wrong are for suckers, they are
only distractions from winning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider
<a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/16/12938066/donald-trump-obama-birth-certificate-birther">his
leading part</a> in the birther conspiracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For years he spread vicious rumors based on flimsy non-evidence that
Barack Obama was not born in America, and was therefore unqualified to be
president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He continued to do so long
after Obama released his long-form birth certificate proving he was born in
Hawaii.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when in this election year the
pressure to recant grew too great, he made a mealy-mouthed non-apology in which
he falsely blamed the 2008 Hillary campaign for starting the rumors and took
credit for finally laying them to rest. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He took no responsibility for the damage he
had done to race relations and to our political discourse more broadly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He just blithely acted as if none of that had
ever happened.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
this may be the worst of all: he feels no responsibility to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the truth</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Trump words need not correspond to
reality; they’re only tools for achieving whatever his goal is at that moment
(and it’s ultimately always the one goal).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consider his remarks last August in which he called Obama and Hillary <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-idUSKCN10M146">“founders”
of ISIS</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When interviewing Trump, conservative
radio host Hugh Hewitt, who understood it made no sense to take Trump’s bizarre
locution at face value, tried to </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.hughhewitt.com/donald-trump-makes-return-visit/">prompt him</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> to be a
little more circumspect in his word choice:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hewitt: Last night,
you said the President was the founder of ISIS. I know what you meant. You
meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trump: No, I meant
he’s the founder of ISIS. I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the
most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hewitt: But he’s not sympathetic
to them. He hates them. He’s trying to kill them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trump: I don’t care.
He was the founder. The way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding
of ISIS, okay?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He
doesn’t care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And why should he care
about trivialities like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaning</i>? He
casually contradicts what he said last month, or yesterday, or five minutes
ago, or even earlier in the same sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He contains <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/09/09/in-a-speech-that-condemned-regime-change-trump-endorses-regime-change.html">multitudes</a>!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He emits his unacquainted-with-reality verbiage
and smirks at the camera defiantly, as if sneering at the truth, “You can’t
make me care.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
could go on like this all day and all night and all day and all night tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider: By telling Hillary he will <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/09/politics/eric-holder-nixon-trump-presidential-debate/">put
her in jail</a> if he’s elected, and by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-invites-russia-to-meddle-in-the-us-presidential-race-with-clintons-emails/2016/07/27/a85d799e-5414-11e6-b7de-dfe509430c39_story.html">inviting
an unfriendly foreign despot</a> to interfere in the election, he shows he
doesn’t care about democracy. By repeatedly promoting false crime statistics
that <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/23/donald-trump/trump-tweet-blacks-white-homicide-victims/">wildly
overstate black-on-white violence</a> he shows he doesn’t care about racial
harmony. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By celebrating waterboarding <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/24/donald-trump-on-waterboarding-even-if-it-doesnt-work-they-deserve-it">for
its punitive value</a>, and advocating the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/politics/donald-trump-terrorists-families/">summary
killing</a> of the innocent wives and children of terrorists, he shows he
doesn’t care about humanitarianism or justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By pre-emptively warning that he can only lose <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12342600/trump-rigged-clinton-steal-election">if
the Democrats cheat</a>, he shows he doesn’t care about public trust. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/us/politics/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump.html?_r=0">refusing
to prepare</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/trump-is-a-lazy-idiot-trump-campaign-tells-new-york-times.html">for
the debates</a>, and by stubbornly <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/trumps-terrifying-nuke-answer-at-the-debate-should-end-his-campaign-but-it-wont-20151216">maintaining
ignorance</a> on even the most basic subjects, he shows he doesn’t care about expertise
or competence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything he says and
does shows he feels no respect or responsibility for anything.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Except
maybe the forgotten white working class, and their understanding of America.
Trump at times seems to genuinely care about these people and the way
conservative economic dogma and liberal cultural disdain have wounded
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sees them the way they see
themselves, as hard-working people fighting a system that’s working against
them, and in his dismissal of all the normal considerations of politics <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he is their defiance,</i> and their
denial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His supporters are <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-deploring-and-deplored.html">mostly
good people</a> wronged by their own elites, and in those moments when he
champions them he rises a little above his own squalid vanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He comforts them with the same fairy tale he
tells himself, that his amazing awesomeness will conquer all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He extends to them his own irresponsibility,
licensing their bitter refusal to face up to the realities of modern America,
and to their part in our continuing racial discord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His ego devours them, too! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when push comes to shove and his concern
for them conflicts with the demands of that implacable ego, he casually hurts
their cause by undermining his own electoral chances. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately he doesn’t really care about them,
at least not enough to deserve their support.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
in the end he doesn’t even really care about being president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does anyone actually believe he’d like to
hold all that responsibility?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would
love the power and adulation, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But he would be incapable of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/white-house-trump-hot-mess">evaluating heavy
decisions</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, or making concessions to unfriendly realities, or
controlling his impulses when his buttons are pushed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, he can’t really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> the President, and he knows it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He seems to have decided to run for president partly <a href="http://www.insideedition.com/headlines/15264-was-trump-motivated-to-run-for-president-after-obama-ridiculed-him-at-2011-dinner">to
avenge Obama’s insults</a> against him over his birther-ism, maybe even <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/how-the-haters-made-trump?utm_term=.grRnem8OG#.baNzGJWxd">on
a dare</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If his ego trumps even his own
self-interest, is there any reason to think it won’t trump American interests
as well?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not someone who should
be let within a hundred miles of the presidency.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Obviously,
anyone whose policy preferences run conservative would find it hard or
impossible to vote for Hillary, even in the grim face of Trump’s blithering
unfitness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On policy, Hillary is a fairly
standard professional-class liberal, with all the knee-jerk cosmopolitanism, acquiescence
to inequality, and condescension toward working whites that that implies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s more slippery than the average
politician, but that makes her less so than a constant dissembler like Trump,
just as being more corrupt than the typical politician makes her <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/most-corrupt-candidate-ever-is-donald-trump.html">less
corrupt</a> than a dirty Manhattan real-estate developer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she is capable of controlling herself, of
considering the consequences of her actions, of understanding her own
motivations, of learning and growing, of weighing multiple considerations, of
compromise, of conciliation, and of responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is an adult; he is a screaming baby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The choice for an honest conservative must be
hard, and that conservative can only choose Trump over Hillary if he believes her
policies will be so harmful to the country that they </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/would-you-vote-for-a-sexual-predator.html">out-weigh Trump’s</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> monumental
and destructive foolishness, immaturity and irresponsibility. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s a hard argument to make.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It’s
not clear how Trump became the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all">genuinely toxic
character he is</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. It seems
likely he was born with narcissist tendencies and 70 years of yes-man
sycophancy and moneyed unaccountability have drilled that narcissism deep down into
the bedrock of his psyche. But he is, in
a strange way, to be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/opinion/donald-trumps-sad-lonely-life.html">pitied</a>,
like a compulsive psychopath, or a Kardashian.
He’s the bellhop of the world’s most superficial and tyrannical
ego. He’s a lost little boy at the mercy
of a reality-devouring monster, and whatever was once human or touching about
him is long, long gone. There is no hope
for the little Donald, his ruthless ego enslaves him and ruins him. But it’s quite easy to keep it from ruining
us. Don’t vote for it.</span></span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-61976284757076567482016-09-25T09:56:00.000-04:002016-09-25T09:56:05.961-04:00The Deploring and the Deplored<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKDcC8oVn5AAPenkVUZmXEqw3IUMj3C2O0XEWZvvQqt6fo0aTW4TYk_XVK82uPkR9WQ-iQ3x5PssIkSD4Wo3smP76T9Bq5WFbua9tIuXyTpBXUh_Hj6QuHfenLpfTf3Vu_3OE3Ztp74k/s1600/Deplorable+Lives+Matter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKDcC8oVn5AAPenkVUZmXEqw3IUMj3C2O0XEWZvvQqt6fo0aTW4TYk_XVK82uPkR9WQ-iQ3x5PssIkSD4Wo3smP76T9Bq5WFbua9tIuXyTpBXUh_Hj6QuHfenLpfTf3Vu_3OE3Ztp74k/s400/Deplorable+Lives+Matter.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Not
every racist is deplorable, though racism always is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what Hillary overlooked when she </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://time.com/4486502/hillary-clinton-basket-of-deplorables-transcript/">dismissed so many Americans</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> as
“deplorables” at a recent fund-raiser (italics added):<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You know, to just be
grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">basket of deplorables</i>. Right? The
racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And
unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has
given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now how 11
million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric.
Now, some of those folks – they are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">irredeemable</i>,
but thankfully they are not America. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">To
be fair, she did label only some of them as “irredeemable”, and she did
immediately follow up with expressions of empathy for those driven into Trump’s
arms by economic and cultural malaise, rather than by bigotry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she later </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/09/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-basket-of-deplorables/">apologized</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> for
characterizing so many of his supporters as deplorable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Undeniably, Trump has come as far as he’s
come partly </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/06/racial-anxiety-is-a-huge-driver-of-support-for-donald-trump-two-new-studies-find/">by appealing to white
racial, religious and sexual animus</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/07/which-tribe-are-you-on.html">a significant part of
his support</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> comes from those motivated by varying degrees
of that animus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that doesn’t
necessarily make them bad people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
doesn’t even necessarily make them bigots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Seriously.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Let’s
consider the categories of white racial hostility, particularly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But before we do, let’s resist the
overwhelming contemporary practice of misusing political language; let’s clarify
our terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word “racism” means the
belief that people of other races are inherently and irredeemably inferior, morally
or intellectually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, clearly, a
“racist” is someone who holds such beliefs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, many white Americans are racist;
anecdote, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/obama-calls-racism-deeply-rooted-hes-right.html">empirical study</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, and everyday
observation all bear that out (though how many is in hot dispute).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And given the monumental horror that racism
has visited upon our nation, we’re all obligated to aggressively and zealously
fight against it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there are subtleties
lurking here as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
let’s start with the unambiguous category, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">organized</i> racists, those whose social and political lives center on
their conviction that non-whites are indeed inferior, and who actively work to
implement policies predicated upon that perception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This category obviously includes those members
of explicitly racist organizations, like </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/stormfront">Stormfront</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, or the
Klan, or the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/08/25/whose-alt-right-it-anyway">alt-right</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These people are indeed deplorable and
contemptible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t matter whether
they’re otherwise hard workers or good parents or responsible citizens; if
they’ve dedicated their political lives to subjugating millions of their fellow
human beings, if they explicitly and consistently act on their unjustifiable hatreds,
then they’ve consigned themselves to moral illegitimacy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Next
are the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">decided</i> racists, those who
are convinced that whites are superior and that the races should be kept
separate, but who don’t make those beliefs central to their personality or their
politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are people who prefer to
live and associate only with other whites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They think American culture is superior </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fair.org/press-release/pat-buchanan-in-his-own-words/">because whites and
Christianity are superior</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, and they think only white Christians
(and possibly Jews) can be real Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They generally vote for conservative politicians out of vague fear and
hostility toward the Other, but they agree that organizations like the Klan are
beneath contempt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all know someone
who fits in this category, and we all know that their racism doesn’t define
them or completely negate whatever good qualities they otherwise have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until just a couple of generations ago,
almost every white American was squarely in this category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, by now everyone should know
better, and willful ignorance <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i>
deplorable, but in and of itself it doesn’t make one a deplorable <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">person</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">That’s
because every person is a moral mixed bag; </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/opinion/when-it-comes-to-baskets-were-all-deplorable.html">none of us is pure</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Racism is an irredeemable evil, but so is
greed, or selfishness, or callousness in the face of suffering, etc., and we
are all guilty of all of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">degree</i> to which we are racist or selfish
or greedy or callous that makes it fair to characterize us as good or bad
people, as admirable or deplorable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Racism
is different from those more pedestrian evils in that it’s a social artifact
(like race itself), not a natural part of human life, and therefore could
conceivably be eradicated. But when assessing a given individual’s moral worth there’s
no real reason to treat it so different from other, more universal evils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And let’s be clear, that’s how Hillary meant
to assess those people: as individuals, not merely as political actors.
Regardless of how many people she was referring to, to her they’re “deplorables”,
</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/hillary-deplorable-weekend/">individuals to be
discounted</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. But is it fair to morally dismiss all the
decided racists as casually as the organized ones?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
it’s in the last and most numerous category of white American racial hostility
that the most subtleties and confusions lie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are the racially <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">resentful</i>,
those who feel as if society – the government, the media, the academy, elite
opinion – </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://now.tufts.edu/news-releases/whites-believe-they-are-victims-racism-more-o">favors non-whites over
whites</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, that it condemns white failings but condones black ones,
that it celebrates blackness but disdains whiteness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Note that this is actually not racism per
se.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s entirely possible to feel your own
race is being treated unfairly without thinking another race is inferior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In practice, however, many in this category suspect
that blacks are more prone to </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/09/trump_s_basket_of_deplorables_hillary_clinton_was_right.html">irresponsibility and
immorality and violence</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But even this is not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">necessarily</i>
racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since there’s nothing racist in </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/09/obama-putin-and-exceptionalism.html">perceiving a culture as
dysfunctional</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">possible</i>
to believe African-American culture simply fails to sufficiently inculcate responsibility
and self-control, and that if blacks could be raised in the supposedly superior
white culture they would be just as virtuous as whites.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s
possible, but it doesn’t happen very often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is, most people in the resentful category are deep down quite suspicious
about the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inherent</i> shortcomings of
black folks. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But typically those
suspicions are unconscious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
resentful don’t consider themselves racist at all, and they don’t intend harm
on any race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of them are good
people, as good as people anywhere. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
views on race are foolish and wildly wrong-headed – the notion that blacks have
it easier than whites is just laughable, for instance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But believing such absurdities makes them neither
deplorable nor irredeemable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">What
it makes them is American.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, when
it comes to race </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/yes-all-white-people-are-racists-now-lets-do-something-about-it">the vast majority of
white Americans</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> are a little bit racist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of us is without racial sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s only fair to say that if we
stipulate that it’s almost entirely unconscious, and it’s only true in the
technical sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We defined a racist as
someone who believes in racism, but maybe that wasn’t such a clear definition
after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just doesn’t seem fair to
call someone racist for having vague, fleeting, unconscious negative reactions
to people of color, especially if he or she on a conscious level concedes that
racism is intellectually and morally bankrupt. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stupid and destructive racial fears
imparted by the overwhelming weight of 400 years of racial horror do not negate
whatever other admirable qualities those people possess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What seems to separate conservative whites
from their liberal counterparts is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">degree</i>
of their unconscious racial fear, plus the unwillingness to honestly face that
history, and its ongoing effects.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
that doesn’t mean all their resentment is unfounded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elite society actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i> generally disdain less-than-affluent whites, treating them as </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/06/26/the-jim-webb-story/">rednecks</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, rubes,
white trash, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s true that liberals
do tend to excuse any bad behavior by African-Americans – even </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/editorial-charlotte-drowning-systematic-injustice-n652541">violence and looting</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And programs like affirmative action do
advantage blacks at the expense of whites, within limited contexts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the whole, being white in America still
brings with it enormous advantages, but working-class whites can’t be blamed
for resenting these other things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Neither can they be criticized for resenting the way globalization,
de-industrialization, off-shoring, and loose immigration policies have
decimated their wages and economic conditions. They understand – viscerally and
accurately – that the people running the country not only don’t care about
their values and interests, but positively </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-great-comeuppance.html">consider them illegitimate</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have become starkly alienated, they feel
themselves a “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/6/12803636/arlie-hochschild-strangers-land-louisiana-trump">forgotten tribe . . .
strangers in their own land</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They know they’re rejected, discounted, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deplored</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Conservative
ideologues dismiss their economic concerns while liberal ones dismiss <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">them</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And now they’ve found a champion in Donald Trump, who speaks directly to
their fears and their alienation, who tells them they are the backbone of the
country, and that they can be made great again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He tells them that they and their concerns are paramount.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he also incites their anger, and inflames
their worst fears regarding suspect groups: African-Americans, Mexicans,
Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is the true deplorable</i>: the politician who exploits racial
fear and anger </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/the-worst-racial-demagogues-of-the-decade/255070/">for his own gain</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, who gives
license to our worst instincts, who would destroy America in order to save
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His followers are so much better
than he is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz2uN2EncI0T3hCL9LbzOIhm4JIB57MuByaTftjS1xZ-fBv5vdp-Z9z3kR7kt1c52bvHbPoKQ88MU3_rV0Czyk36z8JiPxvbAe2gHCM0_Byw36F6vb-ceOzjpmegoTvh6EGTOJOzLr-hg/s1600/deplorables.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz2uN2EncI0T3hCL9LbzOIhm4JIB57MuByaTftjS1xZ-fBv5vdp-Z9z3kR7kt1c52bvHbPoKQ88MU3_rV0Czyk36z8JiPxvbAe2gHCM0_Byw36F6vb-ceOzjpmegoTvh6EGTOJOzLr-hg/s320/deplorables.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Neither perfect nor deplorable</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
they have some responsibility here too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They need not let their irrationalities rule them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump may be the only national figure who
directly speaks to their pressing concerns, who has made a real pitch to be
their leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they didn’t have to
follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By choosing to support a
race-baiter, they’ve made themselves more complicit in our national sin. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Embracing a candidate because of his racial
animus (or failing to reject him for it) is a definite moral failure, one much
worse than merely consciously or unconsciously harboring racial animus oneself.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But these are the fruits of denial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of his supporters are in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">resentful</i> category; they’re not real
racists like the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">decideds</i> or the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">organized</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But their stubborn refusal to confront both our
sordid racial history and their own subtle biases has left them vulnerable to
exploitation by a slimy demagogue like Trump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He pushes buttons they’re convinced they don’t even have!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may not be real racists, but by attaching
themselves to a man who so inflames racial hostility they’re starting to act like
ones.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
liberals like Hillary aren’t giving them any real alternative – almost
deliberately!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberal sanctimony and
condescension – epitomized by Hillary’s “deplorable” comments themselves – only
</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/14/12896540/hillary-basket-of-deplorables">drive resentful whites
further away</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
resent being called racist when they’re really not, at least not in the
virulent way the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">decideds</i> or the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">organized</i> are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They correctly understand that most liberals
consider them irredeemable, enemies to be crushed, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fredrikdeboer.com/2016/03/03/in-the-simple-foundation/">not constituents to be
induced</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals and
white populists seem to be coming to an agreement that the essence of
liberalism is contempt for the white working class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
contempt for any dissent regarding race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s nothing at all racist in opposing multiculturalism or
affirmative action or identity politics or immigration or Black Lives Matter, and
there are plenty of honest (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Next-American-Nation-Nationalism-Revolution-ebook/dp/0684825031">and compelling</a></span><span lang="EN-US">) arguments
to be made against them and plenty of honest people making them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That some people make bad faith arguments doesn’t
change that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a whole lot of space
between David Duke and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/will-black-lives-matter-be-a-movement-that-persuades/407017/">campus leftists</a></span><span lang="EN-US">. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But liberals have indulged in deploration-creep,
labeling as racist and bigoted even the smallest criticism of their officially
sanctioned racial views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
liberals’ </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html">worst instinct</a></span><span lang="EN-US">: perceiving
themselves as saints ridding the world of sinners. It’s simple </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/miller-mccarthyism.html">Puritan</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/opinion/will-the-left-survive-the-millennials.html">witch-hunting</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, but sporting
radical chic and spouting post-modern alibis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And it doesn’t really do anyone much good, this </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/095c7a8e-96a5-11e5-9228-87e603d47bdc">Politics of Shaming</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, but it’s
so much more self-satisfying than the thankless drudgery of building coalitions
and making good-faith arguments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fredrikdeboer.com/2016/03/03/in-the-simple-foundation/">Crusading is so much
more fun than persuading!</a></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Conservatives may be in denial about our racial problems, but liberals
seem to have given up on any idea of actually solving them!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
that’s a disaster of the first order, because a more constructive and less
self-righteous liberalism is the only thing that can possibly save us.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">American racism unfortunately has both a long
history and a promising future, and only liberals fully appreciate the enormity
of the challenge it represents.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the
fact that we’ve come in just a few decades from a nation of mostly organized
and decided racists to one that is mostly racially resentful should be seen as
tremendous progress!</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Explicit and
conscious racism has been almost wiped out.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s time for the witch-hunt to stop.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s not to say that the foolish and horribly destructive racial
attitudes remaining should not be called out and condemned – we are all obligated
to do just that.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s to say that those harboring
and expressing those attitudes </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">should
still be respected as individuals and as citizens</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We cannot indulge the racial sin, but we must
love the sinner.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We really have no
choice.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’re all Americans, the Black
Lives Matter activist and the Trump supporter alike.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We work hard and hope for the future and try
to do well by ourselves and our children and our fellow countrymen.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">None of us is going anywhere, and no real solutions
will exclude any of us.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-38424196387698373042016-07-11T10:02:00.000-04:002016-07-11T16:11:59.214-04:00Which Tribe Are You On?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UM1Rlede_Yt-s_cqp6vSbv0Xt0LPrsLCAjCqjMk7-Ix6DENxO4L7nVhLof7h2_Rwe8nTQyhdu0gyZoKcGsdkD9lWGJos609edITYW5ZsR-QsurrZJ_nhb9Cdh8QSOczmxpcc6Pk8AmY/s1600/Stokely+Carmichael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UM1Rlede_Yt-s_cqp6vSbv0Xt0LPrsLCAjCqjMk7-Ix6DENxO4L7nVhLof7h2_Rwe8nTQyhdu0gyZoKcGsdkD9lWGJos609edITYW5ZsR-QsurrZJ_nhb9Cdh8QSOczmxpcc6Pk8AmY/s400/Stokely+Carmichael.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Stokely Carmichael, Donald Trump's ideological father</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Just as
Bernie Sanders is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-socialist-who-saved-liberalism.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">not a socialist</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">, Donald Trump is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/12/10/9886152/donald-trump-fascism"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">not a fascist</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">, nor are his followers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">resemble</i>
fascists – with their worship of the strong leader, their dreams of unmediated
state power, their casual attitude toward violence, their embrace of <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/03/donald_trump_s_plan_for_plunging_america_into_barbarism.html">barbarism</a>,
and their hostility toward minorities – but they also differ in very important
ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t wish to end democracy,
for instance, or embark upon wars of conquest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, Trump </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/24/us/elections/trump-gop-delegate-system-rigged.html?_r=0"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">defends majority rule</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> and denounces foreign interventionism
(though </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/world/2016/5/27/11608580/donald-trump-foreign-policy-war-iraq-hillary-clinton"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">inconsistently</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But Trump
does share one notable thing with historical fascists: he has borrowed the
tactics and style of his opponents on the left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In fact, right-wing movements traditionally take on the stylistic
attributes of their contemporaries on the left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hitler famously adopted the organizational and rhetorical style of the
Communists of his day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Birchers of
the 1950’s self-consciously organized themselves into cells modeled on those of
the Communists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Goldwater-Reagan
right of the 1960’s created and nurtured a slew of conservative media and
think-tanks to counter the then-dominance of liberal institutions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Moral Majority of the 1970’s portrayed
itself as a Christian version of the Civil Rights Movement, claiming to be
victims of anti-religious prejudice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
each case, the right-wing movement in question became the mirror of its
left-wing counterpart – only with inegalitarian goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were all wolves in left-wing clothing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">And as our
present left consists of identity politics – promoting the interests of
traditionally oppressed groups: blacks, Hispanics, women, gays, etc. – so the
new right that Trump is crafting consists of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">white</i> identity politics; in its distilled version: politics for
straight, white, Christian men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>White
identity politics has been the lurking in the shadows on the right for decades,
and though we’ve </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-george-wallace-racist-ghost-432164"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">occasionally</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/us/politics/much-of-david-dukes-91-campaign-is-now-in-louisiana-mainstream.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">glimpsed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/the-worst-racial-demagogues-of-the-decade/255070/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">its sinister face</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">,</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> conservatism’s Reaganite masters
have generally kept it hidden (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-great-comeuppance.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">while still happily profiting from its
electoral support, of course</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
Trump has dragged it into the bright sunshine and made it the shining, shouting,
strutting star.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump is not a present-day
Hitler, he’s a white Al Sharpton.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Consider
Trump’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/trump-judge-gonzalo-curiel/484790/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">attacks on Gonzalo Curiel</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">, the federal judge who has ruled unfavorably
for Trump in the ongoing Trump University fraud case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump complained that Curiel can’t be fair to
him </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-university-judge-gonzalo-curiel-223684"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">because he’s “Mexican”</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> (on an earlier occasion he called
him </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/campaign-2016-donald-trump-trial-date-set-in-trump-university-lawsuit/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Spanish”</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">) and therefore, presumably, must be angry at
Trump’s anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant positions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Curiel was actually born in Indiana of Mexican immigrant parents, and Trump
seemed to imply he’s not American because he’s not white, and that is inarguably
racist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But was it racist to question
the judge’s objectivity?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Many seem
to think so, even many </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436225/donald-trump-judge-gonzalo-curiel-trumps-attack-outrageous"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">conservatives</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Republican Speaker of the House and 2012 nominee
for Vice President </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://time.com/4359768/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racism/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Paul Ryan explained</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 49.25pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 49.25pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Claiming a person can’t do their job because
of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 49.25pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But
that’s not quite fair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump wasn’t
complaining that Curiel was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">incompetent</i>
because of his national descent; he wasn’t saying that his race made him an
inherently inferior judge, as a classic racist might; he was complaining that
he was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">irredeemably biased</i> against
Trump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At best, Trump was saying that
Curiel couldn’t possibly be objective in the face of Trump’s well known anti-Mexican
animus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s not necessarily racist,
since anyone’s bias might affect his or her objectivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At worst, Trump was saying the judge couldn’t
possibly be fair to a white man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
that isn’t necessarily racist, since racial animosity, regrettably, can be found
everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though it’s reasonable to
wonder if he meant that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i>
non-whites are irredeemably hostile to whites, since he based his conclusion on
little more than Curiel’s ethnic background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And that would definitely be racist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">But the
point is not whether Trump was being racist, the point is he was being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self-consciously white</i>, he was engaging
in white identity politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he was
doing it just like leftists do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is, left-wing identity politics isn’t simply about advancing the interests of
oppressed racial and sexual groups, goals that are themselves tremendously necessary
and important; it’s also about group consciousness, group pride and, crucially,
group loyalty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of its axioms is that
only members of an oppressed group can really understanding that oppression,
and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/black-lives-matter-cry-from-help/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">only they</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> can apply that understanding as needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So only blacks can really understand the
black experience and only blacks can do it justice; only gays know what it
means to be gay and only gays can represent that, and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the reasoning that says, for
instance, that minorities need to be well represented in the judiciary, because
white judges </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/06/trumps-jujitsu-overthrow-of-liberalism.php"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">can’t be counted on to treat minorities
fairly</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This seems plausible, as far as it goes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But some on the left drive it off the rails
when they claim, for example, that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i>
a black person can </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.startribune.com/black-defendants-white-jurors-does-race-make-a-difference-in-the-courtroom/379597921/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">fairly judge another one</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Trump has merely turned that logic back on itself, saying that only
whites can be fair to whites.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">He seems
to be adopting the entirety of identity thinking, with all of its concomitant </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-campus-and-hope.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">dogmatism and intolerance</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We begin to see the squalid outlines of this newest right, and it’s not a
new fascism, it’s White Lives Matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its
first premise is that whites are themselves victimized by other groups, notably
immigrants and Muslims, also by liberals and blacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, crucially, they are </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-prick.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">victims of political correctness</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, the commonly accepted rules of
political discourse prevent whites from asserting their values and interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a direct borrowing of the post-modern
belief common on the left that received notions of propriety, reason, and truth
are merely tools the oppressors use to squash dissent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following the rules is for suckers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So almost anything – name-calling, attacking
motives, suppressing opposition, even violence – is justified in the interests
of one’s tribe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is the essence
of the new white nationalism: Whites have interests <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as whites</i>, interests that can only be properly addressed when
informed by consciousness of that whiteness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The least self-aware person in America is leading whites into a deeper
self-consciousness of themselves as white!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But this
is how Trump and his followers understand, if only viscerally, their current
situation, and it explains why they love him so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To them, politics is about who is screwing
who, and they’re determined to be the ones doing the screwing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this telling, there are various innately
antagonistic tribes in America, defined primarily by skin color, the non-white
tribes have been ganging up on the whites, and the whites are finally fighting
back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Politicians and activists can
argue about capital-gains tax rates and Obamacare subsidies and abortion, but
those issues don’t really matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They’re only symbols for signaling where one’s loyalties lie, and that’s
all that really matters: loyalty to one’s tribe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are white conservatives on one side and
blacks, gays, Muslims, and all the other racially, religiously and sexually dubious
tribes on the other, and all that matters is who wins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And white liberals, obviously, are traitors
to their own tribe, and are therefore worthy of the worst scorn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tribe is all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqQ9zOKkQILBLjI3PoaGoIIYfcteXAxEw31UAX1XLJv2s1nEkZ52IZlC6GPG3NL2EUaGUExkxfJo9M6aF0bK-TTZK_iK8sUiLn1AHsPszhEwywiMzAQx4odn5Bwv5OpYFdac1Xlprl4Y/s1600/Make+America+Great+Again.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqQ9zOKkQILBLjI3PoaGoIIYfcteXAxEw31UAX1XLJv2s1nEkZ52IZlC6GPG3NL2EUaGUExkxfJo9M6aF0bK-TTZK_iK8sUiLn1AHsPszhEwywiMzAQx4odn5Bwv5OpYFdac1Xlprl4Y/s320/Make+America+Great+Again.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Which America? And great how?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">And
America </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/real-america-looks-different-to-palin/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">belongs to the white tribe</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or it once did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a time,
not so long ago, when being a true American meant being a white, straight,
Christian; others were casually consigned to the periphery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s why Trump thinks Curiel can’t really be
American.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some white nationalists wish
to restore male whiteness to its proper place at the center of American
identity and social deference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other
Trumpians merely feel that working whites in particular have been unfairly
denigrated as backward, ignorant, malicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But all Trumpians share the conviction that whites are being treated
unfairly by society at large.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they
hear Trump say “Make America Great Again”, they know he means them, only them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It is, of
course, foolish to think that whites <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">per
se</i> are an oppressed group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
still hold the vast majority of the wealth and power in this country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there are still oceans of anti-black,
anti-gay, anti-Hispanic, etc. feeling out there; Trump’s rise demonstrates that
all too well (there is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/obama-calls-racism-deeply-rooted-hes-right.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">ample rigorous empirical evidence</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">, as well).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s reasonable to think, for example,
that a white judge might be unfair to a Hispanic claimant in a way that a
Hispanic judge would be less likely to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, there’s every reason to believe that a thoroughly white
judiciary would be significantly less sympathetic and fair to minorities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">But the
reverse is true as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
probably fewer racially hostile minority figures in authority – judges, politicians,
policemen, lawyers, etc. – than racially hostile white ones, because white
supremacy has been and still is such a potent and insidious force in our
national life, even if it is now largely unconscious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s highly unlikely that there are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no</i> non-white authorities who would be
tougher on a white person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there is
truth to the charge that working-class whites have been </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fredrikdeboer.com/2016/03/01/i-wonder-why-people-are-so-angry/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">systematically and unfairly disdained</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> by political and cultural elites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(And of course working whites <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> being genuinely exploited, not by
blacks or Muslims or gays, but by investors and globalist politicians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, they’re being oppressed not as
whites but as workers.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And consider
that programs like affirmative action are explicitly designed to lessen the
number of white men in certain occupations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Whatever good such programs may do (and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/112788/race-based-affirmative-action-makes-things-worse-not-better"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">they don’t do much good</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">, even for minorities) is done by artificially
maintaining higher barriers for whites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is a minor injustice compared to the universe of injustice that America has
dispensed to racial and sexual minorities, but it is nonetheless an actual
injustice committed against the individual whites in question.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But need
justice be a zero-sum affair?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it
necessary to lower whites in order to raise others? Are the Trumpians right
that America is only a cage match of hostile tribes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either the logic of identity applies to all
the tribes or it applies to none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the
Civil Rights Movement was winding down, white liberals and black activists
decided that blacks would be better off claiming blackness as their primary
identity and loyalty – but what good has that done them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One increasingly obvious result is that it
has provided white nationalists with the perfect rationale for fighting for the
interests of whites as whites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s true
that it has helped bring a small number of minorities into the higher echelons
of American power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how does that
help minorities stuck in the ghetto?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
practice, left-wing identity politics has been an abject failure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s only changed the color of the CEO’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If whites embrace it too, it will do as little
for them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Our real
enemy is racial consciousness itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>America wallowed in racial identity politics for hundreds of years before
the Civil Rights Movement, but the answer to white consciousness is not black
consciousness, nor the reverse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/what-we-mean-when-we-say-race-is-a-social-construct/275872/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Race is a fiction</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">, a social construct that has no objective
existence, though plenty of racists have believed otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The early Civil Rights Movement understood
this and worked mightily to overcome race consciousness and replace it with
color-blindness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that short period
was the only time in our long history when fully color-blind assimilation was seen
as the ideal, when the very idea of race was attacked as meaningless and
destructive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The full weight of our
sordid history has made race a most powerful and implacable fiction, one
powerful enough to destroy us yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
whites follow Trump – and their own worst instincts – they’ll make real that
other unimaginably destructive fiction: that we are nothing more than that war
of all tribes against all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that can
only unleash </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/11/george-saunders-goes-to-trump-rallies"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">mistrust and hatred</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> so horrible that we can barely
imagine it now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">There are
social constructs that are objectively real, and unlike race, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Next-American-Nation-Nationalism-Revolution-ebook/dp/B003P9XI34"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">national culture is one of them</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We all speak the same vernacular; we all share the same folkways and
traditions; we’re all products of the same history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We’re
all Americans.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When generations of
white Americans thought minorities were not real Americans, they were
wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when black nationalists and
white leftists think they themselves are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
real Americans, they’re wrong too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thomas Jefferson and Frederick Douglass and Robert E. Lee and Susan B.
Anthony and Cesar Chavez and Malcolm X and Judith Butler and Donald Trump and
Gonzalo Curiel are all <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">irredeemably</i> American,
even if they may not all recognize each other – or even themselves! – as
such.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> is the consciousness that must be raised, that must be
re-invigorated, that must be embraced if we are to avoid the hideous nightmare into
which both Trump and his obliging leftist opponents are so eager to lead us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only if we resist those false identities and
accept our common, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actual</i> identity
can we have any hope of making life better for all of us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s make America conscious again.</span></span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-61763308947575646282016-05-13T14:59:00.000-04:002016-05-13T14:59:02.576-04:00The Third Party<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXfwD4NzmrzGjN4uHEmoVaAfOzWabRM_7QQFfosGF4ODlUqVdyZu6Es_CxrMnBHJCq8kjmTb8xmGgHUXjMHO2ucOklEN2qPCOeIobucaZw7Xkb1I_pNSq0DVYBvGv5FdIdKJhyphenhyphenOrremA/s1600/Trump_Supporters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXfwD4NzmrzGjN4uHEmoVaAfOzWabRM_7QQFfosGF4ODlUqVdyZu6Es_CxrMnBHJCq8kjmTb8xmGgHUXjMHO2ucOklEN2qPCOeIobucaZw7Xkb1I_pNSq0DVYBvGv5FdIdKJhyphenhyphenOrremA/s400/Trump_Supporters.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These people are not conservatives</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Conservatism
is dead. If you don’t believe me, listen
to the man who killed it. Here’s Donald
Trump <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/us/politics/trump-campaign.html">at a
recent Republican event</a> in California:</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.45pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m a conservative, but at this point, who
cares?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let that
sink in. Since at least the time of Ronald
Reagan the GOP has been the furiously self-proclaimed party of
conservatism. And in the last few years
Tea Party grassroots conservatives have crusaded against their own Republican
establishment for being insufficiently fanatical in ideology and tactics. But now, when given the opportunity, those
same grassroots true believers have chosen for their nominee a man who not only
<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/24/is-donald-trump-conservative-heres-the-rundown/">diverges
markedly from conservative doctrine</a>, but who explicitly dismisses conservatism
as irrelevant! What gives?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trump’s
triumph has rudely revealed that there are really <i>two</i> Republican Parties, both of whom think of themselves as the
true conservatives and the other as traitors to the cause. What we think of as traditional conservatism,
the conservatism that has dominated the party for decades, the conservatism of
Goldwater and Reagan, is a program of free markets and free trade, scaling back
the welfare-regulatory state, and maintaining American supremacy in the
world. Think of Reagan <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/154595/how_ronald_reagan_broke_the_air_traffic_controllers_union--and_why_that_fight_still_matters">crushing
the air-traffic controllers union</a> or George W. Bush <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_debate_in_the_United_States#George_W._Bush.27s_privatization_proposal">attempting
to privatize Social Security</a>. The
conservatives have a libertarian view of the federal government and a Social Darwinist
view of capitalist success and failure. Their
core constituency is the investor class, and for decades these Reaganite conservatives
have run the Republican Party, and they’ve run it for the benefit of that
class, with the casual assurance that what benefits investors will eventually
benefit everyone else.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it
turns out that much – perhaps even a majority – of the Republican constituency means
something very different when they call themselves conservative. For them conservatism means the blind conviction
that America is <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/09/02/the_trump_movement_isn_t_about_conservatism_it_s_about_americanism">the
best country on Earth</a>. They see
everyday, straight, white, Christian, American men, with their simple moral
toughness, as the backbone of society and the best people in the world. Some of those men regret the demise of the
traditional American social structure, in which racial, sexual and religious
minorities deferred to them, while some simply worry – <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism">not
entirely without reason</a> – that they’re now disdained and despised by
American elites; and in practice the two perceptions readily blur
together. But either way, for decades
the basic premise of this conservatism is that the social status of those men
is unfairly under assault, and they’ve looked to the Reagan conservatives to
protect and assert it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/623729/myth-donald-trumps-upperclass-support">white
working class</a> conservatives weren’t really interested in lowering capital
gains tax rates or cutting Obamacare subsidies, though they made a good show of
caring about such things. Indeed, these conservatives
<i>actively support</i> the welfare state;
they’re all too anxious to receive the Social Security and Medicare benefits
their Reaganite masters yearn to curtail.
And they particularly <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2015/05/hollow-populisms.html">object
to the free trade and lax immigration policies</a> of the Reaganites, policies
that send good jobs overseas and drive down wages at home. But, for decades the conservative intelligentsia,
in the think tanks and the magazines, on talk radio and Fox News, underwritten
by big money, has worked to indoctrinate the grassroots in the intricacies of
conservative dogma, while enforcing ideological rigidity among conservative
politicians. The populists may have been
dissatisfied, but they couldn’t very well vote for liberals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
Reaganite conservatism hasn’t kept its promises. Trump hasn’t really killed it,
it was killed by its own abysmal failures, particularly the War in Iraq and the
Great Recession. It couldn’t survive its
comprehensive inability to protect the interests and values of white working
people. It’s actually been dead since
2008, but tricked out to appear healthy with hefty doses of donor money, media
bombast, and undying populist aversion to cultural liberalism and its racially
and sexually suspicious beneficiaries.
What Trump has done is kill the <i>illusion</i>
of conservatism. As a man ignorant enough
to overlook ideological considerations, rich enough to be indifferent to
movement money, and self-assured enough (to put it mildly!) to dismiss received
notions of propriety, he was perfectly constituted to override the conservative
establishment and express and exploit the blunt instincts of those unhappy white
populists, <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-prick.html">instincts
he precisely shares</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And now
that he’s exploited those instincts all the way to the nomination, they
constitute the new conservatism. The old
conservatism, however, came to own the party through a very different
strategy. The Buckley-Goldwater-Reagan
conservatives had to fight for years against the moderate Eisenhower establishment
Republicans who controlled the party in the post-war years, and who had made
their peace with the New Deal and Cold War stalemate. Convinced that both the welfare state and
international communism could be aggressively rolled back, they worked the
grassroots, the media, the think tanks, the elections, etc., as they slowly
took over the party from the inside. Their
first big triumph was the nomination of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Before-Storm-Goldwater-Unmaking-Consensus/dp/1568584121">Arizona
Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964</a>. In
1968, segregationist and Democratic Alabama Governor George </span>Wallace pulled
white southern conservative populists out of the New Deal coalition when he <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace_presidential_campaign,_1968">ran
for president as an independent</a>, and they never went back (not at the
presidential level). Richard Nixon – who
brilliantly straddled</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3qUPtwDMYUry7AoLOyR5OezQ2b3ybAB4DSZ8S89IRCGUIOg9uL3jxcltoo_yTtR1HFBOPS7Bbx_AWW21MrHabsVo2c3xyjhIvNQ5dfjEndMs8-r9crjR71iAO80F4xWSZtXmaRcAYveo/s1600/Wallace+in+the+schoolhouse+door.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3qUPtwDMYUry7AoLOyR5OezQ2b3ybAB4DSZ8S89IRCGUIOg9uL3jxcltoo_yTtR1HFBOPS7Bbx_AWW21MrHabsVo2c3xyjhIvNQ5dfjEndMs8-r9crjR71iAO80F4xWSZtXmaRcAYveo/s320/Wallace+in+the+schoolhouse+door.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Governor Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door t</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">o </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">prevent the enrollment of black students </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">at the University of Alabama, 1963</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
the moderate vs. conservative divide – added them and
their white northern collaborators to his own coalition four years later. At the same time, northern moderate and
liberal Republicans – i.e. Eisenhower, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Republican">Rockefeller</a> and
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lindsay">Lindsay</a> Republicans –
left the GOP for the Democratic Party.
And though Goldwater badly lost his general election, Nixon’s and
Reagan’s cynical and skillful campaigning brought the white populists securely
into the conservative movement and the Republican Party, leaving the Reaganites
in charge.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But conservatism
has now split in two, or rather it has reverted to its two naturally
antagonistic groupings, with each side considering itself the heirs of Reagan
and seeing the other as the successors of the hated Eisenhower-ish moderate
establishment. Both groups are
technically conservative, given their belief in innate natural hierarchy. And that means that neither group is really
libertarian, or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486421309">classically
liberal</a>, though some conservatives perceive themselves to be; in practice <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/03/birth-control.html">they
don’t defend individual freedom against social coercion</a>. And neither group is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Revolution-France-Oxford-Classics/dp/0199539022">Burkean</a>,
or classically conservative in the aristocratic European sense, in that neither
affirms pragmatism or conciliation; both groups are intensely idealistic, even
utopian, consisting of righteous, low-church crusaders working to create the
City of God on Earth. And both groups
hold to a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Darwinism-American-Thought-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0807055034">Social
Darwinism</a> that sees society’s winners as virtuously deserving their
winnings. It’s just that Trumpians
believe that the natural aristocracy consists of those aforementioned straight,
white, Christian, American men, while the Reaganites believe it’s successful
capitalists. Trumpism is about <i>identity</i>, Reaganism is about <i>money</i>.
And the Trumpians are less principled, more expedient, more willing to
play dirty to advance the interests of their tribe. Such is the logic of tribalism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can
agree – with Donald Trump! – to call the Reaganites the True Conservatives,
since they’ve claimed the title for so long, and they probably are closer to
the classically conservative Burkean ideal, with their worship of plutocrats as
aristocrats born to rule at home and abroad.
A true Burkean would condemn Reaganite worship of free markets as
destabilizing and intemperate. But a
true Burkean would even more forcefully reject Trumpian recklessness and
thoughtlessness; as he would reject Trumpian majoritarianism, not because it
fails to respect liberal individual rights, but because it fails to defer to
its rightful aristocratic masters. So
even with their right-wing inegalitarianism, it’s fair to call the Trumpians
Populists, since they share much substance with left-wing populists, in
particular instinctual embrace of the popular and the everyday, and animosity toward
the rich and powerful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Given
these ideological incompatibilities and conservatism’s abject policy failures, it
was quite likely that <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-great-comeuppance.html">something
like Trumpism would come along and topple Reaganism</a> from its precarious
perch at the top of the GOP. But the Trumpian
revolt, unlike the Reaganite overthrow of the moderates, has occurred in one
fell swoop. That’s because they didn’t
have to conquer someone else’s party; they didn’t have to convert anyone, or
bring in like-minded outsiders, or drive out ideological opponents. The party has been theirs for the asking all
along.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of
course, the Reaganites fought against the Trumpian takeover tooth and nail,
caucus vote by <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433915/donald-trump-lost-delegates-weak-ground-game">delegate
count</a>, negative ad by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/20/trump-brings-complaints-of-rigged-phony-nominating-process-to-indiana-debut/">convention
rule</a>. They’ve been on top so long,
and they’ve spent so much time and energy convincing themselves they’re America’s
ordained saviors, they can’t let go of the political party meant to be the
instrument of that salvation. And there are
still Reaganites among the grassroots; that’s who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/us/politics/indiana-republican-democratic.html">voted
for Ted Cruz</a>. Some have accepted
their new subordinate status within the exotic new right-wing order and are <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/where-republicans-stand-on-donald-trump-a-cheat-sheet/481449/">supporting
Trump as an evil lesser than Hillary</a>.
But some diehards are promising to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/05/03/erick-erickson-will-not-vote-for-clinton-or-her-donor-donald-trump.html">sit
out the general election</a>, some are working to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-trump-is-nominated-the-gop-must-keep-him-out-of-the-white-house/2016/04/29/293f7f94-0d9d-11e6-8ab8-9ad050f76d7d_story.html">deny
Trump the presidency</a>, some are considering a <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/neither-clinton-nor-trump/article/2002274">true
conservative third-party campaign</a>, and some are so unhappy with Trump they
say they’ll even <a href="http://www.redstate.com/aglanon/2016/01/12/become-stupid/">vote for Hillary</a>! Of course, much of the Reaganite opposition
to Trump has less to do with the Trumpian program and more to do with the man
himself, with his flagrant irresponsibility and doltish ignorance. Though it’s hard not to wonder if some of
those never-Trump folks would so adamantly oppose an irresponsible and doltish
nominee who toed the Reaganite line.
After all, most of them defended Sarah Palin.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
Trumpism – with or without the man himself – is here to stay. Reaganism is dead. Because of its complex of think tanks and
media outlets, the Reaganites will continue to make noise and influence the discourse
for some time to come. But for a long
time to come, no GOP nominee will be openly advocate free trade or looser
immigration policies. And many
supposedly conservative politicians and media personalities have already happily
pledged support for Trump, demonstrating that they were really populists – or
shameless opportunists – all along. Even
some of the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/02/media/sean-hannity-donald-trump-profile/index.html">right-wing
media</a> and think-tank crowd have turned out to be populists. Some politicians, like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/us/politics/paul-ryan-donald-trump.html?_r=0">Paul
Ryan</a>, are trying to finesse the differences. Rush Limbaugh has shown himself just as
brilliant at <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/why-rush-limbaugh-is-cheating-on-conservatism-with-donald-trump/424083/">straddling
the present-day Reaganite-Trumpian divide</a> as Nixon was at straddling the Eisenhower-Reaganite
divide of his day. When there are
full-fledged, self-consciously right-wing populist think tanks to confront the
Reaganite ones, the dying roar of Reaganism will wind down to a whisper.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">In the grand history of the United States, it
may turn out that the ultimate role of modern conservatism will be to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Up-Conservatism-Michael-Lind/dp/0684831864">give
birth to a powerful and resentful white populist nationalism</a>. Nixon and Reagan thought they had stolen Wallace’s
power, but maybe all they really did was unleash it. It’s likely that Trump is the Goldwater of
right-wing populism, not it’s Reagan, and he’ll come in for a <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/05/10/dear-liberals-stop-panicking-over-trump/NyypLSqb18xkfnrXxEdNWM/story.html">solid
defeat in November</a>. But a smarter,
shrewder, more presentable Trump is waiting in our future. We may be saved from that coming populist
Reagan by the continuing demographic shifts transforming our society, shifts
that seem likely to make white nationalism an <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/11/demographics-and-inevitability.html">electoral
dead end</a> (at least at the presidential level). But can anyone – other than demagogues, fanatics,
and fools – desire greater racial polarization and animosity? A popular white nationalist movement, even
one with no chance of winning the presidency, can bring nothing but division
and destruction and horror. And, for the
moment, it’s a white nationalist movement with a reckless sideshow clown as its
leader. We stare, more starkly than we have in a long time, into the sinister
side of our collective unconscious; we walk dangerously close to the edge of the
deep, dark American abyss, with little more than Hillary and her bland, neo-liberal
platitudes to keep us from falling directly in.</span> </span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-20360188595738896792016-04-01T13:48:00.000-04:002016-04-01T13:48:02.205-04:00The Prick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLiaSdzc90uT2Kdn1Mm2UbgM7lh-4ApyHcPaaymVa2hzI5raY-gk7NKLZwTTrcyCvDDjnj8vZV4nuvaG3T57hvt1rdaQ9lnxfu7_p1Rc__1d3BNC0mSyCzDZsDw2-qEStc6mSZFRpmVOs/s400/trump1.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Donald
Trump, in a recent Republican presidential debate, </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/03/politics/donald-trump-small-hands-marco-rubio/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">defended
the size of his penis</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, which he felt had been </span><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/rubio-suggests-trump-has-small-genitals.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">unfairly
maligned</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> by a rival candidate.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How
reassuring.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Everyone is familiar with the
profusion of Trump’s offenses against civility, dignity, fairness, evidence, and
reason – claiming that Mexico </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/02/donald-trump-racist-claims-mexico-rapes" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">deliberately
sends criminals and rapists</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> across the border; </span><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article25186270.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">bragging
about his wealth</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">; </span><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/fact-checking-donald-trump-questionable-statistics-tweet-article-1.2443285" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">peddling
debunked statistics</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> about crime and race; promising to </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-immigration/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">prevent
Muslims</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> from entering the country; blaming a female journalist’s criticism
on </span><a href="http://www.redstate.com/erick/2015/08/07/i-have-disinvited-donald-trump-to-the-redstate-gathering/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">menstruation</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">;
</span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/13/donald-trump-says-he-may-pay-legal-fees-of-accused-attacker/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">excusing
and encouraging violence</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> at his rallies; </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-anchor-jake-tapper-donald-trump-david-duke-kkk-2016-2" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">declining
to disavow</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> support from overt racists; </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/06/donald-trump-waterboarding-republican-debate-torture" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">urging
official use of</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/03/23/donald-trump-is-gung-ho-for-torture-but-hes-no-worse-than-other-republicans/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">torture</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">”;
recommending </span><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428719/kill-terrorists-families-gangsta-trump" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">killing
the families</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> of terrorists – the list goes on and on.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The most distinguishing feature of Trump’s
campaign is its </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">utter lack of seriousness</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">,
its stubborn refusal to engage the process of choosing the President of the
United States with the circumspection and respect it justly demands.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The country and the world are in a perilous
state, and Trump responds with schoolyard bullying and locker room braggadocio.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But beneath all the adolescent bluster, the
childish taunts, the petulance, the threats, the bombast, the ocean of
boorishness so vast that it would shame a barroom bigmouth – beneath all that
appalling unseriousness lies a very serious message: Working Americans – in
particular white, Christian, working American men – have been pushed around for
a long time and they finally have a champion who pushes back.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They’ve been persistently and systematically disrespected,
and Trump’s mission is to make that disrespect a two-way street.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In other
words, Trump’s dismissal of the norms of political engagement – even his
dismissal of the norms of civilized conduct! – are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">central</i> to his appeal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
signal to his supporters that he won’t let elite disapproval undermine his
fight for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there’s a deeper and
more important implication: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the normal
political rules are themselves illegitimate</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the prime doctrine of Trumpism: the game
is rigged in favor of the powerful, the comfortable, the rich, the connected, and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fighting those elites requires breaking
their rules</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If America is to be
made great again then the received rules of capitalism, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/donald-trump-why-americans-support">trade</a>,
<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trumps-surprisingly-honest-lessons-big-money-politics/story?id=32993736">campaign
finance</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-an-aimless-angry-leader/2015/08/10/4bb6a33c-3f89-11e5-8d45-d815146f81fa_story.html">civility</a>,
and particularly the rules of political discourse, must be broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what his supporters mean when they
say, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/04/trump-tells-it-like-it-is-thats-not-necessarily-a-good-thing-for-democracy/">He
tells it like it is.</a>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He ignores
received notions of what’s politically correct, of what’s acceptable or
reasonable, and boldly speaks for white working people against a system of lies
deliberately designed to exploit them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s
true, of course, that for decades the economic interests of working whites (indeed,
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> working people) have been <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/01/the-great-republican-revolt/419118/">sacrificed
for those of the investor class</a>, while their cultural sensibilities –
traditional, patriotic, religious – have been <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-trump-chastisement/">disdained
and denigrated by cosmopolitan cultural elites</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the pathetically unimaginative slogan
festival that passes for our <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-great-comeuppance.html">current
political discourse</a> positively hinders addressing the serious issues we
face. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On both sides, political rhetoric
is crafted primarily to delegitimize the other side and squash dissent on one’s
own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For conservatives, Obamacare is “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/obamacare-socialism-louie-gohmert-steve-king_n_1383973.html">socialism</a>”,
Social Security is a “<a href="http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2014/sep/24/carlos-curbelo/nod-rick-perry-carlos-curbelo-calls-social-securit/">Ponzi
scheme</a>”, and invading a non-threatening country was part of the bizarrely
named “War on Terror.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For liberals, any
resistance to immigration or affirmative action can only be motivated by the <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.ca/2015/05/hollow-populisms.html">most
malicious racism</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should white
working people respect notions of propriety that are used to dismiss their
interests?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But this
semi-conscious critique of our dismal discourse goes one step further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the outer reaches of the Trumpian
worldview not just elite rules of conduct are dismissed, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">but any thought of proper conduct entirely!</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, the fear of being denied official recognition
to fight for one’s interests slips over into discounting the need for that
recognition, and finally into discounting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i>
recognition; arguably justifiable reassertion takes a wrong turn into destructive
and juvenile rebellion against all constraint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s this attitude that opens the door into that Trumpian world where anything
in the service of one’s interests is justified, even embraced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Violence, torture, barbarism – these are just
more tools for achieving one’s ends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is positively post-modern: politics is war by other means, and all that matters
in war is winning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump will do
anything to win.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And he’ll
win for America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are two things
Trump steadfastly believes in: the essential goodness of the American common
man and his own indomitable talents and instincts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If his instincts tell him <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/03/11/gop-miami-debate-donald-trump-pressed-on-specifics-worldview-election-2016-ar-origwx.cnn/video/playlists/2016-republican-presidential-debates/">he
can get Mexico</a> to pay for that wall, then they will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/">remembers</a>
seeing New Jersey Muslims cheering as the twin towers fell, then they did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if he <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/donald-trump-punch-protester-219655">wants
to slug</a> those irritating protestors, then it must be OK to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And his flawless instincts license him to make
up policy – or even facts! – on the fly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Without knowing the slightest thing about such topics he can blather on
about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/30/trumps-claim-that-the-u-s-pays-the-lions-share-for-nato/">NATO</a>,
or <a href="http://www.hughhewitt.com/donald-trump-on-things-2016/">nuclear
policy</a>, or <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-global-warming_us_5601d04fe4b08820d91aa753">climate
change</a>, or anything at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He can
claim, on the basis of an online video that’s been proven to be a hoax, that a
man who’d tried to attack him was connected to ISIS, insisting “<a href="https://www.google.ca/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=1Ib-VsiMKcSC8Qfd-rGoAg#q=trump+man+rushes+stage">All
I know is what’s on the internet.</a>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has
there ever been a candidate whose communications have consisted entirely of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/03/21/a-transcript-of-donald-trumps-meeting-with-the-washington-post-editorial-board/">talking
out of his ass</a>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His supernaturally
perfect instincts even permit him to contradict himself from one moment to the
next, such as <a href="http://time.com/4276862/donald-trump-abortion-ban-punishment/">calling
for criminally punishing</a> women who have abortions one day and then walking
it back the next, all while insisting his position hasn’t changed! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People who reason, and marshal facts and
arguments can’t be trusted; they’re all on the side of the elites! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if one’s heart is in the right place, if
one’s faith in America remains pure then one’s instincts can always be
trusted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any action taken in that moral
purity and for that moral purity is axiomatically moral, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right makes might.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trump’s
supporters love him because his instincts and theirs are identical, and he
lacks the capacity for self-reflection or critical thought that might impede
the bounteous flourishing of those instincts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is the one thing that Trump thoroughly understands, if only
viscerally: White America is his tribe and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toure/donald-trump-white-lives-matter_b_9499508.html">he
is their chieftain</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-supporters-think-whites-left-behind">stokes
their fears</a>, he <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/01/21/the_religious_right_exposed_donald_trumps_speech_at_liberty_university_proves_just_how_gullible_evangelical_voters_are/">humors
their pieties</a>, he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/26/us/politics/donald-trump-women.html">mocks
their natural inferiors</a>, he <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/266705-trump-retweets-white-nationalist">dallies
with their darkest prejudices</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
short, he reclaims for them their rightful place as the heroes of the American
story, the best people in the world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
will do <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/why-it-pays-to-be-a-jerk/392066/">anything
for them</a>, and they deserve no less.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trumpism
represents a colossal over-reaction by white, male, Christian America in the
face of its economic and cultural decline.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The various components of that over-reaction – the rejection of
civility, the embrace of barbarism, the glorification of impulse over
circumspection – have been rampant on the right </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062702770.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">for
years</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now the right is using the
political chaos of the last decade – the Iraqi debacle, the Great Recession,
the Obamacare wars, </span><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34714842" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">white
decline</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> – as an excuse to indulge its worst inclinations.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And Donald Trump came along at just the right
moment and pulled it all together into a semi-coherent whole, even if it’s a
whole that </span><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/donald-trump-versus-the-republican-brain.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">almost
entirely lacks intellectual substance</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But Trump’s utter obliviousness to actual political content – to what is
still quaintly referred to in certain circles as </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">reality</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> – is crucial to his ongoing success, since it insures he’ll
never stop fighting for his tribe.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s
not just that’s he willing to be a shameless jerk to advance the interests of
his people, it’s that he’s incapable of being anything other than a shameless
jerk.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He’s a prick, but he’s their
prick, and they’re convinced a prick is exactly what they need.</span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-49547643950451062202016-02-28T19:58:00.000-05:002016-02-28T19:58:04.332-05:00The Great Comeuppance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtpOG_r4NNP2tteSD1f2eZbA-QqWi9Yt_FPIVvBKe1zOKm4ExIsjJvaW_XngGA3RPsUnCQhzsw0d_FDYoqAq-BDvk3Q83D6cKO0dYbVg9mBXadRWLyZeIJpDGcm1k08-mQV9Cxg9w-d4o/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtpOG_r4NNP2tteSD1f2eZbA-QqWi9Yt_FPIVvBKe1zOKm4ExIsjJvaW_XngGA3RPsUnCQhzsw0d_FDYoqAq-BDvk3Q83D6cKO0dYbVg9mBXadRWLyZeIJpDGcm1k08-mQV9Cxg9w-d4o/s400/Donald+Trump.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Poetic Justice with bad hair</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">he conservative shuffle over to populism has finally broken into a
run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unending economic hardship and liberal
cultural triumph have torn the white middle class away from their neglectful
conservative masters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While those
affluent overlords were swooning over <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/upshot/rubios-call-for-no-capital-gains-tax-is-a-break-with-the-gop.html?rref=upshot&mtrref=krugman.blogs.nytimes.com&gwh=C011B7F2D6380AE022EA4B04C178E4D7&gwt=pay">no-capital-gains-tax
fantasies</a> and drinking themselves deep of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Darwinism-American-Thought-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0807055034">Social
Darwinist</a> ideological purity, their downscale cousins were weathering
decades of lowered wages and lowered expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The America those workers knew, that
sustained them and valued them, has been dying, and they’ve become desperate for
a solution. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now a large section of the
supposedly conservative base supports a <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/gops-business-wing-hates-trump.html">candidate
who</a> has argued for raising taxes and lowering pay for the rich, who opposes
free trade and cuts to social welfare programs, and who <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/donald-trump-is-getting-serious-about-populism.html">condemns</a>
the influence of money in politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donald
Trump is what happens when the interests and sensibilities of such a large
constituency are consistently ignored, marginalized and disdained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump is the blowback from conservative
failure.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">C</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">onservatism has always had a troubled relationship with its own
base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Modern American conservatism began
in the 1950’s as a small intellectual movement that coalesced around <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">National Review</i> magazine, which argued
over such things as whether the great British conservative Edmund Burke supported
tradition per se, or as a means to protect ordered liberty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They wrote homages to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/White-Protestant-Nation-American-Conservative/dp/0802144209">the
British ruling class and Generalissimo Franco’s enthusiastically Catholic
fascism</a> – hardly positions likely to garner widespread support in a country
with such a small-d democratic political culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their anti-welfare-state positions gave them ready-made
supporters among the rich and the business community, but little more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So they went shopping for a
constituency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their first lucky break
was McCarthyism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conservatives were
staunch anti-communists (opposed to socialism in general and Stalinism in
particular) and they were <a href="http://www.amazon.com/McCarthy-His-Enemies-William-Buckley/dp/0895264722">quite
happy</a> to support a demagogue who accused liberal Democrats of being Soviet
spies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But McCarthyism was about more
than overblown fear of communist subversion, it was also a movement of small town
working whites against supposedly unpatriotic Northeastern establishment
technocrats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the first stirring
of right-wing populism since the decline of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin">Father Coughlin</a> and
the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Committee">America
First</a> crowd in the early 40’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is, it was a base of support conservatives could use to attack the New Deal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But McCarthyism collapsed and the
conservative movement had to keep shopping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This time they found a more reliable constituency: segregationists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Opponents of civil rights shared conservative
hostility toward the liberal federal government, and conservative’s natural
deference to traditional social hierarchy meant they had no compunction about
throwing their intellectual heft behind an <a href="http://prospect.org/article/national-review-defends-its-segregationist-roots">explicit
defense of white supremacy</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the internal
Republican fights of early 1960’s they supported Arizona Senator Barry
Goldwater, a thoroughgoing conservative who forged an alliance of business
interests and segregationists by strongly denouncing both the New Deal and civil
rights legislation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time
Goldwater had become the Republican nominee in 1964, the ideology of modern
American conservatism had hardened into implacable resistance against the three
main threats to traditional American order: international communism, the
welfare state, and racial integration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Conservatism was now an alliance of the capitalist class and white
supremacists, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Emerging-Republican-Majority-American-Politics/dp/0691163243">held
together</a> by a program of resistance to the federal government.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the 1960’s progressed and liberation
movements sprung up for not just blacks, but for women, Latinos, gays, etc.
conservative opposition to racial equity broadened into opposition to all
egalitarian social movements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shrewd
Republican politicians like Nixon and Reagan rode white middle class resentment
of those movements all the way to the White House.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The segregationists became the Moral
Majority, then the Conservative Coalition and, finally, the Tea Party; but they
were always the same rightward-leaning portion of the white working and middle
class base, afraid of social change and looking to conservative politicians to
halt it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To achieve political influence and
power, conservatism turned itself from a genteel ruling class intelligentsia
into a broad populist movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Up-Conservatism-Michael-Lind/dp/0684831864">sold
its soul</a> to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It chose
expediency over intellectual integrity, and it consistently appealed to the
darker impulses of its base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the
situation called for it, it invoked the threat of Stalinist feds, shiftless Negroes,
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/03/12/feminazi-the-history-of-limbaughs-trademark-slu/186336">family-hating
feminists</a>, child-molesting gays, welfare bums, union thugs, etc. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It portrayed liberals as snooty,
condescending, feminized aristocrats, sipping lattes, nibbling French cheese,
disdaining working class values and wasting working class tax dollars on
undeserving populations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatism
excused, justified, and encouraged the worst American instincts, and thereby
undermined its self-proclaimed project of moral renewal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It became gutter populism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">G</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">utter populism in the service of cynical capitalism, that is. In
policy, conservatives stuck to reducing the social safety net, de-regulating
the market, and allowing the unobstructed flow of capital, goods, jobs and
workers around the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cliché has
it that conservative politicians promised the base they would protect
traditional family values while all they were really interested in was
free-market economics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s true of
course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reagan made the decision early
in his presidency to prioritize undoing the New Deal, not the Sexual
Revolution. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s not just that conservative
office-holders fought half-heartedly against abortion while fighting like
demons for upper-end tax cuts; it’s that they pursued economic policies – free
trade, relaxed immigration, social insurance privatization, de-unionization <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">– <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/08/29/3696850/what-the-republican-elite-doesnt-understand-about-donald-trump/">that
working people</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/trump-vs-everybody-is-the-new-mccain-vs-bush.html">generally
oppose!</a></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And working people
haven’t been too crazy about the results of those policies: stagnating wages, the
replacement of high-paying manufacturing jobs with low-paying service jobs, the
immiseration of small-town and rural America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the end of the day, conservatives gave them nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To keep working whites in their
electoral coalition, conservatives had to do two contrary things: keep the
populist fires of resentment and paranoia burning high, but <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/01/normal-0-false-false-false.html">keep
them from spreading over</a> into resentment of the rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They called a market-friendly healthcare plan
socialism; they warned of death panels; they questioned the first black president’s
religion and birthplace – all to frighten and anger the base. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They insisted the terrible liberal threat justified
the most ruthless tactics – shutting down the government, undermining the
government’s credit, stonewalling all compromise – and condemned as
insufficiently conservative anyone who dissented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And all the while they denounced resentment of
the rich as envy, progressive taxes as class warfare, reliance on social
insurance as irresponsibility, and the slightest trace of pragmatism or
moderation as profoundly un-American.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Needless to say, it’s not easy to
both intensify and contain populist passion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eventually, something had to give.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In theory, conservatives could have directed economic policy more toward
middle class interests, as many <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/fixgov/posts/2014/06/27-reformicons-renew-reform-conservative-movement-hudak-most">reformicons</a>
have been urging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But no, that would
have undercut the central premise of American conservatism, that individual
wealth results from <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-myth-and-its-devotees.html">the
highest personal virtue</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for a
long time it seemed that thoroughgoing ideological conservatism was spreading
and consolidating among the white middle class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Tea Party activists sure made a <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/trump-tea-party-populist-exposed-213111">good
show</a> of hating government programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But no, both the <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-american-passion.html">traditional
populism of American whites</a> and their own real and pressing material
interests made genuine widespread conservatism improbable. We are led to the
startling revelation that a great deal of the conservative base <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has never really been conservative</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In particular, they never accepted the notion
that what is good for the rich is always good for the rest of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out they hate Wall Street as much as
they hate Washington and Harvard and Hollywood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has all been a <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430324/donald-trump-conservative-crackup-here">terrible</a>
<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423607/donald-trump-conservative-movement-jonah-goldberg">shock</a>
to the <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430126/donald-trump-conservatives-oppose-nomination">conservative
chattering classes</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After spending
decades indoctrinating the rubes, firing up their hatred of the liberal
establishment and the cultural establishment and the Republican establishment,
those rubes now direct that hatred, ironically enough, at their real enemies,
those alleged conservative masters themselves!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Working whites have stopped pretending to be conservatives, they’ve stopped
fooling both the conservative movement and themselves, and they’ve gone home.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To be precise, they’ve come to the
realization that American elites don’t really give a damn about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives promised American unity,
prosperity and peace, all while inviting jobs overseas, allowing banks to crash
the economy, and invading a country that posed no threat to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They carelessly discarded American jobs,
American prosperity, American lives, and – maybe worst of all – American
promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sold it all for a few extra
points on the Dow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">B</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">ut liberals haven’t done much better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Conservatives may have had ulterior motives for accusing liberals of
elitist condescension, but that doesn’t mean they were wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since the time of Jefferson and Jackson,
American populism was generally a <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-american-passion.html">phenomenon
of the left</a>, i.e. regular people fighting against exploitation by a rich
and powerful elite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But American populism
ruptured in the 60’s when the Civil Rights movement put liberals and working
whites at odds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the part of the
story we didn’t mention above: conservatives were able to attract large number
of whites in the 60’s and 70’s because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">liberals
were so willing to let them go</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
first liberals had tried to turn economic populism for whites into economic
populism for everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But many whites
resisted full racial equality and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Right-Moment-Decisive-American-Politics/dp/0195174070">began
voting for thoroughly conservative politicians</a> who, as we noted, were quite
happy to profit from white resentment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals
abandoned the project of broadly shared prosperity and instead focused on
cultural emancipation for everyone who wasn’t a straight, white male.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That emancipation was and is a tremendously
worthwhile goal, but excesses in pursuit of that goal further alienated the
white working class that until then had been the heart of the liberal base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals and whites walked away from each
other, each convinced the other had shown itself to be unworthy of friendship.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We still live amongst the wreckage
of that <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/10/standing-by-sides-of-tracks.html">Great
Rupture</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Race, as always in American
life, has poisoned everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Post-60’s
liberals, twisted round by white guilt, abandoned sober color-blind integration
for the romance of black nationalism and multiculturalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They rejected the heroic and hard task of assimilating
blacks into the American mainstream and settled instead for the cheap tokenism
of affirmative action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, they
chose <a href="http://fredrikdeboer.com/2016/02/25/economic-reductionism-again/">sanctimony</a>
<a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-campus-and-hope.html">over
results</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, crucially, they <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/01/are-liberals-responsible-rise-donald-trump">condemned
all dissent</a> as abject racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
so over-reacted to rampant racism, militarism, fundamentalism and patriarchy that
they started to wonder if there was something dark lurking at the heart of
American culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They became suspicious
of patriotism and religion and the military <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">per
se</i>, and even of the American people themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They adopted a host of problematic cultural attitudes
– post-patriotic, post-religious, post-color-blind, <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/revolution-school-restroom-transgender/">post-gender</a>
– that were unpalatable to middle America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They still pushed for programs to help workers – universal healthcare,
family leave – but they came to culturally mistrust the very people their
economic policies were designed to help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And after a while they even abandoned those policies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many became New Democrats like Bill Clinton,
promoting privatization and free trade and curtailing government programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They rejected American culture from the left
and pro-worker policies from the right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They became caricature anti-populists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">ll these concerns come together perfectly on <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2015/05/hollow-populisms.html">immigration</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one issue on which conservative and
liberal ideologues agree: the more immigration, the better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives are happy to remove constraints
on the labor market, and consequently drive down wages and benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And their free-market dogmatism prevents them
from seeing the economic injury caused by flooding the market with cheap
labor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To them, resistance to
immigration can only be motivated by the <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/430975/get-job-still-right-answer">lazy
and irresponsible</a> desire to avoid honest competition, and nothing matters
more to a conservatives than allowing competition to prove one’s moral
worth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, liberals are eager to
prove their humanitarian virtue by rejecting any American immigration policy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that might particularly benefit Americans</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their love for the foreign poor blinds them
to the damage done to their own countrymen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, their cosmopolitan detachment protects them from any pedestrian concerns
about American workers or – grab the smelling salts! – American culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To them, resistance to immigration can only
be motivated by racism, and nothing matters more to liberals than proving
they’re not racist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives have
no consideration for American workers as workers, but liberals have no
consideration for them as Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And working people of all races are
starting to understand that the people running the country are not looking out
for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, when you consider the
takeover of American politics by rich donors, it’s hard to escape the
conclusion that almost nothing constrains elites from pursuing policies that<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> actively hurt working people</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And history and ideology have conspired to
leave working people, and working whites particularly, with no responsible
leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both conservatives and
liberals pretend to be populists during election time, and liberals even make half-hearted
attempts to help working people; but there is no political movement that fights
for the interests of American workers <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as
American workers</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, elites
would condemn as vulgar and unrespectable any politics that was both patriotic
and pro-worker.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is where the white middle and
working classes finds themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals
have abandoned them to the gutter populism in which conservatives have so
cynically invited them to indulge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And behold
the result: Donald Trump, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genuine</i>
gutter populist!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Decades of gutter
populist propaganda, combined with genuine economic pain, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paranoid-Style-American-Politics-ebook/dp/B006L7RJ6O">good
old-fashioned Puritan paranoia</a> have left working whites bitter, angry and
desperate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of them are still
right-wing populists, fearing blacks and feminists and gays and Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That hasn’t changed just because they now
perceive the damage that conservative policy has done them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s why they should gravely worry us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And following Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/28/donald-trump-says-hispanic-judge-in-trump-university-lawsuit-is-hostile-to-me/">won’t
exactly improve that</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXlAzpPOYVRmswuLs9sTwG2dF-x2Zc8eepahC6851TS1zHk06ImOSInIyZXieTLy1E11wJ4dyXG4Vwfj5b64EOI8vcvTqD9cUmnTe4wVJaHkec7F0NZN4C2F0ilA82fcRjylYihGn487Y/s1600/Trump+Supporters+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXlAzpPOYVRmswuLs9sTwG2dF-x2Zc8eepahC6851TS1zHk06ImOSInIyZXieTLy1E11wJ4dyXG4Vwfj5b64EOI8vcvTqD9cUmnTe4wVJaHkec7F0NZN4C2F0ilA82fcRjylYihGn487Y/s400/Trump+Supporters+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Looking for a real leader</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But they love Donald Trump because
he perfectly speaks to their fear and desperation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shares their deepest instincts: that it’s regular
working Americans who make America prosper, that America is strong and good and
our standing in the world should reflect that, that economic and political
elites have been ignoring those first two points, and at their peril.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, he also shares their darker
instincts: that America is <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/09/02/the_trump_movement_isn_t_about_conservatism_it_s_about_americanism">morally
superior to every other country</a>, that regular Americans are the best people
in the world, particularly straight, white, Christian, male breadwinners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s been rightly called the <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/14/dear-trumpers-america-doesnt-need-an-id/">American
id</a>, the strutting embodiment of all those impulses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But part of the reason his shtick works so well
is that he’s little more than id himself!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He lacks a coherent ideology or set of policies because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all he has</i> are those nationalist
instincts and a gigantic, monumental, indestructible faith in both them and
himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s not just looking out for working
white people, in cultural sensibility he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i>
them, but independent and strong enough to fight like hell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s not just a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genuine</i> gutter populist, he’s a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">determined</i>
gutter populist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">delight</i> in his irrepressible contempt
for <a href="http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/news/a43020/donald-trump-most-offensive-comments/">decent
propriety</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s the cocksure <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Reason-Max-Horkheimer/dp/1614274134">naughty
boy</a>, breaking all the rules, smirking as the children cheer, and sneering
at the grownups who try to shame him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
is the national will to tear everything down and dance on the rubble.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">W</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">e may even see – God help us! – President Donald Trump if enough
independents feel sufficiently marginalized and desperate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it need not have been this way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s conceivable – isn’t it? – that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we could have had a constructive and
enlightened populism, one that picked itself up out of the gutter and fought
for the interests of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> American
working people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or does the damnable
intransigence of racial hostility make that impossible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both conservatism and liberalism, in their
current forms, have eagerly exploited and exacerbated that hostility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither is capable of addressing the current
crisis, which is at bottom a crisis of political imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both are too rigid, too wedded to blind and
implausible ideologies, too comfortable in their institutional power, too
removed from the realities of American life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They fight their petty, scripted battles over the heights of American
society, while the foundation rots beneath their feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have become irrelevant.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s unclear where working whites
will go now. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They broke with
conservatism when they came to understand that the system cannot be indifferent;
it can only work for them or against them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is, they now know – in their experience and in their bones – that
their economic condition is a function of more than just their own
actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they make this simple fact
an explicit doctrine and a rallying cry and an organizing principle then they
will have become full populists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
they will do with that populism, whether it will be a force for preserving and
promoting the best of America, or whether it will degrade and destroy – we
don’t know yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only disaster can result
if they allow leaders like Trump to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/opinion/empowering-the-ugliness.html?ref=opinion&_r=1&mtrref=undefined&gwh=3446AA0C1015BCB2899B56B66A7C5178&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion">drag
them</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/28/politics/donald-trump-white-supremacists/">further
into the gutter</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have the potential
to become a powerful force for unmediated <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-supporters-for-intolerance.html">white
authoritarianism</a>, and that’s an outcome too awful to contemplate.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If there is to be a constructive
populist alternative, an inclusive, color-blind, mature populism, it can
ultimately come only from a reconstructed liberalism. Bernie Sanders has taken liberalism halfway
there, with his stress on economic concerns over cultural ones, and his nascent
and inchoate economic nationalism. The
rupture between liberalism and white working people must be reconciled, and
that can only happen when liberals come to understand the centrality of our shared
American identity. And maybe a program
of working class unity could reduce racial tension. Maybe such a movement could address our actual
problems and offer real solutions. Maybe
it could remind us all who we are to each other, what we owe each other, and
what we can accomplish together. Maybe
it could elicit the better angels of our nature. And maybe, finally, it could tell us how we
can be healed.</span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-75757652688043224382015-11-20T14:58:00.000-05:002015-11-20T14:58:26.421-05:00The Campus and the Hope<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5AVctAXXnccfUJWEdsx04VJnJ3XlyhO9HgPRyfJykZqVlxj5s3LaaxntjssF7uoq_UDCSV4XaomzmoveyT0nKOqygNvtHyZc-jOjHdhH2BPRQjhW8M3KMuzgMKzZd0nCehkT7rNPS01k/s1600/yale-university-CTNHR101-AP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5AVctAXXnccfUJWEdsx04VJnJ3XlyhO9HgPRyfJykZqVlxj5s3LaaxntjssF7uoq_UDCSV4XaomzmoveyT0nKOqygNvtHyZc-jOjHdhH2BPRQjhW8M3KMuzgMKzZd0nCehkT7rNPS01k/s400/yale-university-CTNHR101-AP.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yale University students demonstrate for racial inclusion</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those
three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience,
and the prudence never to practice either of them.” – Mark Twain<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is it possible to rid America of racism?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To make African-Americans completely and
comprehensively included in our national life?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To make them </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">feel</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> completely
included?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And if that’s seems an
impossible dream, then what about eliminating racism from a college
campus?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is that more modest </span><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/123431/student-activism-serious-business" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">goal
conceivable</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And if it is, what
tactics are justified in reaching it?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How
should we approach that dream?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do
we owe each other?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because that’s what the
</span><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/can-we-take-political-correctness-seriously-now.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">controversies</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
at Yale University and Missouri University and other colleges are really all about.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Consider the <a href="https://www.thefire.org/yale-students-demand-resignations-from-faculty-members-over-halloween-email/">Yale
Halloween</a> <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/">costume
controversy</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In previous years some
students wore racially and culturally provocative costumes, some even including
<a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/11/7/9689330/yale-halloween-email">blackface
and redface</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year, a few days
before Halloween, a Yale administrative committee distributed <a href="https://www.thefire.org/email-from-erika-christakis-dressing-yourselves-email-to-silliman-college-yale-students-on-halloween-costumes/">suggestions</a>
for avoiding costumes that “disrespect, alienate or ridicule segments of our
population based on race, nationality, religious belief or gender
expression.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few students in Silliman
College (the largest Yale dormitory residence) privately complained to their resident
administrators, known as “masters”, that the university was trying to control
their free expression in the choice of costumes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those masters, Nicholas and Ericka Christakis,
Yale faculty members, were sympathetic, and Ericka subsequently sent out <a href="https://www.thefire.org/email-from-erika-christakis-dressing-yourselves-email-to-silliman-college-yale-students-on-halloween-costumes/">an
email of her own</a>, urging students to be less sensitive about Halloween
costumes, to ignore or rationally engage with those wearing costumes they found
offensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She argued that there is
value in breaking these kinds of social taboos, and denied it was her job to
enforce them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But a <a href="http://downatyale.com/post.php?id=430">sizeable number
of students</a> strongly disagreed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A <a href="https://www.thefire.org/yale-students-demand-resignations-from-faculty-members-over-halloween-email/">large
group confronted Nicholas</a> in the campus yard and demanded he repudiate his
wife’s position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he refused, on the
grounds that a college should provide an open “intellectual space”, a few of
the students became belligerent, quite upset that these administrators were
refusing to enforce their program of racial inclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To them, Ericka’s email condoned behavior
that made them feel excluded, second-class, lesser members of their
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One unhappy student’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151107071457/http://yaleherald.com/op-eds/hurt-at-home/">letter
to the school paper</a> (since removed) reprimanded the masters for subordinating
the real pain of that exclusion to the merely abstract principle of free
speech; in her memorable line, “I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my
pain.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The students are arguing, in effect, that their residence is a home,
and the job of the administrators is to make sure it’s a “<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/">safe
space</a>” where no one feels excluded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But an administrator is not a parent, a student is not a child, and –
most importantly – a college is not a home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The purpose of a college is to increase and transmit human knowledge and
wisdom, and censorship and coercion are its deadly enemies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a college is not an open intellectual
space then it has undermined its own reason for being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But really, how have we come to the point
where this needs to be said?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some students, it seems, want much more than just to talk about
their pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They angrily demand that official
institutional power be employed to control Halloween costumes and opinions
about costumes, and that dissenting administrators and students be
punished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <a href="http://www.amherstsoul.com/post/133122838315/amherst-uprising-what-we-stand-for">students
of Amherst College</a> have gone so far as to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">explicitly</i> state they “do not tolerate” certain dissenting opinions
on racial issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ve demanded that
their college suppress those opinions through official proclamation, and that
it force stubbornly dissident students to “go through the Disciplinary Process”
and “attend extensive training for racial and cultural competency.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They even demand that the college try to suppress
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alumni</i> dissent!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Official orthodoxy promulgated, maintained
and enforced through firings, denunciations and re-education; behold the new
dispensation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not tolerate!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
Sadly, the world is full of the intolerable: poverty, disease, war, economic
exploitation, sexism, and yes, of course, racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The eradication of racism – in the world, in
America, on a college campus, in a single dorm – is a goal to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">devoutly</i> hoped for, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ardently</i> fought for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that ardor must be tempered by
practicality, by recognition of reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, part of the radical black analysis of modern America is that it
is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">essentially</i> racist. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/the-secret-lives-of-inner-city-black-males/284454/">Ta-Nehisi
Coates</a>, probably today’s pre-eminent African-American intellectual, has written
that, “in America, the notion that black people are lacking in virtue is
ambient.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last year Coates and liberal
writer <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/obama-ta-nehisi-coates-poverty-and-culture.html">Jonathan
Chait</a> <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/black-pathology-and-the-closing-of-the-progressive-mind/284523/">argued</a>
<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/barack-obama-vs-the-culture-of-poverty.html">back</a>
<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/other-peoples-pathologies/359841/">and
forth</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/coates-disagrees-with-jonathan-chait-so-do-i.html">on
the causes</a> of black poverty, with Coates explicitly arguing that there was <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/black-culture-and-progressivism/360362/">little
or no hope</a> of ending racism in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Damnably, American racism does seem <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/hey-smug-white-people-how-you-yes-you-are-racist-too">incurable</a>!
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It pollutes our cultural bloodstream
like alcohol, distorting our perceptions, impairing our judgment, quickening
our anger, and <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/10/standing-by-sides-of-tracks.html">eroding
our trust</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We drank it so long ago,
but it wreaks its havoc even now, and we never sober up.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And it’s not that the students have forgotten their racial
pessimism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, it only heightens
their desire to see racism ended!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
pathologies of their movement – over-sensitivity, incivility, intolerance – flow
from the intense desire to make the pain stop <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">while knowing that it cannot stop</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If the pain can intrude into even the leftish-liberal-controlled college
campus, then there is no respite, no haven, no safe space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For years, liberal college administrators
have – somewhat disingenuously – told black students that not only could they have
such a safe space, they <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/">had
a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right</i> to it</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then Ericka Christakis – somewhat
disingenuously – told them to stop wanting it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And that reminded them it isn’t really achievable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, anger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is the profound and earnest disappointment that the impossible has
not arrived that explains why this movement has come so far off its hinges.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1nC9mAIn5H3DXXIEUWdmDrkkR0lElesdaXFxc3Hoc1irbhasprt_oalrrKrRcGzNcrsxqdZj82UCVFgKw37TEfaSNJGmkGxfCWs7W0cmJCpYelip1_2Gn2fiXyGDzZkbUikRydXi7xys/s1600/condemning+free+speech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1nC9mAIn5H3DXXIEUWdmDrkkR0lElesdaXFxc3Hoc1irbhasprt_oalrrKrRcGzNcrsxqdZj82UCVFgKw37TEfaSNJGmkGxfCWs7W0cmJCpYelip1_2Gn2fiXyGDzZkbUikRydXi7xys/s320/condemning+free+speech.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s an 60’s had definite,
objective goals in mind: the end of legal segregation, the restoration of political
rights, equal treatment in public places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To a large extent those procedural goals were reached; thankfully, they
were reachable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the fight for
substantive equality foundered, partly because changing minds and culture is
much harder than changing laws, and much more subtle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the understanding that minds cannot be
changed by force is the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Letter-Concerning-Toleration-John-Locke/dp/1453846417">bedrock</a>
of the historical liberal project, and the comprehensive inclusion the students
desire requires a degree of control over thought, expression and action that is
itself intolerable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Painfully, American
racial pessimism is a perfectly defensible position, but it’s one that should remind
anti-racists to tread more lightly, not more heavily.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a white man – who, despite my best <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Boy-Record-Childhood-Youth/dp/0061130249">attempts</a>,
ultimately knows so little of lived black experience – it’s easy for me to urge
caution and prudence in the fight against racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But part of what’s <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/not-a-very-pc-thing-to-say.html">gone
wrong</a> with the racial inclusion movement is its insistence that the content
of an opinion is not as relevant as the <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/secret-confessions-of-the-anti-anti-pc-crowd.html">background
of the person</a> holding it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this
view, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/why-i-wouldnt-see-em-12-years-a-slave-em-with-a-white-person/281883/">the
pain of racial exclusion</a> cannot truly be understood or appreciated except
by those who have lived it; therefore, the analysis and actions of those
victims should not be questioned. But this is a reasonable premise taken to an
unreasonable conclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though
whites can’t fully understand the black experience they can still make genuine
contributions to the racial conversation; they can still make cogent judgments
about the state of race relations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
possible for a black person to be mistaken about race.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But leftist thought has been heavily influenced by post-modernism, particularly
by the doctrine that there are no universal truths, only limited, parochial,
and self-serving ones. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Truth with a
capital “T” is merely an instrument for settling arguments in favor of the powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, discourse which fails to account for
cultural presumptions in favor of traditionally dominant groups only appears to
give minority arguments their due, in reality it merely perpetuates the
domination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The post-modernist solution
is to allow each group its own unimpeachable narrative; since there is no
honest objective truth, let all the subjective truths flourish, none with a
greater claim on our credence than any other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once again, this is <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323/college-professor-afraid">a healthy
idea taken to an unhealthy extreme</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Being white, male, heterosexual, etc. obviously can make one oblivious
to the concerns of those who are not, and that distortion must be guarded
against, partly by appealing to minority subjective experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that doesn’t negate the need for
objective analysis as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
reasonable to worry whether black students feel unsafe, but it’s just as
reasonable to consider if they’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">justified</i>
in feeling so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s possible to feel
unsafe and simply be mistaken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should
be more open to minority views on what is or isn’t offensive, but we should
also consider whether those arguments are in themselves convincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being a victim of racial injustice obviously
can give one special insight into the nature of that injustice, but it does not
exempt one’s arguments from fair scrutiny.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But many liberal whites, in effect, believe otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At root, the post-modern elevation of
previously marginalized groups is an attempt to spread social power to those
groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, this is ultimately
about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-whitest-guilt.html">white
guilt</a></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals work so hard to
appreciate the staggering horror of America’s racial sins, and rightly so; but
they’re so afraid of blaming the victim that they bend over backwards to avoid
condemning any black sins. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So liberals earnestly
sacrifice their intellectual independence on the altar of racial atonement,
hoping as fervently as their black allies that the American soul can be washed
clean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make themselves scapegoats,
vessels for America’s bad conscience on race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Post-modern rejection of objective judgment simply provides the perfect
alibi for rejecting one’s own judgment in deference to the greater racial
good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it inoculates white liberals
against the creeping suspicion that any bits of racism are still lurking within
their own souls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, isn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">every</i> American at least a little
racist?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly, their hearts are in the
right place; their greatest wish is to end racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this post-modern extremism is really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">disguised penance</i>, white liberal ritual
for purifying their own dirty white souls.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is no longer any white racial politics that’s actually
reasonable and constructive; it consists of either <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/today-in-sjw-wackadoodlery/">masochistic
self-denunciation</a> or angry denial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
the latter, of course, I mean conservatives, the term of art for that group
that finds the reality of American guilt too painful to accept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If white liberals hold that blacks can do no
wrong, white conservatives hold that racism is only a quaint historical artifact,
an unfortunate detour on the noble road to American greatness, an unimportant detail
of our past best forgotten lest it stir up racial problems we’ve happily solved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In effect, both liberal and conservative whites
concede the enormity of American racial criminality and both consequently suffer
crippling racial <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shame</i>, which they’re
frantic to escape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals do so by
purging their own souls and projecting all sin onto conservatives, who in turn
protect themselves from the tiniest possibility of racial introspection by
generously wrapping themselves in the American flag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point, of course, is that both are left
pure.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But as liberal guilt forgives the worst black transgressions,
conservative guilt can’t forgive the smallest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is the real danger, that the bullying mob on the left may be met by
the vengeful mob on the right; worse, a vengeful mob in the guise of a <a href="http://fredrikdeboer.com/2015/11/13/this-fight-will-move-to-the-statehouses/">repressive
state</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blacks are a minority after
all, and a mobilized angry white majority can do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">far</i> more damage than the racial radicals are doing now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And nothing can bring forth latent
conservative impulses in otherwise reasonable people as quickly as an angry
black crowd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservative <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2015/11/16/lets-all-laugh-as-liberalism-commits-ritual-suicide-on-campus-n2080292/page/2">over-reaction</a>
to the present campus excess is visibly boiling up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even a generally calm-headed conservative
like Rod Dreher is <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-brazen-confront-the-gutless/">eager
for a reckoning</a>, oblivious to the danger that it could all-to-easily become
violent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there’s a lot of
unreconstructed hate out there on the farther right; it’s <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/09/meet-the-privileged-yale-student-who-shrieked-at-her-professor">not
even that far</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re not sobering up;
we’re becoming more drunk.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">That’s why I urge caution; but by the same token I don’t remotely
urge complacency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re all obligated as
Americans to resist and overcome racial exclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the current leftist program is much more
likely to cause more damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Real
progress can happen only if we respect differing opinions and the people who
hold them; if we stop dismissing all opposing views as bad faith; if we
consider thought and action on the basis of its content and not just the color
of its author; if we remember the terrible fallibility of all people, ourselves
and our opponents alike; and if we squarely face <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">both the necessity and the impossibly</i> of our fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American racism will probably <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never</i> be eradicated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a sobering thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is sobriety which we most need at this
moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no safe spaces, nor
should we work so hard to procure any.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We can make our country better, we can make our colleges better, we can
make ourselves better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can’t do so
by silencing, or denouncing, or purifying, or demonizing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four hundred years of racial bitterness must
be fought, but not with more bitterness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It must be fought inside each one of us, freely, candidly, and with humility
and charity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The safe spaces that need
to be nurtured are those inside our own heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And we do that by renouncing false hope, and embracing the real thing.</span> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-31514598371857401432015-11-06T14:17:00.002-05:002015-11-06T14:17:55.332-05:00The Socialist Who Saved Liberalism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhQlPV4hII5atUDyvbWYK2adSctHcLLWncHNqjuvCRxIA8gzuulylkviloAH-9iLEykRtgks1i0NYnF3DxnPxjjr6ATXHRSjghbmb-7l7p6lwnzTY0QXcd7PDuC3Egvm32gpNlY_s2Vbg/s400/bernie-sanders.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I pondered all these things, and how men fight and lose the battle,
and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and
when it comes it turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to
fight for what they meant under another name.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– William Morris<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bernie Sanders <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/10/13/9528143/bernie-sanders-socialism-search">says
he’s a socialist</a>, but <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanderss-socialist-charade/2015/06/03/5a905c44-0952-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html">he’s
not</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s true that the misapplication
of political labels is a venerable tradition in American politics – consider the
Puritan Social Darwinists who call themselves conservatives, the multiculturalist
particularists who call themselves liberals, the Old Rightist Neo-Confederates
who call themselves libertarians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
let’s not add to that confusion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sanders’
<a href="http://www.sanders.senate.gov/agenda/">program</a> advocates using
activist government to rebuild infrastructure; raise the minimum wage; make college
free; increase regulations on Wall Street; institute single payer healthcare; make
taxes more progressive; empower unions and worker co-ops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/10/18/sanders_and_clinton_vs_capitalism_128451.html">rails
against</a> “the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so
many have so little”, and hopes for “a society where all people do well, not
just a handful of billionaires” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/what-is-a-democratic-socialist-bernie-sanders-tries-to-redefine-the-name/2015/10/17/d722ba80-7370-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html">and
a</a> “government that represents all of us, not just the wealthiest people in
the country.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, present-day
capitalism has come off the leash; it isn’t working for most working people and
the excess concentration of wealth corrupts democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His analysis is spot-on and his program is
full of good practical ideas, but <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/10/14/9530787/socialism-history-explained">is this
socialism</a>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The essential doctrine of socialism is that capitalism is
irredeemably exploitive in that it forces workers to sell their labor to
produce goods whose value is stolen by the investors who control that
production.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Individualist liberal theory
– like that of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Treatises_of_Government">John Locke</a>
and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations">Adam Smith</a>
– is used to justify capitalism, but it’s just an alibi excusing the
concentration of economic and political power (which is really just economic
power) in capitalist hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This view reached
its most sophisticated and influential theoretical exposition, of course, in
the work of 19<sup>th</sup> century political philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital:_Critique_of_Political_Economy">Karl
Marx</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Classical Marxism holds that the essential contradiction of
capitalism – that production is broadly socialized, but profit goes to a small ruling
class – would inevitably lead to its downfall, once workers realized their
objective condition and their true class interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most early socialists organized workers in
the hopes of increasing their economic power, either through explicitly
pro-labor electoral politics, or trade unions, or both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the ultimate goal was a society where
communal control of production – via unions or worker cooperatives or the state
– spelled the end of capitalism and its system of forced, alienated and
exploited labor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But then, in early 20<sup>th</sup> century Russia the young
intellectual firebrand, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_to_Be_Done%3F">Vladimir Lenin</a>,
created a new version of socialism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According
to Lenin and his followers, the working class would never achieve true
class-consciousness on its own; only a small vanguard party of intellectuals in
possession of true theory could work the magic needed to replace capitalist
hell with socialist heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The workers
would be herded and directed and controlled, all in their own true interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once in power, of course, Marxism-Leninism
became horribly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union">totalitarian</a>:
the leaders controlled the party, which controlled the state, which controlled
everything and everyone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
classic Communism, as espoused and practiced by Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Ho, Che,
Castro, Kim Il-Sung, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hardly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat">workers
paradise</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the original Democratic Socialism was confronted on its left by
Communism, a new ideology, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy">Social Democracy</a>,
arose on its immediate right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social
Democracy is still socialist in analysis – it considers capitalism fundamentally
exploitive – but it has a much more moderate and pragmatic program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Informed by both the failure of capitalism to
self-destruct – despite war, depression and decades of socialist agitation –
and the failure of socialism to become established other than in its
nightmarish Leninist form, social democrats accepted capitalism as a social
reality, but tried to bring about socialist ends within the capitalist system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After coming to power in northern Europe, they
heavily regulated capitalism, redistributed its bounty, and provided a safety
net for its downtrodden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, they
established the<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> welfare state</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But since this is socialism that has made its
peace with capitalism (even if only programmatically) it’s no longer really
socialism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Real socialists – Communists
and Democratic Socialists – consider capitalism organically incapable of
justice, and so view Social Democracy as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism">sellout</a> and a sham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Social Democrats, socialism is a nice idea
that has proven historically impossible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are the three main groupings of socialist-inspired thought
(there’s also Anarchism, which is socialist ends through thoroughly libertarian
means).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly Bernie Sanders is
neither a Communist nor a Democratic Socialist, since there’s nothing in his
rhetoric or his program indicating he yearns to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">end</i> capitalism, merely regulate it and redistribute its riches a
little more equitably.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So is he a social
democrat?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should we label anyone who
supports a welfare state (as opposed to the actual socialist destruction of
capitalism) as a social democrat?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1MDjZPMUHCM9Gwub0cYH-pjcLQ5yt2my0gJERLuFGWlIE-DoZ-Q-Z_sR7tt7vkMSOuklmaMggwatl5xwgoBd6XArr2GXEub9uesXY0-rYiYsAqWGHvvFKwSv1O3FpybJ3o7u_3Ik0qA/s1600/lyndon+johnson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1MDjZPMUHCM9Gwub0cYH-pjcLQ5yt2my0gJERLuFGWlIE-DoZ-Q-Z_sR7tt7vkMSOuklmaMggwatl5xwgoBd6XArr2GXEub9uesXY0-rYiYsAqWGHvvFKwSv1O3FpybJ3o7u_3Ik0qA/s320/lyndon+johnson.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Lyndon Johnson, also not a socialist.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider American
liberals and the welfare state they created. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal">Franklin Roosevelt and the New
Dealers</a> used the federal government to promote labor unions; regulate
banking and finance and labor markets; provide economic relief to the poor, the
elderly, farmers, and workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his
1944 State of the Union address, FDR proposed his “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights">Economic Bill of
Rights</a>”, which would have (if not blocked by a conservative Congress) guaranteed
to every American a good job, a decent home, healthcare, old-age security, a
good education, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Deal">Harry Truman</a> pushed for
increased unemployment and Social Security benefits, full employment, increased
worker safety protections, universal healthcare, public housing, public works, aid
to veterans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society">Lyndon Johnson</a> ended
racial segregation and provided medical care for seniors and the very
poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in the first real expansion of
the welfare state since LBJ, Obama finally instituted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act">(near)
universal healthcare</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This all sounds
a lot like social democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it’s not; it’s modern liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both social democracy and modern liberalism
support a robust welfare state, but for very different reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Classical liberalism, as defined and expressed
by thinkers like Locke, Smith and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Liberty">John Stuart Mill</a>, held that
individuals and their rights are logically and morally prior to society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So no one has any natural claim of authority
over anyone else and political power is legitimate only when individuals
consent to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Classical liberal theory arose
during the 17<sup>th</sup>, 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> centuries, as the
creaking feudal structure was replaced by the free market, nationalism,
individual rights and representative democracy; all of these being instituted
to allow individuals greater control over their own lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the end of the 19<sup>th</sup> and early
20<sup>th</sup> centuries full-spectrum classical liberalism had become the
established way of life in most advanced Western countries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But once dominant its downsides became apparent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Specifically, capitalism was generating
enormous wealth, but that wealth was mostly going to the capitalists, not the
workers, who were forced to work in terrible conditions for meager pay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, capitalist economy went through
dramatic boom-and-bust cycles, causing widespread hardship and social instability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Socialism arose to explain these symptoms as
manifestations of capitalism’s fundamental irrationality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But liberalism’s critique of capitalism is
based upon support for individual freedom and democracy and the desire for
social stability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, the
completely free market leaves most workers with very little bargaining power, it
constricts their options and their lives, it concentrates too much power in the
hands of the rich, it corrupts the democratic process, and it opens the door to
dangerous radical change.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thus liberals tried to rescue workers from economic bondage, and <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/politics/hillary-clinton-we-need-to-save-capitalism-from-015330520.html">save
capitalism</a> – their invention! – from its own excesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hence, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">liberal</i> welfare state (which is generally a little milder than the
social democratic version).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_liberalism">new liberalism</a> –
using the state for the prudential amelioration of capitalism in order to
increase individual freedom – was quite different from classical liberalism;
it’s been called welfare state liberalism, welfarism, progressivism, social
liberalism, modern liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is,
through a sort of <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/10/14/9530787/socialism-history-explained">convergent
evolution</a>, some socialists moved right and some liberals moved left and they
met in the welfare state middle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
programs became very similar, but their respective ideological motivations
remained unchanged, and therefore quite divergent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social democrats still considered capitalism
exploitive at its heart; modern liberals still supported it in theory while wishing
only to mitigate its most pernicious assaults on freedom and democracy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But both gave up their utopian dreams – of
pure socialist justice, and pure capitalist freedom, respectively – and
accepted the good and bad in capitalism, once tamed by the welfare state. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To social democrats welfare-state capitalism
is the least bad economic system that’s practically possible; to modern
liberals it’s an improved version of an imperfect but essentially beneficial
system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A social democrat is a socialist
who knows socialism is impossible; a modern liberal is liberal who knows that
capitalism must be made better.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is why it’s not fair to call Sanders a socialist; he’s clearly
a fairly typical welfare state liberal, in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1936">historically
popular</a> mold of the great 20<sup>th</sup> century New Deal liberals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So why does he call himself a socialist? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Because
liberalism has changed so much since Lyndon Johnson</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The success of modern conservatism and its
electoral dominance, particularly since the rise of Ronald Reagan, subdued
liberals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many, such as Bill Clinton and
Al Gore, became <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrats">New
Democrats</a>, largely giving up the liberal critique of capitalism and promoting
privatization and deregulation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
technical terms they became neo-liberals, trying to achieve welfare-state ends through
private means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They partnered with
conservatives to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement">expand
free trade</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Nutrition_Assistance_Program#1996_welfare_reform_and_subsequent_amendments">end
the federal guarantee of social assistance to poor families</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act#Glass.E2.80.93Steagall_developments_from_1995_to_Gramm.E2.80.93Leach.E2.80.93Bliley_Act">deregulate
banking and investment</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Old-fashioned welfare state liberalism lost
its political leaders to conservative polices, its white working class
constituency to racially charged right-wing populism, and its intellectual and
cultural elite to libertine, cosmopolitan multiculturalism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That is, post 60’s liberalism became much less focused on economic
struggles and much more focused on issues of cultural emancipation: social
equality for racial minorities, women, gays, etc. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was partly the influence of
countercultural movements like the hippies, feminists, black nationalists,
etc., and also the influence of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left">New Left</a>, that baby boomer, student
movement against conformity, white supremacy and militarism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New Leftists started the 60’s as reformist
liberals hoping to cure then-dominant technocratic liberalism of its
bureaucratic and paternalistic excesses, and create a racially healed,
individually fulfilling and humane liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As liberalism was the conscience of capitalism, they aimed to be the
conscience of liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as that
fateful decade proceeded and they felt the stinging disappointment of
liberalism’s failure to end racial injustice and Cold War extremism, they <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sixties-Years-Hope-Days-Rage/dp/0553372122">came to
see liberalism as the enemy of its putative humanitarian goals</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They became convinced that America was
fundamentally compromised by racism, militarism and capitalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of them became social democrats; but
many moved farther left, in fits and starts; some slid all the way to
Communism; a small number even embraced Communism’s farther extremes,
idealizing horrible tyrants like Mao, Kim and Hoxha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus modern welfare-state liberalism lost its
intellectual support to both its right and its left, though it still commanded
a large, orphaned constituency among actual working people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfP5ps97sw3DW7M9PPbBEgMgUadtUgCVWL9v2Pp-46c5el7aFDZfTrJ63f1cwblDt6Xsn3hR3Ap_ELoQXDzQUNktgPh71ZV5ioVXyhyphenhyphenBxNOa_wm210N_jPRP20MonYpkseEXf7r6_Wvo/s1600/Bernie+Sanders+young.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfP5ps97sw3DW7M9PPbBEgMgUadtUgCVWL9v2Pp-46c5el7aFDZfTrJ63f1cwblDt6Xsn3hR3Ap_ELoQXDzQUNktgPh71ZV5ioVXyhyphenhyphenBxNOa_wm210N_jPRP20MonYpkseEXf7r6_Wvo/s320/Bernie+Sanders+young.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">When he was a socialist, sort of.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bernie Sanders is a <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122005/he-was-presidential-candidate-bernie-sanders-was-radical">child
of the New Left</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Born in 1941, he’s
a little bit older than the typical baby-boom New Leftist, but he was very much
part of the counterculture, the sexual revolution, the anti-war movement, and
the ideological opposition to capitalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is, he once was an actual socialist, albeit something of a
libertarian hippie one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as he became
involved in electoral politics – mayor of the very liberal city of Burlington,
Vermont, then independent Congressman from Vermont, and now Senator – his <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/10/01/ask-bernie-sanders-about-criminal-justice-he-ll-talk-about-economics">natural
personal pragmatism</a> moved him on both <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanders-says-hes-a-socialist-his-old-socialist-buddies-say-not-so-much/2015/07/25/a3948256-3145-11e5-97ae-30a30cca95d7_story.html">economic</a>
and cultural issues <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/10/01/ask-bernie-sanders-about-criminal-justice-he-ll-talk-about-economics">further
to the right</a>, that is, toward the old welfare-state liberal center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the rise of Reaganism moved welfare-state
liberals over to neo-liberalism, it moved Bernie from vague socialism over to welfare-state
liberalism. He was a New Leftist who came to understand the necessity of
defending the welfare state against the conservative and neo-liberal onslaught
of the last 40 years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now he’s a liberal
who calls himself a socialist, but mostly because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">respectable establishment liberals as a whole abandoned real liberalism
decades ago</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that nicely
explains why the primary defender of real liberalism is such an <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/integrity-disqualifies-sanders-white-house">eccentric</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has fallen to a New Leftist to rescue liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That someone came out of that starkly
anti-liberal tradition to save liberalism is an irony too exquisite, but the
justice is poetic, and the lesson is clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just as socialism was an overreaction to the flaws of capitalism, New
Leftist abandonment of the traditional welfare state was an overreaction to the
compromises and half-broken promises of 20<sup>th</sup> century
liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Socialism was never a real
possibility in America – thank God! – and it still isn’t – thank God!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if Sanders were elected and somehow
managed to institute his entire program, and even if the entire world came to
call it socialism, it would still really just be modern liberalism, the most <a href="http://prospect.org/article/bernie-sanders-too-radical-america">popular</a>,
successful, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Conscience-Liberal-Paul-Krugman/dp/0393333132">broadly
prosperous</a>, and humanitarian ideology since feudalism went sloughing off to
its happy demise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bernie, welcome home.</span></span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-92130591168198996182015-06-25T19:50:00.000-04:002015-06-25T19:50:37.265-04:00Iraqi Reality and Conservative Denial<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhloFn7TZ1txqKn4VqTDdyuioolkl3Rk_yk2qjpWcpH4FXpKA6y2DFEo995xKA7qbls-u5om1lOpusUKNW08ZjAcSgPSJS1QpMYHPbTpxWFE8dfkRJHUfdmwccU7ElVCv8lyu_9RvtHVms/s1600/Jeb+Bush.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhloFn7TZ1txqKn4VqTDdyuioolkl3Rk_yk2qjpWcpH4FXpKA6y2DFEo995xKA7qbls-u5om1lOpusUKNW08ZjAcSgPSJS1QpMYHPbTpxWFE8dfkRJHUfdmwccU7ElVCv8lyu_9RvtHVms/s400/Jeb+Bush.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Jeb Bush cannot escape his brother's record</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When Jeb
Bush was asked on Fox News whether he would have ordered the invasion of Iraq
knowing what we know now, he <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/05/14/jeb-bush-clears-air-on-iraq-war-stance-says-would-not-have-authorized-invasion/">fumbled
badly</a>, but he crystallized a <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121791/jeb-bush-accidentally-admits-iraq-war-was-mistake">new
conservative consensus</a> <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-presidential-candidates-agree-iraq-invasion-was-a-mistake/article24469747/">on
the issue</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That consensus consists
of two points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, the intelligence
available at the time was unmistakable that Saddam had an active WMD program
and had ties to al Qaeda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, the
Bush administration’s acceptance of that faulty intelligence and its decision
to invade was an honest mistake, a mistake that any reasonable person would
have made given that intelligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
inescapable conclusion (though <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/05/17/3659821/rubio-iraq-war-dodge/">some
still try</a> to escape it) is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we
should not have invaded</i>, that the momentous cost did not cover the dubious
benefit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other than <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/05/20/iraq-saddam-hussein-obama-bush-william-kristol-editorials-debates/27681429/">pathological
denialists</a>, everyone now accepts that <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-world-isnt-better-off-because-of-the-iraq-war/">conclusion</a>,
and there’s a definite satisfaction in such a broad acceptance of a truth that
had for so long been so strenuously denied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is big: movement conservatives now admit the war was wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But despite
conservative progress on this issue, there’s still a long way to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, the two points of the conservative
consensus are simply false; they’re evasions, alibis that allow conservatives
to concede the undeniable folly of the war without conceding that Bush and his
advisors were the source of the folly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But they were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They deliberately
pushed the country into war and <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-new-lie-about-iraq/">misrepresented
the facts</a> <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/06/24/14969/search-935-iraq-war-false-statements">to
do so</a>, and most conservatives were complicit in that dishonesty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if Bush was merely misled – instead of wrong
or foolish or dishonest – then why weren’t we all misled?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/8956959/Barack-Obama-and-what-he-said-on-the-Iraq-war.html">Many
people</a>, most of them liberals, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/05/14/stop-sanitizing-the-history-of-the-run-up-to-iraq-war/">understood
the weakness</a> <a href="http://www.cato.org/blog/has-gop-learned-anything-iraq-debacle">of the
case</a> against Saddam <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">at the time</i>,
and tried desperately to stop the war before it began.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new conservative consensus concedes <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/glenn-beck-liberals-you-were-right-we-should-never-have-gone-into-iraq/">those
people were right</a>, but it provides no explanation why. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/the-right-and-wrong-questions-about-the-iraq-war/393497/">More
importantly</a>, given that the wrongness, foolishness and dishonesty of the
war were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/opinion/paul-krugman-errors-and-lies.html">all
too apparent at the time</a></i>, why did <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anyone</i>
support the war?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Consider
the different categories of supporters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">naïve</i>: those who trusted
the president, as Americans generally do on questions of war and peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cowed</i>:
those <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-says-support-for-iraq-invasion-was-a-mistake-2015-5">afraid
to appear weak</a> on defense issues. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vengeful</i>:
those whose rage at the humiliation of 9/11 had not been assuaged by the war in
Afghanistan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bullies</i>: those eager to throw around American weight, to prove
we’re still the big boys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">obsessed</i>: neo-conservatives and their
ideological companions, who had been fixated on the destruction of Saddam since
the First Iraq War of 1991.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But why
were neo-cons, and conservatives in general, so obsessed with Saddam, so eager
to go to war that they ignored the facts?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many neo-cons had been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century">making
the case for years</a> that America needed to reassert herself militarily, that
American might, resolutely asserted, could help pacify a chaotic world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, more importantly, it would <a href="http://www.democracyjournal.org/1/6468.php">bring America back</a> to
those martial virtues – self-sacrifice, fortitude, resolve, assurance – that
had made her great.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Those
virtues had been undermined by the self-doubt and timidity that had overcome us
after the failure of Vietnam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes,
Vietnam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other than the relatively minor
Iraq war of ’91, we had not kicked ass in any serious way since the fall of Saigon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before Vietnam, almost no American doubted
the manifest truths of American exceptionalism, that America and Americans were
morally superior to other countries, that our military actions are always
justified and always motivated by pure benevolence, that we were always
victorious because we were good and God was on our side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s all quite foolish, of course, but it’s not
easy to give up the fairy tales of childhood, even our national childhood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
conservatives are determined to never give them up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And 9/11 afforded them the perfect
opportunity to reassert them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our enemies
were purely evil, our massacred countrymen were entirely innocent, and the
barbaric and vicious attack on our homeland filled us with righteous wrath; the
dead called out for justice and our wounded pride called out for
vindication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, the subsequent destruction
of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that had protected and nurtured al Qaeda
did not satisfy that wrath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it was because it didn’t
include American troops marching into a defeated enemy capital and instituting
honest American administration. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nothing
can compete with the sight of American boys confidently parading through the
rubble of Tokyo and Berlin.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So Saddam
could be the new Hitler and Baghdad the new Berlin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirQrArjV65KtZrqWHFTErqTusJT_SGWaf-wXYVBlUuC9uXNvP879cvMvc1ViGbaTwd6DyRqdIPGDQZvK8XZpjBhtOVarYNDF110mILZ_CNyuxYpV2AHAAH72soTpKvmKCKPfUq2vhVzs/s1600/George+W+Bush+Flight+Suit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirQrArjV65KtZrqWHFTErqTusJT_SGWaf-wXYVBlUuC9uXNvP879cvMvc1ViGbaTwd6DyRqdIPGDQZvK8XZpjBhtOVarYNDF110mILZ_CNyuxYpV2AHAAH72soTpKvmKCKPfUq2vhVzs/s1600/George+W+Bush+Flight+Suit.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A president looking tough</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
somehow, inexplicably, it all went wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The natives refused to be pacified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They broke out in savage fighting, among themselves, and against those
honest American boys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives
hadn’t buried Vietnam, they’d <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">exhumed</i>
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vietnam had been a study in hubris,
but Iraq was a study in denial, the determined refusal to accept the lessons of
Vietnam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And long after the successful
invasion turned into a failed counter-insurgency, conservatives refused to
accept that a complex reality had defeated their simple dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now – thank God! – they’ve arrived at a way
to think about the war that preserves their American mythology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see, it wasn’t just Bush who was misled
by the intelligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new consensus
doesn’t just exonerate Bush, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">it
exonerates America</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much rests
upon that thin reed of “faulty” intelligence!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch>
<o:TargetScreenSize>800x600</o:TargetScreenSize>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
really, it exonerates conservatism. Or
rather, it’s a failed attempt to exonerate it.
Because, at bottom, the conservative instincts of unreflective assurance
and belligerence – shared by elite neo-cons and grassroots conservatives – were
the real source of the Iraq disaster.
Bush’s faults are the faults of conservatism itself: the elevation of
action over reflection, brazenness over wisdom, toughness over prudence,
appearing tough over being tough. These
are the faults of wounded adolescent pride, and they are the faults of American
excess. The real question that needs to
be asked of presidential candidates and of anyone with any influence over
American foreign policy is not, “What would you have done if you had know then
what we know now?”, nor even “Why did you support the war at the time?” The real question is “Do you share those
foolish instincts and honor that discredited mythology?” Because <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/jindals-mindless-moral-clarity/">anyone</a>
who does, or surrounds himself with advisers who do, should be mistrusted and
rebuked, and disqualified from high office.</span></span><!--EndFragment-->
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-32380112842569965942015-06-03T23:42:00.000-04:002015-06-03T23:42:09.388-04:00Patriotism Unraveled<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPhrMuYSPjmylUOMDbnHf4VOoxKT1cM4KO3L4-RDbNUBOjFs-x9FJiO_bUEuqB8isrfvHFrpvqmAxWrCzQi8Ri-yCqBv3i17orFxbNed5GfLj36hoPE6YyopxInOZjUIvSHcKx3XzBp2M/s1600/Iraq+military+retreats+from+ISIS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPhrMuYSPjmylUOMDbnHf4VOoxKT1cM4KO3L4-RDbNUBOjFs-x9FJiO_bUEuqB8isrfvHFrpvqmAxWrCzQi8Ri-yCqBv3i17orFxbNed5GfLj36hoPE6YyopxInOZjUIvSHcKx3XzBp2M/s400/Iraq+military+retreats+from+ISIS.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Military equipment left behind by the Iraqi Army as they fled from ISIS</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No one is a better representative of
old-time right-wing populism than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan">Pat Buchanan</a>, and no one understands
better than an old-time right-wing populist why men are willing to fight and
die in war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Secretary of Defense
Ashton Carter <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32867220">bitterly
complained</a> that the city of Ramadi had fallen to vicious ISIS jihadis because
the Iraqi Army lacked the “will to fight”, Buchanan jumped up with <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/why-american-allies-wont-fight/">the
explanation</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why do these
rebels seem willing to fight for what we see as antiquated beliefs, but all too
often our friends do not fight? Perhaps the answer is found in Thomas Babington
Macaulay: “And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes
of his fathers, and the temples of his gods?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tribe
and faith. Those are the causes for which Middle Eastern men will fight. Sunni
and Shiite fundamentalists will die for the faith. Persians and Arabs will
fight to defend their lands, as will Kurds and Turks.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People who’s primary loyalty is Sunni or
Shiite will fight to promote or protect their faith, and people who’s primary
loyalty is to their nation (Persians, Kurds, etc.) will fight to promote or
protect their nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are natural,
visceral motivations; a society, or a gang, or a hunter-gatherer tribe, or a
band of chimpanzees – each takes what it wants and keeps what it takes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a fundamentalist himself, Buchanan may <a href="http://buchanan.org/blog/pjb-making-a-monkey-out-of-darwin-1588">wrestle</a>
with the facts of biological evolution, but he well understands the animal
nature of man.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But do liberals?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pat doesn’t think liberalism can really
motivate anyone, or at least anyone in the Middle East:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But who among
the tribes of the Middle East will fight and die for the secular American
values of democracy, diversity, pluralism, sexual freedom, and marriage
equality?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rod Dreher <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/who-fights-for-liberalism/">takes
the argument</a> to its logical next step (his italics):<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The more
unsettling question is coming our way may well be: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But who among the tribes of the United States will fight and die for
the secular American values of democracy, diversity, pluralism, sexual freedom,
and marriage equality?</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anyone</i>
fight for modern liberalism, for the cult of individual expression, for the
impoverished post-modern liberation from all commitment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question answers itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what about the other side of modern
liberalism, the social justice warriors brimming with idealistic commitments to
racial and gender equality, etc.?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those
are wholly admirable and laudable ideals, but could that ideological commitment
motivate the sacrifice and devotion that are required for an ideology’s survival
in an eminently hostile world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider that
the objective of the social justice warriors is a world in which everyone,
regardless of race, gender, etc., is openly admitted to that aforementioned
empty freedom, that emaciated emancipation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, fighting for freedom is a cliché,
but a misleading one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fighting for
freedom typically means fighting to remove some outside domination over one’s
group; it’s about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">collective</i> freedom,
not individual license. And freedom per se, freedom devoid of content or
purpose, is just not something worth dying for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is it conceivable that a society composed
of only social justice warriors would take up arms to defend itself against
military incursion by religious fundamentalists or Ayn Rand supporters or any
other similarly retrograde group?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Barely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But would they defend
America if it were under attack?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can
we suppose that when it’s not clear that they would defend their own hypothetical
Social Justice Utopia?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they tend to
be some version of pacifist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they
generally <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/patriotism-gap-shows-conservatives-prouder-of-u.s.-than-liberals/article/2550473">consider
national allegiance</a> to be old-fashioned, foolish and destructive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of them are skeptical that America is a
place worth saving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/07/civic-virtue/260353/">some
are not</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fascists and communists in the inter-war
years were also quite certain the liberal democrats would prove feckless when
push came to shove, that they would not have the courage or determination to
resist the totalitarian onslaught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were a little right at first – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement">Chamberlain at Munich,
1938</a> – and very wrong later – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler">Hitler in the Bunker,
1945</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, hasn’t liberalism proven
itself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, the liberalism that defeated
fascism was a very different liberalism than the modern kind; or more precisely,
it wasn’t just liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s true
that the American leaders and American military men and women were fighting for
liberal values like freedom and equality, but they were also fighting for their
homeland and their people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They fought because
they loved their country, and a country is much more than just its political
principles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The British fought for their
empire, the French fought to repel the Nazis, as did most of Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the Soviets fought for Mother
Russia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buchanan’s truth wins again.
Liberalism alone without pre-liberal, pre-modern commitments of blood and soil is
incapable of eliciting the devotion and sacrifice needed to withstand the
invader’s onslaught.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even now, most of the men and women in the
American military are <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2015/03/american-crusader.html">true
patriots</a> (and those who needed a career or a simply a steady job).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And patriots in America today are more likely
to be conservative (<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/fox-news-doctor-calls-for-american-jihad.html">sometimes
excessively so</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, if we can’t
rely on liberals to fight for America, we always have conservatives to fall
back on, right?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, maybe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/">Rod Dreher</a>,
conservative but thoughtful Christian, worries that America, in becoming more
liberal, more sexually liberated, is becoming hostile to traditional
Christianity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he’s <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/who-fights-for-liberalism/">not
happy</a> at the thought of his own children fighting overseas for an America
that no longer solidly represents him and his values:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And I don’t
want them killing or dying to replace the very real evils of traditional
societies with the evils of our own civilization — especially when our
civilization, in law and custom, is in the process of turning on people of my
religion, and seeing us as the enemy within. Put bluntly, I don’t want my
children to risk death — their own or somebody else’s — for the secular
American values of democracy, diversity, pluralism, sexual freedom, and
marriage equality, especially when the most important American value — freedom
of religion — is going into eclipse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dreher contends, <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/made-to-care-brendan-o-neill-pink-police-state-gay/">not
entirely</a> <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/into-the-christian-closet/">without
reason</a>, that <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2014/04/tolerance-acceptance-and-approval.html">opposition
to gay marriage</a> (and other aspects of the sexual revolution) has evoked <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/548197/indiana-gay-marriage-liberal-betrayal-american-liberalism">social
condemnation</a> of traditionalist Christians as homophobes and bigots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is, in effect, saying that traditionalists
have become something of a <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/america-under-cultural-dhimmitude/">persecuted
minority</a> in their own country, and it’s not fair to ask them to fight for a
country that doesn’t treat them fairly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is, Christians now are a little like blacks were in the bad old days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Muhammed Ali refused to fight in Vietnam
for a country that denied his equality at home he explained, “No Vietcong ever
called me n----r.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dreher is saying, “No
jihadi ever called me homophobe.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Apparently, both he and Ali knew who their real enemies were.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-dsNPheYiqIiOHuZj23hLfzElvpHHlh_whefT-tz3O3KaC_5Tl8JmYv0RaVEjxx7HsV3Hzo7xok3oI0JDt0G9ffpjNZYckF3P_VxvQHcB9rgBEKq006iEq9flG9OIdomtCaEda1db6xs/s1600/Uncle+Sam+I+Want+You.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-dsNPheYiqIiOHuZj23hLfzElvpHHlh_whefT-tz3O3KaC_5Tl8JmYv0RaVEjxx7HsV3Hzo7xok3oI0JDt0G9ffpjNZYckF3P_VxvQHcB9rgBEKq006iEq9flG9OIdomtCaEda1db6xs/s320/Uncle+Sam+I+Want+You.jpg" width="237" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Who's he talking to?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To be sure, Dreher’s hesitation to fight
for America only applies to overseas missions; he would be only too eager to
defend America herself from attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
it’s not clear how much Dreher’s pessimism regarding anti-Christian persecution
is felt among the wider conservative Christian population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But conservatives are becoming more and more
aware that the America they <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR2008102102449.html">thought
they owned</a> is slipping away from them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What will happen when conservatives as a whole conclude that defending
America is for them a losing proposition?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Will both sides disdain America as belonging to the other?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is every version of American patriotism
unraveling?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If it does come to pass that conservatives,
in effect, opt out of American identity – as liberals have already
substantially done – then almost no one will willingly fight for America in a foreign
land. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would our expeditionary forces
then be only mercenary? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there can be
no doubt – can there? – that if America were being invaded almost every
American would come to her rescue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
we know that conservatives will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is, conservatives, being conservatives, will always love the land and their
piece of it, and always be willing to fight and die for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if they no longer feel compelled by
America as a whole, they will always be compelled by some version of Buchanan’s
ties of tribe and faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is their
strength and their failing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Modern
liberals make truly admirable political and social and intellectual leaders,
but terrible soldiers. Just as
conservatism un-moderated by liberal notions of individualism and equality
slips too easily into parochialism and intolerance, liberalism unmoored from
national affection and commitment slips too easily into cosmopolitan
affectation and universalist uselessness.
<i>We need each other.</i> And more to the point, America would be much
better off under an intelligent synthesis of both world-views, alloyed with good
amounts of pragmatism and conciliation. Conservatives
need to understand that America is more than a vessel and instrument of static conservatism. It’s a growing, changing, evolving, living
thing. And liberals need to bring their
idealism back down to earth. They could
think globally and act nationally, but only if the nation actually means
something to them. And all that really
means is recognizing that they <i>are</i>
Americans, essentially and irrevocably.
Liberalism is as much an organic outgrowth of American history as is
conservatism. We are all heirs of our
common history. But that history has
hope of continuing only if we’re all willing to accept that inheritance, and
the responsibilities it brings, and each other.</span></span><!--EndFragment-->
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-57337760072223615742015-05-29T23:41:00.000-04:002015-05-29T23:41:11.842-04:00Hillary, the Lesser Evil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrScpAlTDkApv3s_0ot80X4_us_TD2YlYZ1EDvDiqJMc7xpiE0qr6FoQJuZ9V7cvCeka_2hXJ4ANYCxJ3yYociGbm1DZvTaZkSfWAoGI8Xgh-glgB5GojfbmvRp9fcq2IOHRS7S8q1-B0/s1600/hillary+clinton+visits+wall+street.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrScpAlTDkApv3s_0ot80X4_us_TD2YlYZ1EDvDiqJMc7xpiE0qr6FoQJuZ9V7cvCeka_2hXJ4ANYCxJ3yYociGbm1DZvTaZkSfWAoGI8Xgh-glgB5GojfbmvRp9fcq2IOHRS7S8q1-B0/s400/hillary+clinton+visits+wall+street.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The champion of everyday people visits Wall Street</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If Barack Obama
had not been a candidate for president in 2008, Hillary would almost certainly
have been the Democratic nominee, and liberals would have been quite happy
about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, she enjoyed strong
liberal support at first. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if she had
been elected president, liberals would have been jubilant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now that she almost certainly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i> be the nominee – and <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/04/why-hillary-clinton-is-probably-going-to-win.html">quite
probably</a> the president, too – they’ve become quite unsure about her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What gives?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why did she inspire such passion then and such hesitation now?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who has changed, Hillary or liberals?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For instance, incontrovertibly
liberal New York mayor Bill de Blasio created a minor controversy on NBC’s Meet
the Press when he <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/nyc-mayor-will-not-endorse-hillary-clinton-yet-n340181">hesitated
to endorse her candidacy</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He publicly
worried that she’s not liberal enough, and he channeled widespread liberal Hillary-ambivalence
when he both applauded her resume and challenged her to present a more starkly
liberal economic program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And now that
Hillary has officially declared herself a candidate and is acting the populist
and the “<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/04/hillary_clinton_campaign_video_announcing_her_presidential_run_she_wants.html">champion</a>”
of the people, a crowd of critics has arisen to argue that it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> an act, that Hillary is as populist
as a credit default swap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The indictment is convincing: she’s very cozy
with <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/why-wall-street-loves-hillary-112782_full.html#.VTZXIxfIy8X">Wall
Street</a>; she’s been part of official Washington since she moved into the
White House with Bill in 1993; she’s quite comfortable within the modern American
ruling regime of capital, connections, and corruption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She seems more like part of the problem than
the solution; that is, if you think a rapacious, semi-hereditary caste
exploiting our economy and undermining our democracy is a problem.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But you don’t
have to be to Hillary’s left to <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121645/hillary-clintons-populism-real-or-fake-it-doesnt-matter">suspect
her populism</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives – bless their
helpful hearts – <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2015/04/19/no-one-is-buying-that-hillary-is-anything-but-the-candidate-of-wall-street/">doubt
her sincerity</a> too, though generally for <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416993/hillarys-attempt-elizabeth-warren-impression-isnt-going-well-charles-c-w-cooke">unconvincing
and disingenuous reasons</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If she <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/selling-hillary-2016_921752.html">can’t
be a genuine liberal because she has money</a> then how do you explain Teddy
Kennedy and FDR?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And conservatives are
quite indignant at her call for a constitutional amendment to curtail the
political power of corporations, all while she rakes in that dirty Wall Street
cash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their point seems to be Hillary’s <a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/04/21/hillary-clintons-tangle-of-corruption/">hypocrisy</a>,
and the way it reinforces the near-universal perception that she’s phony from
top to bottom, that she doesn’t do or say anything that hasn’t been focus-grouped
and poll-tested and approved by public relations gurus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, duh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It seems unlikely that conservatives are complaining that Hillary is not
battling vigorously enough against the pernicious influence of big money, i.e. that
she’s being insufficiently liberal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And then there’s
the case for the defense, made by Hillary-supporters who insist she <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> a real liberal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s just unconvincing; they either <a href="http://thedailybanter.com/2015/04/ready-for-hillary-derangement-syndrome/">ignore</a>
her intimacy with big money, or they attempt a misdirect by pointing out her
reliable cultural liberalism, or they highlight her recent <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/brent-budowsky/239020-brent-budowsky-hillary-lifts-populist-spirits">populist</a>
<a href="http://correctrecord.org/the-points/hillary-clinton-a-lifetime-champion-of-income-opportunity/">rhetoric</a>
itself, as if political rhetoric should be taken at face value. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interestingly there’s a cadre of conservatives
on this side of the argument as well, convinced that Hillary <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> quite left, actually more left than
you might imagine: she’s an <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/saul-alinsky-secretly-controls-hillary-too.html">Alinskyite</a>
<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/gaffe-hillary-clinton-endorses-communism.html">Stalin-waiting-in-the-wings</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, dear!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboswFWHEXXwEVSr1u4ePwTuArhPeJQHg1OR1plRn0BObq-Q7jm4TgpmsYUx4FE42BzQjdo6pLg4eRHcxTy0k2RsJmM1qdlarm0Aaq0vZru9JsSo-0IoQ6TNDn99-3e8yW_DYJA8llfBY/s1600/george-mcgovern-bill-clinton-1972.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboswFWHEXXwEVSr1u4ePwTuArhPeJQHg1OR1plRn0BObq-Q7jm4TgpmsYUx4FE42BzQjdo6pLg4eRHcxTy0k2RsJmM1qdlarm0Aaq0vZru9JsSo-0IoQ6TNDn99-3e8yW_DYJA8llfBY/s320/george-mcgovern-bill-clinton-1972.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bill Clinton working for George McGovern, 1972</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In reality, Bill
and Hillary started out as idealistic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1972">McGovern</a>
supporters, but somewhere between there and here they became a little too eager
to work within the system, a little too comfortable playing nice with the
powers-that-be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hillary has supported
Obamacare, the extension of unemployment benefits, etc., so she clearly is some
kind of liberal; that is, she’s willing to use government to help working
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So why all of a sudden does she
feel the need to sound like <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-american-passion.html">Huey
Long</a>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And there it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the way liberals have changed since
2008: they’ve become substantially more economically populist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wars over Obamacare, the federal budget,
financial regulation, etc. have focused the liberal mind on the issue of
economic injustice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Tea Party and libertarians
have made free market anarchism the centerpiece of conservatism, and in doing
so they’ve clarified liberal convictions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The 2008 election was about unseating the party of George W. Bush and
undoing the tremendous damage it had caused, and Hillary seemed a perfectly plausible
leader for that charge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now
liberals are hungry to fight the real fight, the fight to make our economy work
for everyone, not just CEO’s and investors and hedge-fund managers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Hillary is simply implausible as the
champion of that fight.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Clintons came
of political age in the 1980’s, when the country was turning toward Reaganism, toward
free-market idolatry and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Darwinism-American-Thought-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0807055034">Social
Darwinism</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like many liberals of
their day, they made their accommodation with the new reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They abandoned the fight for economic
justice, and fought a rearguard action against the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">laissez-faire</i> assault on the welfare state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the real way that Hillary is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/03/30/the-insiders-is-age-more-than-just-a-number-for-hillary-clinton/">too
old</a>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she’s still part of that liberal
timidity</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But liberals today are no
longer afraid to be liberals, they want a leader that represents their new
fighting spirit, and Hillary sold off that piece of her soul to the highest
bidder long, long ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a strange way,
the McCarthyite freaks afraid of Hillary’s inner Stalin are half right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She did submerge her true liberal self long
ago; they’re just wrong to think it’s still alive and kicking.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch>
<o:TargetScreenSize>800x600</o:TargetScreenSize>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In an era when Republicans have a lock on Congress (or
at least on the House) even a thoroughly liberal president wouldn’t be able to
advance much of a liberal agenda. And a
moderate president doing little to help or harm America would be enormously preferable
to a conservative doing it much harm. It’s
true that a genuine liberal could substantially advance the interests of
working people through appointments of cabinet secretaries, agency heads,
federal judges, etc., but there are no genuine liberals running this cycle that
actually have a chance of winning. So all
that’s left for liberals is to pressure Hillary to be as liberal as she can be
pressured to be, and that includes doing pathetic little things like
withholding endorsements. And this is
the likely scenario for the next 8 years: an uninspiring and cynical president
half-heartedly containing raging conservative havoc. It seems we just have to accept that that’s
the best we can do.</span></span><!--EndFragment-->
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-27665224687376780992015-05-08T15:20:00.000-04:002015-05-08T15:20:31.874-04:00Hollow Populisms<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpv-ByOOz0d852tvl4j-A-3qtDqA0zaWGkKhFEqM9hFzh5ujIPRxhxpZBRLt4KK0Vxr-0aSA7DYipmvPCGqa8NbtnhoIJHqH0VLtGpsq7eMgW_ky4LuYO1llwPV9Zdoa7gtWyMCi4dRZU/s1600/Wisconsin+protestors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpv-ByOOz0d852tvl4j-A-3qtDqA0zaWGkKhFEqM9hFzh5ujIPRxhxpZBRLt4KK0Vxr-0aSA7DYipmvPCGqa8NbtnhoIJHqH0VLtGpsq7eMgW_ky4LuYO1llwPV9Zdoa7gtWyMCi4dRZU/s400/Wisconsin+protestors.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Union members and supporters protest Governor Scott Walker's assault on unions<br />Madison, Wisconsin, 2012</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Conservative
populism is inherently unstable; it must constantly struggle to keep cultural
populism from bleeding over into economic issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, white working people are encouraged
to resent snobbish, over-educated, cosmopolitan, elitist liberals who look down
on them for their unsophisticated tastes, crude manners and backward views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they must never resent the rich simply
for being rich; they must never consider the injustice of being forced to work
for less pay in worse conditions while CEO’s and hedge-fund managers make
millions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since in </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-myth-and-its-devotees.html">conservative mythology</a></span><span lang="EN-US">,
capitalism always rewards the virtuous and punishes the lazy, conservative
populism must be about attitudes and humiliation, never about wages and power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It must remain purely affective, never
material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re only allowed to hate
someone for their condescension, never for their money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus is real populism neutered.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
that’s what makes the conservative split on immigration so interesting: it sneaks
in some genuine economic populism through the back door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservative elites – commentators, writers,
the Republican establishment, the Chamber of Commerce, big money – are quite
happy to let in lots of unskilled workers from other countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It provides cheap labor, and it indulges
their stark libertarianism, the view that any interference in the market – even
a national boundary – is the work of the devil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And after Hispanics voted overwhelmingly in 2012 against Mitt Romney and
his </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/mitt-romneys-severe-conservatism_652663.html">severely</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/04/scott_walker_is_now_against_legal_immigration_the_wisconsin_governor_s_new.html">restrictive</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> anti-immigration
position, Republican leaders are eager to </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-way-forward/2012/11/08/6592e302-29d8-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html">appear more
accommodating</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> toward Hispanics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And did I mention that immigration provides
lots of cheap labor?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The
conservative base, of course, is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com//2015/04/22/scott-walker-vs-the-world/">strongly opposed</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> to both
allowing in more immigrants and allowing undocumented immigrants to stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their reasons are partly cultural: they’re
afraid that too many foreigners will resist assimilation and alter the national
character. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on the farther reaches
the reasons become more nativist and racial: they’re convinced America is meant
for white Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But their
objections also include perfectly defensible and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/does-immigration-harm-working-americans/384060/">plausible</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> economic
concerns: they don’t want to compete against cheap labor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, that’s the same cheap labor – I
may have mentioned – that employers and investors are quite happy to have them
compete against.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the split on
immigration between the conservative establishment and the conservative base is
an economic split.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a split defined
by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">class</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not class in the sense of who’s looking down
his nose at who, but in the sense of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/01/normal-0-false-false-false.html">who holds economic
power and who is subject to it.</a></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Into
that breach has stepped Scott Walker, the conservative Republican governor of
Wisconsin and credible presidential candidate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During an interview with conservative Glenn
Beck, Walker staked out what </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government">breitbart.com</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> calls a “</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/20/scott-walker-lays-out-pro-american-worker-stance-on-immigration/">pro-American-worker</a></span><span lang="EN-US">” position:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 42.15pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In terms of legal
immigration, how we need to approach that going forward is saying—the next president
and the next congress need to make decisions about a legal immigration system
that’s based on, first and foremost, on protecting American workers and
American wages, because the more I’ve talked to folks, I’ve talked to [Alabama]
Senator Sessions and others out there—but it is a fundamentally lost issue by
many in elected positions today—is what is this doing for American workers
looking for jobs, what is this doing to wages, and we need to have that be at
the forefront of our discussion going forward.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clearly,
Walker is siding with the base against the establishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But to do so, he’s taken a populist position,
an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">economically</i> populist position:
the rich and the powerful are making decisions that hurt everyday people, that
hurt them in their pocketbooks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Now
Scott Walker, like most conservatives, is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/scott-walker-decides-he-isnt-conservative-enough">not exactly</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> a friend
of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrezza/2012/06/05/governor-walkers-victory-spells-doom-for-public-sector-unions/">policies and
institutions</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> that promote the economic interests of
working people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, he’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/02/25/scott-walkers-reagan-nixon-test-journalism-gotcha/">loved by conservatives</a></span><span lang="EN-US">
specifically because of the ferocious battles he fought against organized labor
in Wisconsin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And many conservative
commentators consider Walker’s newfound suspicion of a completely free labor
market to be a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2015/04/21/scott-walker-goes-nativist-on-immigration/">real betrayal</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/republican-senators-criticize-scott-walker-immigration">conservative</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.cato.org/blog/rebuttal-sen-sessions-anti-legal-immigration-oped">principle</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/417235/scott-walker-over-target-taking-flak-rich-lowry">there are exceptions</a></span><span lang="EN-US">). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/walkers-bizarre-drift-to-immigration-protectionism/article/2563376">Philip Klein's</a></span><span lang="EN-US">
delightfully dogmatic reaction:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 49.25pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The idea that policymakers
should protect current American workers from competition from immigrants who
come here legally and are willing and eager to work hard is a perversion of
American ideals and a recipe for decline.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
in addition to Walker’s newfound moderation regarding market purity, there is
his newfound immoderation on the immigration issue itself; i.e. he’s gone </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/21/8462489/scott-walker-immigration-jobs">quite a few steps
further</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> than most of his conservative presidential rivals by questioning
not only illegal immigration, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">legal</i>
immigration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together these deviations add
up to a new, more comprehensive conservative populism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, Walker is </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/scott-walkers-legal-immigration-faux-pas/">positioning himself</a></span><span lang="EN-US">,
consciously or otherwise, to be the genuine voice of working America (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">white</i> working America, at least) championing
both its cultural instincts and its economic interests.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy7qghQN8_vq7VH12_zJNlVYfp0eBnz_-4FfM6SVtWDF344HirYvPZfiYE8z620qFavvMSGLqX6qBCD7ikQZnm2cYnGTxxMqWv-4xv-FRcAdIKGZ9TL1N4SWslhqxhW_Ua1GFo4dqC6O0/s1600/Scott_Walker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy7qghQN8_vq7VH12_zJNlVYfp0eBnz_-4FfM6SVtWDF344HirYvPZfiYE8z620qFavvMSGLqX6qBCD7ikQZnm2cYnGTxxMqWv-4xv-FRcAdIKGZ9TL1N4SWslhqxhW_Ua1GFo4dqC6O0/s320/Scott_Walker.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Or
so it would appear. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But will Walker
embrace a broader range of policies helping working people?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will he support raising the minimum wage or
progressive taxes or public works?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will
he come out fighting in favor of unions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If he does none of those things his populism will have been detained at
the border’s edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it seems that the
immigration controversy might be the herald of a more genuinely populist
conservatism, it isn’t happening yet, and it probably won’t happen any time
soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s because conservatives –
even populist ones – believe that American workers merit special consideration only
for being American, not for being workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>American workers should be protected from competition from foreigners
but not from the depredations of American capitalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the full extent of conservative
concern for American workers: they must remain American.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
if conservatives have no concern for American workers as workers, liberals have
no concern for them as Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, most liberals seem to have no more consideration for American
workers than they do for workers from other countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s true that the Democratic economic agenda
– minimum wage increases, Obamacare, etc. – is directed at helping working
people, but when faced with the choice between American workers and immigrants,
liberals choose the immigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have their
national feelings attenuated that far? They’re terribly concerned about the injustice
suffered by African-Americans, Hispanics, other racial minorities, women, gays,
the handicapped, etc., and rightly so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But do they have no particular consideration for their fellow Americans <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as Americans</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">If
not, if liberals have gone that far, then American liberalism is on a short
one-way trip to history’s dust bin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
one will vote for a party that doesn’t put a special priority upon the
interests of its own citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, no
one should!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially if one supports
the social welfare state and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113651/liberal-opposes-immigration-reform">hopes for a more
egalitarian and just society</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, since those are
practically possible only within the confines of a well-defined polity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-family-my-country-my-self.html">much easier</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> to
convince a rich New Yorker to pay taxes for doctors in Texas than for doctors in
Bangladesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberalism without
patriotism is liberalism standing upon thin air.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Liberals
used to understand this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only a few
years ago they were </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/21/liberals-sputter-as-scott-walker-proposes-bold-new-immigration-platform/">much more willing</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> to express
worry about the effect of immigration on American wages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now they only worry about doing even the tiniest
damage to their demographically expanding </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/11/demographics-and-inevitability.html">non-white electoral
coalition</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And by spending
so much time and energy portraying <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any</i>
conservative resistance to immigration as based entirely upon </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.salon.com/2010/05/04/immigration_open_borders_welfare_state/">racism</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, they’ve
made it too politically costly to question immigration themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their populism is a victim of their own
propaganda and their own hypertrophied broad-mindedness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To love everyone is to be of no use to
anyone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And
conservatives, whose national feelings could probably do with a little
attenuation, are all too happy to demonstrate how this undermines liberal economic
populism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the Weekly Standard’s </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/jeff-sessions-s-strong-stance-immigration_921654.html">Jeffrey H. Anderson</a></span><span lang="EN-US"> explaining
how immigration shows that liberals don’t care about workers (in a piece
written before Walker staked out his anti-immigration position):<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 49.25pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If there is anything
that liberals and Big Business can seemingly agree upon, it’s that we don’t
need an approach to immigration that benefits Main Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It remains to be seen whether anyone running
for president will seize this opening and buck the liberal-corporate consensus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">But
liberals seem blithely unaware how much they’re playing into that
consensus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hillary has even come out in
favor of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/05/hillary-makes-an-early-play-for-hispanic-voters.html">more immigration</a></span><span lang="EN-US">!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s in perfect keeping with her
pro-business positions and the general cosmopolitan tilt of liberal elites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, of course, it helps Democrats cement
their support among Hispanics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it drastically
undermines liberal credibility among working Americans, the very people that
liberalism </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-american-passion.html">used to be about</a></span><span lang="EN-US">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’re
left with no real populism. Liberal populism
shrivels before our eyes. And a hollow
conservative version tries to steal its place.
But the only American populism worthy of the name is one that actively works
for the material good of American workers.
Liberals may call that nativism and conservatives may call it
socialism. But in reality it’s neither, it’s
justice made practical.</span></span><!--EndFragment-->
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-34591430685943069042015-04-14T09:53:00.000-04:002015-04-14T09:53:18.668-04:00Why Do Conservatives Love Israel So Much?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnD0lsJ36YW1LoNOIQ8OGFaLOX2o5kb5sg8UoQEVsgeoE5fdgW2I40y3zGIoY28r_BIqY4UJVdIDpUYEA_ROyHkJvA7DORL76D-TvMf58OCHlXPxqmbILaQm2Nrh7WEbHISkR5tG0MWA/s1600/Netanyahu+on+Capitol+Hill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnD0lsJ36YW1LoNOIQ8OGFaLOX2o5kb5sg8UoQEVsgeoE5fdgW2I40y3zGIoY28r_BIqY4UJVdIDpUYEA_ROyHkJvA7DORL76D-TvMf58OCHlXPxqmbILaQm2Nrh7WEbHISkR5tG0MWA/s1600/Netanyahu+on+Capitol+Hill.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warmly greeted by Congress, March 3rd</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The most striking
thing about the conservative reaction to the Obama administration’s <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/03/20/white_house_us_will_reassess_options_in_israel.html">unprecedented
diplomatic breach</a> with Israel is its <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2015/03/18/liberals-find-an-excuse-to-abandon-israel/">abject</a>
<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/415690/no-peace-any-time-soon-not-because-bibi-charles-krauthammer">identification</a>
<a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2015/03/21/finley-netanyahu-obama/25101127/">with</a>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the other country</i>. To recap: Benjamin
Netanyahu successfully campaigned for re-election as Prime Minister by
explicitly <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/transformation-of-us-israel-alliance-coming.html">repudiating</a>
what has been the central proposal of both Israeli and American diplomacy for a
generation: the two-state solution, the creation of a sovereign Palestinian
state at peace with Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also <a href="http://time.com/3749912/benjamin-netanyahu/">lamented</a> that Israeli
Arabs were actually exercising their political rights as citizens by voting
against him in great numbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By retracting
the only important conciliatory position Israel has taken, and by appealing to
the worst instincts of his embattled base he has made progress on the
Palestinian problem impossible for the foreseeable future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, that seems to have been his
intent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he has badly damaged
Israel’s diplomatic and moral standing, and that is reflected in the <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/israels-america-united-116203.html">new
American disapproval</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But American conservatives
are angry <a href="http://nypost.com/2015/03/22/israel-beware-of-obama/">beyond
reason</a>, not at Netanyahu for sabotaging chances for mid-East peace, <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/rubio-obama-isnt-nicer-to-iran-than-israel.html">but
at Obama</a> <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2015/03/20/the-lefts-ugly-israel-freakout/">for
having</a> <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/03/20/mr-obama-bibi-netanyahu-is-here-to-stay-it-time-to-grow-up/">the
nerve to criticize</a> him for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course, overwrought indignation deafens our current political discourse, but in
this case the apoplectic table-pounding seems all too sincere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What gives?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Israel, as the only genuine liberal democracy in the region, is an
admirable country in many ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how
do we understand the intensity and extremity of conservative
protectiveness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it possible to
imagine conservatives losing their minds over official American reproach of,
say, Britain?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or Canada?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Or any
other country in the world</i>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is
Israel so special in the conservative mind?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why do they love it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so much</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And it’s not just
that they love it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They seem to love it <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/israel-and-the-right/">as much as</a>
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/why-are-right-wingers-so-crazy-love-israel">they
love</a> <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/24/jim-baker-s-tart-message-for-bibi-at-j-street.html">America</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, crucially, they love it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in the same way</i>: it’s pure and noble in
essence and <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-gops-absurd-israel-litmus-test/">can
do</a> <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117214/republicans-and-democrats-part-ways-israel">no
wrong</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, many American
Christian fundamentalists support Israel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism">because it plays a
central role</a> in their vision of the end of days; i.e. Armageddon and the destruction
of all non-believers, especially any Jews who stubbornly remain Jewish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Israel must be quite happy at this sort of
“support”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More to the point, such
obscurantist, adolescent revenge fantasies might explain instrumental affection
for Israel, but they don’t explain super-national love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As personal love
is the extension of one’s ego to include another, conservative Israel-ardor is
the extension of patriotism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider a
country whose creation was ordained by God Himself, whose purpose is to bring
righteousness to the world, whose political heart is democratic and free, and
which from the moment of its inception was besieged by implacable evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that America or Israel?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the conservative
imagination Israel is an extension of all that’s good in America, in Western
civilization, in humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives love Israel the way they love
America because Israel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the only country that has a franchise on
American exceptionalism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And since, as
conservatives have warned us, <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/giulianis-smear-wasnt-racist-what-was-it.html">Obama
doesn’t really love America</a>, it makes perfect sense that he <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/16/jon-voight-obama-does-not-love-israel/">doesn’t
love Israel</a> either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, some
conservatives claim that Netanyahu loves America <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/kristol-netanyahu-loves-america-more-than-obama.html">more
than Obama does</a>!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The farther fringes
are certain that Obama actively desires the <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/does-obama-hate-israel/">humiliation</a> –
<a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/mark-levin-obama-trying-protect-islam-and-seeking-destroy-israel">or
worse!</a> – <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/12/22/when-the-american-president-hates-america/">of
both</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The crucial confusion here is
mistaking an ideology for a country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Conservative love America for its essential goodness, which in their
minds flows from its strong, beating conservative heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Israel equals America equals conservatism
equals moral purity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To oppose any of
them is to oppose them all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But even more
important than moral purity is moral <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">strength</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the moment of its birth Israel has beaten
off its attacking neighbors, even expanding its territory and its military
power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what makes conservatives
swoon: bad-assed righteousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must</i> be on Israel’s side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the very least, the conservative principles
that made America so great are doing the same for Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And now we can correctly
perceive Israel’s enemies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re evil
in essence and retrograde in practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Non-white, non-Western, non-Judeo-Christian, they’re present-day Native
Americans, indulging their strange, savage habits and hoarding land they <a href="http://blogs.cbn.com/hurdontheweb/archive/2012/07/30/why-are-the-palestinians-poor.aspx">don’t
know how</a> to properly exploit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
can’t possibly have any <a href="http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153326">legitimate
grievances</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any resistance these
place-holding squatters feel toward their eviction by the rightful owners can
only be motivated by simple spite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conservative
vision of Israel as America is complete: sturdy, righteous pioneers subduing
the physical and moral wilderness, armed with only a Bible and an atomic bomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is the Puritan self-image: a pillar
of morality strong enough to resist the temptations, corruptions and
enervations that threaten his soul.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the myth
of American and Israeli goodness that, to varying degrees, informs conservative
thinking on the subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The increasing
polarization of American politics – i.e. the escalating ideological purification
of conservatism – has increased the influence and intensity of that myth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As with the embattled Puritan, the greater
the evil outside the door, the greater the intensity of belief inside the
temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more conservatives feel
America is threatened – by immigration, by liberalism, by terrorism – or that
Israel is threatened – by Arab demographics, by Iran, by insufficient American
devotion – the more they reject reasoned analysis and embrace mythology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obama has pushed all their Israeli buttons:
by pressing it to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/04/AR2009060403811.html">halt
settlement-building</a>, by <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/03/24/iran-nuclear-deal-does-obama-want-israel-to-commit-suicide/">negotiating
with its enemies</a>, by criticizing its politics, and – most importantly – by
not worshiping its moral superiority, by treating it like a normal country,
like the flawed and morally complex country that it is, that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">every</i> country is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch>
<o:TargetScreenSize>800x600</o:TargetScreenSize>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course, fawning conservative admiration of Israel
doesn’t negate what actually is admirable about Israel. But American conservatives defend Israel for
all the wrong reasons, for reasons having more to do with American mythology
than Israeli reality. That confusion doesn’t
lend itself to the prudential, moderate diplomacy that Obama is <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/the-real-achievement-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal/389628/">trying
so hard to practice</a> and that Netanyahu is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/14/netanyahu-congress-reaction-jewish-leaders-boehner">trying
so hard to subvert</a>. And this is the
irony of the American conservative position: they’re defending Israel’s
reputation so vehemently just when its own leaders are so carelessly doing it
the most damage.</span></span><!--EndFragment-->
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-76310950531300514342015-03-24T22:43:00.000-04:002015-03-24T22:43:24.569-04:00American Crusader<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhENn8eih9wsKSegGhw8SnSsZPqWb-modtOD3CqO1wRCfPj45mIwGJxWXwaYJLzrB-fPmLJ0XfXZq6MW-eOVEBHOt5l31Jq6Dbdpq85HwHStHcuGlzwUsW6cbUwPmi-sTc030uYHyYurlM/s1600/BradleyCooperAmericanSniper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhENn8eih9wsKSegGhw8SnSsZPqWb-modtOD3CqO1wRCfPj45mIwGJxWXwaYJLzrB-fPmLJ0XfXZq6MW-eOVEBHOt5l31Jq6Dbdpq85HwHStHcuGlzwUsW6cbUwPmi-sTc030uYHyYurlM/s1600/BradleyCooperAmericanSniper.jpg" height="315" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Bradley Cooper as American sniper Chris Kyle</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="//img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" />
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The sniper clearly sees his
target.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what makes him such a
compelling figure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> He directly sees the
impact of his actions; he knows who he kills and he knows what killing
means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The chaos of war may prevent the
grunt soldier from knowing if he ever hits <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anyone</i>;
but the sniper knows. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He rains down
death like a wrathful god and he sees who he smites.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So he must confront the question:
Who is an enemy and who is not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the
dilemma crouching at the center of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Sniper</i>, the <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_sniper/">movie</a>
by director Clint Eastwood, which presents the life and career of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/03/in-the-crosshairs">legendary
Iraq War sniper Chris Kyle</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
movie sees Kyle as an admirable, old-fashioned military hero: courageous, smart,
tough, willing to sacrifice for his comrades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He protects the good guys by killing the bad guys, and it’s quite clear
to him which is which and who is who.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But from where did such
old-fashioned moral clarity spring?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According
to Eastwood, from the simple teachings of Kyle’s father, a Texas <a href="http://nypost.com/2012/01/01/meet-the-big-shot/">Sunday-school teacher
and church deacon</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an early
scene the stern father illuminates for Chris the moral facts of life:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There are three
types of people in this world: sheep, wolves and sheepdogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people prefer to believe that evil
doesn’t exist in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if
hatred ever darkened their doorstep they wouldn’t know how to protect
themselves. These are the sheep. Then you got the predators. These people use
violence to prey on the weak. They are the wolves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then there are those who are blessed with the
gift of aggression and an overpowering need to protect the flock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These men are the rare breed that live to
confront the wolf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re the
sheepdog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we’re not raising any
sheep in this family and I will whoop your fucking ass if you turn into a wolf.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Strength without goodness <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> evil, but goodness without strength <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">invites</i> evil.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The rest of movie shows Chris
living out his father’s creed, committed to being a strong and protective sheep
dog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He finds purpose after terrorist
attacks against American embassies in Africa
and, of course, after 9/11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
determination to do good sustains him through the rigors of Navy Seal training,
through his four terrifying tours in Iraq, through bitter struggles with
a wife and family who resent his unending service, through the confusions of
returning to civilian life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He only
wavers when he doesn’t know who he’s fighting for, when he’s home and has no
sheep to protect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally home for good,
he tells a military doctor:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It’s the guys I
couldn’t save. Those are the faces I see. That’s my regret – that</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> I couldn’t hold
on longer. That I couldn’t do more.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The doctor introduces him to his
last fight: helping physically and emotionally wounded soldiers come to terms
with the horrors they’ve experienced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And like every other fight, he faces it bravely and squarely, never
doubting his intentions or his ability to help his fellows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is the fight that defeats him; one
particularly damaged veteran, Eddie Ray Routh, slips into psychosis and murders
Kyle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Chris Kyle portrayed in the
movie is a genuine hero (though the real-life Kyle was a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/01/21/the-mediocrity-of-american-sniper/">more
ambiguous figure</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is much to
admire in someone so eager to fight the good fight, to sacrifice and risk so
much to help his comrades and his country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it is a sad, limited heroism, a heroism with blinders on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a sniper he saw his victims clearly and as
an American soldier he saw good and evil clearly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But are good and evil really so clear?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Kyle anyone who fights America must be evil, since America can’t
possibly be in the wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It never
occurs to him that he was part of a military occupation of a foreign country
that did not want him there!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither
Kyle nor the movie ever considers the complexity of the Iraqi situation, with
its wide array of insurgencies, peopled by Baathist ex-functionaries, Iraqi
ex-soldiers, and Islamic militants; with Sunni groups, only a fraction of which
were connected to al Qaeda; and Shiite militias aligned with Iran fighting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">against</i> Sunni groups like al Qaeda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Iraqi hell was ignited by an American
invasion against a regime that had no weapons of mass destruction and had no
connection to attacks on the U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can we honor Kyle’s heroism when we face
these facts?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Some of the movie’s most
compelling moments come when Kyle is uncertain about a particular kill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the opening scene he must decide whether
to shoot a mother and son who may be preparing to attack a vulnerable American
column.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He hesitates, but when he’s sure
of their evil intent, he shoots them down, professionally and decidedly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In another scene a small Iraqi boy picks up a
grenade launcher with great difficulty and tries to aim it at approaching
American soldiers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kyle’s heart races as
he hopes to God he won’t have to kill the boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the child suddenly drops the weapon and runs away, and Kyle breaks
down and cries in relief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s a killer,
but he’s not heartless; he’s the good guy! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But tactical doubts are as far as Kyle allows
himself to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He may worry about
killing a child, but he never worries that there’s something wrong with a
situation which compels him to kill children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He just stubbornly refuses to consider the reckless, brutal,
irresponsibility of preemptively invading a country that posed no threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He simply will not let himself see the bigger
picture.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But Eastwood’s point seems to be
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kyle could only be a hero by not seeing
it</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Kyle’s friend and fellow
Navy Seal Marc Lee is killed in action, Kyle and his family attend the funeral
stateside; Lee’s mother reads aloud a letter her son had written shortly before
his death, a letter in which he expresses his doubts about the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the drive home Kyle tells his wife what he
thinks about his friend’s death and that letter:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We were
operating off emotion and we walked into an ambush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that’s not what killed him. That letter
did. That letter killed Marc Lee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He let
go and he paid the price for it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Doubt is deadly; only rock solid
faith can sustain us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eastwood seems to
be saying that a soldier fighting a war must believe in it for his own sake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kyle was certain that he and his fellow
soldiers were the sheep dogs, the insurgents and terrorists were the wolves and
Americans back home were the sheep, and that’s all there was to that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be simple-minded and foolish, but
seeing his situation that way is what gave Kyle his strength. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Eastwood, he is strong because he is good
and he is good because he is simple.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And what applies to Kyle applies
to America
as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eastwood is suggesting that
this is the only way for a country to fight a war: it must believe in
itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since war is sometimes
necessary, and therefore sometimes justified, we must believe in that justice
if we are to triumph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could we have
defeated Hitler if we had doubted ourselves? And is the determination to be a
sheepdog foolish in itself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s
nothing wrong with committing oneself to fighting the good fight, to protecting
the weak, to combating oppression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, isn’t that the highest calling?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But Kyle’s sin, and America’s,
is believing that good intentions are enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was easy to justify fighting Hitler, but it’s not so easy to justify
invading Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A thoughtful sheepdog – a sheepdog who wants
to make sure he’s not a wolf – accepts the responsibility of understanding the
meaning and consequences of his actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But also, more fundamentally, where both Kyle and his country – our
country – go wrong is in believing that our intentions <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> always good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Americans <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/24/media/american-sniper-box-office/">really
love this movie</a>, and we do so because it indulges our fervent wish to
reclaim the conviction that we’re inherently, inescapably good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in that way, this movie – and every American
war movie made in the last 40 years – is really about Vietnam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vietnam made us doubt, and we still
have not come to terms with that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kyle’s
simple faith and heroism urge us to join him in rejecting the doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The farther right one goes on the political
spectrum, the more one reveres that American goodness and applauds its forceful
application.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But to som<span style="font-size: small;">e degree all
Americans feel this Puritan instinct to <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/09/obama-putin-and-exceptionalism.html">save
the world</a>.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span>This
is the tragedy of American idealism.<span> </span>We <i>ache</i> to do good in the world, to be a
force for good, to be an example of good. <span> </span>But to blindly believe in our own crusading
righteousness, and to deny the moral complexity of the world in order to cling to
that righteousness, is to invite victimization by foolish and cynical
politicians.<span> </span>American idealism exploited
Kyle and destroyed Routh, and through Routh, it destroyed Kyle as well.<span> </span>It’s right to celebrate and admire Kyle’s courage
and sacrifice, but we must overcome his limitations. <span> </span>The best way to honor Kyle’s heroism is to
prevent any further exploitation of the generous, eager idealism still out
there. But that idealism must itself become more sophisticated and
responsible.<span> </span>We must absorb the lessons
of Vietnam and Iraq and become
less self-righteousness and more genuinely righteous.<span> </span>We must become more humble about our
intentions and our capabilities.<span> </span>We can
be both good and wise, but only if we concede that both we and the world are so
much less simple than can be seen down the scope of a high-powered rifle.</span></span></span>Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-81369286020542514252014-12-10T19:34:00.000-05:002014-12-10T19:34:14.570-05:00The Liberating Tyrant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12cMHyaZaQj2ivEyirCcMV2pYGiu1RxA-KdLOyD40uUsrs3-7w2Krq2EFPLRn_ZSl_43DYSiSxZRFCuRbuZvSyJeG4_JJof_sPh0AkFU1zNAMYHrC-Ym2ZeSyVLs5LYiTsXxbw7ZwzRE/s1600/Barack+Obama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12cMHyaZaQj2ivEyirCcMV2pYGiu1RxA-KdLOyD40uUsrs3-7w2Krq2EFPLRn_ZSl_43DYSiSxZRFCuRbuZvSyJeG4_JJof_sPh0AkFU1zNAMYHrC-Ym2ZeSyVLs5LYiTsXxbw7ZwzRE/s1600/Barack+Obama.jpg" height="375" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="//img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" />
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">President Obama has dramatically reduced
the federal government’s infringement of individual freedom – and conservatives
are furious!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, that’s right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has issued an <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/19/your-complete-guide-to-obamas-immigration-order/">executive
order</a> <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/20/7250255/immigration-reform-obama-executive-action">that
directs</a> the Department of Homeland Security to stop the prosecution and
deportation of an enormous number of undocumented immigrants; that is, he’s
freed millions of people from governmental oppression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before Obama’s order, they were afraid of
arrest, detention, punishment and deportation; they feared the power of the
state, and they no longer do.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Because of their respective
positions on immigration, liberals are <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/20/7253779/obama-immigration-plan-facts">quite
happy</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/opinion/paul-krugman-immigration-children.html">about
this</a> broad almost-amnesty and conservatives are <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/the-anxieties-of-the-gop-majority-113113.html">quite
upset</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/20/opinion/gergen-obamas-dangerous-move/">about</a>
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But conservatives are also quite
upset over Obama’s methods, calling them “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/13/charles-krauthammer-obama_n_6155916.html">impeachable</a>”
and “<a href="http://www.redstate.com/diary/imperfectamerica/2014/11/24/will-constitution-king-barack-transformer/">tyrannical</a>”,
claiming that by <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/11/24/the-norms-obama-broke/">ignoring
Congress</a> and changing policy by executive order he is acting illegally and
unconstitutionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On a technical level
those questions <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/18/federalist-society-obama-immigration_n_6182350.html">remain</a>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/opinion/the-impeachment-of-obama-on-immigration-may-be-legal-but-its-wrong.html">murky</a>,
particularly since immigration law does allow the executive <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/11/18/getting-back-to-basics-in-the-raging-debate-over-deportations/">a
fair amount of latitude</a> regarding whom to prosecute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are over 11 million undocumented people
living in the United States,
but Congress only allocates enough funding to detain and deport <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/11/anyone_who_thinks_the_legal_arguments_behind_obama_s_immigration_order_are.html">400,000
a year</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The executive branch is
obligated to prosecute as many illegal immigrants as its funding allows; liberals
claim that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/opinion/sunday/mr-obama-your-move.html">all
Obama has done</a> is to indicate which categories of immigrants those will be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But publicly announcing that entire classes
of previously illegal immigrants are now free from prosecution is to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de facto</i> make those classes legal
(temporarily, at least).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a very real
way, the president has done something only Congress is authorized to do: change
the law. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if he isn’t violating the
letter of the Constitution, he is in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-obamas-impeachment-game.html">direct
violation</a> of its spirit. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That is, he’s clearly defying some
very important <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/obamas-immigration-plan-should-scare-liberals.html">democratic</a>
<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392887/obamas-unprecedented-amnesty-mark-krikorian">norms</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both Democratic and Republican Congresses
have failed to enact any comprehensive immigration reform for years and the
public just elected an explicitly anti-immigrant Republican Congressional
majority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Arguments about technical
legality and constitutionality don’t address normative concerns since the whole
point of norms is to sustain the environment that allows politics and law to succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider that there was nothing illegal or unconstitutional
about the unprecedented and ruthless Republican <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-party-of-raging-irresponsibility.html">debt
ceiling threats</a> of recent years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dramatic
increases in partisan <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Even-Worse-Than-Looks-Constitutional/dp/0465074731">polarization</a>
plus the <a href="http://nymag.com/news/politics/nationalinterest/government-shutdown-2013-10/">dysfunction</a>
lurking within the separation of powers mean reliable norms are needed now more
than ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also means they’re more
threatened than ever.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Of course, the general destruction
of the norms didn’t start in the Obama years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s been <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/11/24/did_obama_set_a_precedent_for_gop_presidents_124741.html">going
on</a> for about five presidents now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
that doesn’t make it right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that
doesn’t make it fair to the millions of recent voters whose wishes Obama just
explicitly disregarded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, of course,
liberals should worry that the next Republican president – and there will be
one at some point – will <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/11/24/did_obama_set_a_precedent_for_gop_presidents_124741.html">also
engage</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/obamas-immigration-plan-should-scare-liberals.html">in
such</a> unilateral action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although he <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/20/7253779/obama-immigration-plan-facts">certainly
would have</a> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/21/obama-executive-power-action-immigration-legal">even
if</a> Obama had never done any of this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But why give him the excuse?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
open the door for him?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some Republicans
are <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2014/11/18/republicans-should-embrace-the-obama-rule/">gleefully
planning</a> how their president should employ the “Obama Rule” (though more
scrupulous ones <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392847/fight-power-grab-charles-c-w-cooke">argue
against it</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By supporting Obama now,
liberals undercut any normative argument they’ll make against that future
“tyranny.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But it’s an unusual tyranny that
frees individuals from state oppression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How does it happen that an over-reaching executive ignores the popular
will, twists the law, arrogates power to himself, and then uses that power to
liberate millions of people?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prosecutorial
discretion, that’s how.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obama’s brand of
tyranny seems so strange because it’s so limited; all it can do is explicitly
decline to enforce the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But using
prosecutorial discretion to – in effect – abolish laws is an inherently <a href="http://www.mischiefsoffaction.com/2014/11/all-laws-but-one-democratic-presidents.html">conservative
enterprise</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because it’s a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">negative</i> action, it inhibits government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120382/obamas-immigration-executive-order-gift-republican-presidents">Eric
A. Posner</a> explains:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The point is
not just that Republican presidents can do what Obama has done. It is that
enforcement discretion creates an advantage for Republicans—it favors
conservative governance and hurts liberal governance. The reason for this
asymmetric effect is that the great bulk of federal law is liberal economic
regulation, not conservative morals regulation. A conservative president can
refuse to enforce laws, but a liberal president can’t enforce laws that don’t
exist.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Immigration is an atypical case in
which conservatives want more government and liberals want less, so it lends
itself to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">liberal</i> executive
discretion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the pseudo-Constitutional
powers that President Obama has unearthed can easily become the broad weapon of
choice for President Christie or President Paul, and that’s because those
powers have a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">libertarian</i> bias.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine a GOP president announcing that he’s
directing the IRS not to prosecute anyone who fails to pay <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/384217/outlandish-hypothetical-yuval-levin">income
taxes</a> above 20%; he will have unilaterally flattened income tax rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a liberal president can’t unilaterally
raise rates, since prosecutorial discretion only allows the president to do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">less</i> than the law <span style="font-size: small;">specifies, not
more.<span> </span>Liberals applaud the substance of
Obama’s action and overlook the method, but they don’t realize that in this
case, method <i>is</i> substance.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What liberals are <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ackerman-obama-immigration-20141123-story.html">missing</a>
is that Obama is violating <i>democratic</i>
norms, not <i>libertarian</i> ones.<span> </span>He’s not violating individual rights, he’s
ignoring his obligations as defined by acts of Congress and he’s ignoring the
will of people as expressed in the recent election.<span> </span>But the people can restrict freedom and a dictator
can enhance it.<span> </span>The liberal
welfare-regulatory state that has constrained the power of oppressive social
actors – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Act">corporations</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_tax_in_the_United_States">the rich</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964">racists</a> – was
created by popular determination.<span> </span>But if
it is to be <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/11/toward-smarter-welfare-state.html">dismantled</a>,
it should be by popular determination as well, not by an unscrupulous
conservative president armed with the super-power of broad prosecutorial
discretion thoughtlessly provided him by liberal apologists.<span> </span>Liberalism could not arise and cannot succeed
without the will of the people; but the libertarian destruction of the welfare
state can now more easily happen without popular consent.<span> </span>It won’t need to remove existing law, just
ignore it.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span>The
norms fall, and the more norms fall, the more they fall. <span> </span>Winning becomes all; compromise, comity, playing
fair, playing by the rules – those are for suckers.<span> </span>Obama, with this one stroke of his pen, has made
his greatest <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/20/7253779/obama-immigration-plan-facts">contribution</a>
toward turning our politics into <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/11/five-reasons-obama-shouldnt-declare-amnesty-immigration-executive-order/382845/2/">open
warfare</a>, and for that alone he deserves our <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-the-great-immigration-betrayal.html">censure</a>.<span> </span>But, from a liberal point of view, he’s done
much more than that, much worse than that.<span>
</span>In his rush to extend the blessings of liberty to millions of
marginalized people, in his reckless expediency, he may have helped seal the
fate of the liberal welfare state itself.<span>
</span>Conservatives are wrong to decry Obama’s methods, instead they should celebrate.<span> </span>Even though they’ve lost this particular
battle, Obama has given them the perfect weapon for winning the entire war.</span></span></span><br />
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-60888560468306375662014-11-21T13:58:00.000-05:002014-11-21T13:58:41.053-05:00Stupidity, Dishonesty and Cowardice<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI8IWBt6nb_RMXjM22R_ANkdR1edG33X_rYS4ZfZ8LsuoSZd2iqWwYjPD95nPGJsm8fRtqsV1px_1SANOlum7eSSUT1OWd9vWabCEOFS-6w2KNX-f9ClkMCHtSlq_Obgy-AWxR948mFfc/s1600/Gilbert_Stuart_Washington.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI8IWBt6nb_RMXjM22R_ANkdR1edG33X_rYS4ZfZ8LsuoSZd2iqWwYjPD95nPGJsm8fRtqsV1px_1SANOlum7eSSUT1OWd9vWabCEOFS-6w2KNX-f9ClkMCHtSlq_Obgy-AWxR948mFfc/s1600/Gilbert_Stuart_Washington.jpg" height="372" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"I cannot tell a lie"</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="//img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" />
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Gruber_%28economist%29#Controversies">Another</a>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/11/11/obamacare-consultant-under-fire-for-stupidity-of-the-american-voter-comment/">video</a>
has surfaced of Jonathan Gruber saying <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/did-the-author-of-obamacare-admit-its-evil.html">cringe-worthy
things</a> about Obamacare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gruber is an
MIT economist and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Gruber_%28economist%29">health care
expert</a> who <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/11/16/what-exactly-was-grubers-role-in-the-creation-of-the-health-law/">worked
as a number cruncher</a> for the White House during the push to enact
Obamacare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s what he said last year
regarding the way political pressures distorted the legislative process:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This bill was
written in a tortured way to make sure CBO [Congressional Budget Office] did
not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill
dies. So it’s written to do that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In terms of
risk-rated subsidies, in a law that said health people are gonna pay in — if it
made explicit that healthy people are gonna pay in, sick people get money, it
would not have passed. Okay, lack of transparency is a huge political
advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or
whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to get anything to
pass.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/11/12/hearings-floated-as-hill-republicans-seize-on-gruber-obamacare-comments/">Conservatives</a>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-gruber-confession/2014/11/13/474595bc-6b6b-11e4-9fb4-a622dae742a2_story.html">are
up</a> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/11/11/obamacare-consultant-under-fire-for-stupidity-of-the-american-voter-comment/">in
arms</a>, particularly over the “stupidity” part, convinced that Gruber’s
comments <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/obrien/index.ssf/2014/11/democrats_willfully_repeatedly.html">expose</a>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/11/18/why-jonathan-gruber-is-conservative-catnip/">the
dirty truth</a> of modern liberalism:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a conspiracy of snooty technocrats confident their superior brains
and sociological analyses authorize them to control the everyday lives of the
smelly masses, the rednecks and rubes too foolish to make the right choices,
too stupid to know what’s good for them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But let’s ignore that ridiculous
argument and consider what Gruber was <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/did-the-author-of-obamacare-admit-its-evil.html">actually
saying</a>: that for any legislation to pass it must be politically
presentable, it must not afford its opponents an easy target. And that applies
to Obamacare in two ways. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First,
Democrats could not allow the individual mandate to be seen – by the CBO or the
public – as a tax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, the essence
of Obamacare is a <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.ca/2013/11/redistribution-yes.html">transfer
of health insurance dollars</a> from the young, rich and healthy to the old,
poor and sick; the public would never have allowed such governmental redistribution,
so it had to be disguised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Gruber
was also saying that it was easy to slip those two deceptions past an American
public that <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-10-30/what-everyone-knew-about-obamacare-and-wouldn-t-say">doesn’t
closely follow healthcare policy debates</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Charles Krauthammer <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-gruber-confession/2014/11/13/474595bc-6b6b-11e4-9fb4-a622dae742a2_story.html">charges</a>
that, “in order to get it passed, the law was made deliberately obscure and deceptive.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is he wrong?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It’s true, as <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120251/jonathan-gruber-obamacare-comments-get-aca-history-wrong">Brian
Beutler protests</a>, that Obamacare’s legislative process was more transparent
than most (compared to say Bush’s 2003 Medicare expansion or the run up to the
Iraq War). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s true, as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/upshot/the-jonathan-gruber-controversy-and-washingtons-dirty-little-secret.html">Neil
Irwin concedes</a>, that certain aspects of the law itself (not the process) were
deliberately obscured; and that is a “commonplace” <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/11/15/7221397/jon-gruber-grubergate-obamacare">tactic
that's been employed by both parties</a> on many occasions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So who’s responsible for the fact that the <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/11/14/gruberism-and-our-democracy-ctd/">American
public does not</a> really <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/uninsured-people-dont-like-or-understand-obamacare/284607/">understand
Obamacare</a>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Andrew Sullivan <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/11/13/gruberism-and-our-democracy/">blames
liberals</a> and the administration for not making a better and clearer case
for the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But many pundits, such as <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/the-structure-of-obamacare/">Paul
Krugman</a>, <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115372/how-obamacare-changing-insurance-premiums-and-coverage">Jonathan
Cohn</a>, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/3/28/5559028/obamacares-individual-mandate-in-two-minutes">Ezra
Klein</a> and <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/10/letting-everyone-keep-their-plan-terrible-idea.html">Jonathan</a>
<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/11/clinton-endorses-keep-your-plan-wont-say-how.html">Chait</a>,
have been explaining it clearly for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Gruber himself even wrote a <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Health-Care-Reform-Necessary-Works/dp/0809053977">comic
book</a> to make it easily understandable!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And conservatives, of course, have invested an enormous about of time
and energy <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/11/14/gruberism-and-our-democracy-ctd/">lying
about the very law</a> they now accuse of deceit and deception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The national press did a bad job of covering
all this, as they always do, by focusing on optics and neglecting substance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if any individual wanted to know more
about the law, they could have quickly and easily done so – as long as they <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/extended-exposure-to-fox-news-may-be-detrimental-to-your-intelligence-2010-12">turned
off Fox News</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The one <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/10/you-like-your-plan-you-can-keep-it-sort-of.html">actual,
explicit lie</a> used to sell Obamacare was the president’s promise that, “If
you like your health plan, you can keep it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/obama-administration-knew-millions-could-not-keep-their-health-insurance-f8C11485678">knew
it was a lie</a> when he said it, but he also knew that admitting that 7 or 8
million people would have their policies regulated away – even though they’d be
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obamacare-should-change-your-health-plan-2013-10">replaced
with better ones</a> – might have put the whole law in jeopardy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The entire structure of American political
discourse worked against an honest assessment of the law.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But let’s make the real
confession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is one fundamental lie
liberals have made and continue to make about Obamacare, and it’s a lie of
omission. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The components, the details,
the numbers have been endlessly examined, analyzed and debated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the real meaning of the law has, for the
most part, not been adequately addressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is its deeper significance?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is it really about?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.ca/2013/11/redistribution-yes.html">Redistribution</a></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both Gruber’s confession and conservative
complaints really boil down to this one point: Obamacare severs the connection
between income and healthcare coverage; it indirectly redistributes money from
the rich, young and healthy to the poor, old and sick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “indirectly” in that last sentence is
what the current controversy is really about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Gruber both regrets the necessity of that indirection and gloats over
its devious utility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that gloating
gives conservatives cover to deplore its dishonesty, though in reality they only
lament its effectiveness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-11-19/grubergates-insider-problem">should<span style="font-style: normal;"> we deplore</span></a></i> its dishonesty?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only if we <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/11/republican_anger_over_jonathan_gruber_s_obamacare_comments_is_justified.html">care</a>
about American democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only if we
wish it to be more rational and effective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sullivan <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/11/13/gruberism-and-our-democracy/">puts
it nicely</a>:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If someone were
willing to explain the ACA in simple, clear and honest terms, I think most
Americans would back it . . . I refuse to believe that a democracy has to
operate this way for change to occur. Gruber’s arrogance and condescension are
just meta-phenomena of this deeper dysfunction. Someone needs to treat
Americans as adults again before this democracy can regain the credibility it
so desperately needs to endure.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But is Sullivan right that Obamacare
could have withstood a thoroughly candid presentation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would a majority of Americans have supported
it, even knowing the governmental redistribution that lay at its heart?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer is not clear, but I think probably
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i> of redistribution, explicitly promoted, would probably have
been too unnerving.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We see that the distrust of
Obamacare is primarily <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ideological</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American instincts are generally conservative:
they fear centralized authority, they mistrust regulation, they insist that
each person is the master of his own fate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But American instincts constantly conflict with American interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Modern society would not be livable without
the welfare and regulatory state that liberals have created and <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.ca/2013/11/toward-smarter-welfare-state.html">conservatives
threaten</a>, and Americans affirm that every time they deposit their social
security checks and present their Medicare cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American conservatism evaporates at the door of
the unemployment office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put more
prosaically, the American people are ideologically conservative but
operationally liberal, as has been <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/jonathan-chait/conservatives-love-government-too">noted</a>
many times.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That’s the real reason public
policy is often deceptive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social
Security pretends to give you back the money you paid in, but it actually pays
more, relative to income, to those who made less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So liberal laws must be dressed up in
conservative clothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many liberals, <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/16/barack-obama/obama-statements-single-payer-have-changed-bit/">possibly
including Obama himself</a>, would have preferred <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Health_Care_Act">single
payer healthcare</a> but considered it politically unpalatable, so they offered
a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/people-who-wanted-market-driven-health-care-now-have-it-in-the-affordable-care-act/2014/11/20/f656de00-6f65-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html">market-friendly</a>
<a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117311/house-republicans-delay-obamacare-alternative-again">program</a>
cooked up in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/health/policy/health-care-mandate-was-first-backed-by-conservatives.html?gwh=E3FEFE704DE1E76E7376C8AAC7B8D256&gwt=pay">right-wing
think tank</a> and instituted by a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/obamacare-vs-romneycare/257007/">Republican
governor</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many Americans <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/obama_and_democrats_health_care_plan-1130.html">dislike</a>
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/29/1241811/-Equip-yourself-to-deflect-Obamacare-attacks">Obamacare</a>
(some hate it for the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/beck-obamacare-evil-satanic-islamic-communist-conspiracy-unleash-chaos-america">evil
Satanic, Islamic, Communist conspiracy</a> it is!) while they <a href="http://kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/march-2013-tracking-poll/">like
most</a> Obamacare provisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kentuckians, for example, <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/8/5-days-in-kentuckyobamacaresenaterace.html">hate
Obamacare but love</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kynect">Kynect</a>,
their state’s implementation of the Obamacare exchange; but they returned to
the Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, who has <a href="http://archive.courier-journal.com/VideoNetwork/2600680612001/McConnell-I-want-to-pull-this-law-out-root-and-branch-">explicitly
vowed to repeal Obamacare</a> yet who <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2014/05/28/3262267_say-again-senator-aca-unkynected.html?rh=1">refused
to condemn Kynect</a> <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/does-calling-kentucky-s-obamacare-fine-disqualify-mcconnell-20141014">when
cornered</a> in front of a Kentucky audience!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the last election people all over the country <a href="http://mic.com/articles/103428/the-absurdity-of-the-2014-midterm-elections-in-one-perfect-tweet">voted
for liberal policies</a> like marijuana liberalization and minimum wage
increases while voting into office conservatives staunchly opposed to those
very policies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Huh?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In effect, Americans want to be
lied to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want it both ways: to
enjoy their liberal dessert while believing it’s sturdy conservative fare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the real deception at the core of
this debate: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the American people are
kidding themselves</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re not
stupid, as Gruber and some liberals believe, nor are they solid
conservatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inconsistent</i>, and unaware of it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that encourages politicians and pundits to
see what they want to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservative operatives
dream of an America
utterly given over to its deepest conservative instincts, but they’re woken
from the dream by picketers angrily cursing any cuts to Medicare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And liberals can never understand why
Americans don’t follow them out of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">laissez-faire</i>
wilderness into the social democratic Promised Land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A consummate seduction of the American public
eludes them both, though conservatives whisper sweet poetry and liberals offer
alluring gifts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But you don’t practice politics
with the public <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/2006/12/15/remebering-rumsfeld-you-go-to-war-with-the-army-you-have-not-the-army-you-might-want-or-wish-to-have-at-a-later-time">you
wish you had</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately, Americans
want to be told the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they
deserve the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals need to come
clean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Democratic Party is the party
of redistribution, and it should damn well <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/11/18/issues-voters-liberal-economic-policy-column/19221717/">act
like it</a>!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s not socialism or
authoritarianism – conservative paranoia to the contrary – it’s the pragmatic
amelioration of the worst inequities of modern society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An economy that provides more and more to
those at the top but demands more and more from everyone else does not satisfy
the demands of democracy and justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfair
economics is as destructive to democracy as dishonest politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If liberalism is not about justice for
working people then it becomes little more than a loose confederation of
identity groups, fighting over the scraps of a long gone shared
prosperity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It abdicates its claim to
universalism, it loses its fire and its soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And so <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ky-democrat-mum-question-obamacare-vote">it
has</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Gruber thought he bravely spoke
the truth of American politics, that the people are so stupid that good policy
must be deceitful policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Gruber’s
story is really one of liberal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cowardice</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there’s so much of our current misfortune
that would be greatly improved with just a little more liberal courage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human nature being what it is, game-playing
cannot be removed from politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But why
can’t liberals successfully balance cunning and conviction?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And can they do the ceaseless, thankless work
of educating the public about what they stand for and why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And most importantly, can they learn to trust
the people again?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people are not
stupid, they have as many <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/setting-the-record-straight-about-the-white-working-class/">practical
instincts as conservative ones</a>; they are amenable to prudential, fair,
liberal policy that would benefit them and strengthen the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re merely waiting for leadership that both
works for them and respects them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatism,
in its modern incarnation as plutocratic propaganda factory, does neither.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Timid liberalism can only do the former.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only confident and candid liberalism can do
both.</span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-44118095047752391292014-10-22T10:16:00.000-04:002014-10-22T10:16:02.448-04:00Liberals, Liberal and Otherwise<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7F9yLV7lunuGoQFqhuPyAL4rJ5omIdpFTaxDcZ2u7ICZ4NDiLHSAjPryoEQesnHCGeVZV6TidLITX6oI1aj67qmYYoRYfUHn0IvDz9mviZ3yJ-gqKL4hSgAodGgKKyH4xv2OLe3zumO0/s1600/campus+rape+protest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7F9yLV7lunuGoQFqhuPyAL4rJ5omIdpFTaxDcZ2u7ICZ4NDiLHSAjPryoEQesnHCGeVZV6TidLITX6oI1aj67qmYYoRYfUHn0IvDz9mviZ3yJ-gqKL4hSgAodGgKKyH4xv2OLe3zumO0/s1600/campus+rape+protest.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When liberals
go to extremes they typically become either too expedient and pragmatic – sacrificing
means to ends – or they become egalitarian heroes, knights in armor slaying
dragons of power and privilege.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
pragmatism is adopted from a certain strain of conservatism (consider <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Aristotle/dp/0872203883">Aristotle</a>
celebrating prudence as the highest political virtue and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Revolution-France-Oxford-Classics/dp/0199539022">Burke</a>
objecting to policy based upon mere rational principle).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the heart and soul of the liberal project
has always been egalitarianism, the freeing of individuals from inequitable
distributions of power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first it was <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Letter-Concerning-Toleration-HPC-Classics/dp/091514560X">fighting
for religious dissenters</a> against established churches; then the common man
against aristocratic privilege; the individual against the state; the slave against
the slave-master; the worker against the capitalist; blacks and other racial
minorities against white supremacy; women against patriarchy; gays against
homophobia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In each case, liberals have
been on the side of the down-trodden against entrenched interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s how they always see themselves,
even when they’re the ones wielding power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But put expediency and egalitarian righteousness together and you have a
very potent – and potentially very dangerous – combination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And that combination
is the driving force behind the new rules and laws addressing sexual assault on
college campuses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388502/rape-epidemic-fiction-kevin-d-williamson">reasonable</a>
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/09/29/time-ignores-previous-reporting-to-question-sta/200936">person</a>
denies such assault is a very <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2014/may/02/are-20-percent-women-sexually-assaulted-they-gradu/">real</a>,
<a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/16/6982559/yes-means-yes-ezra-klein-people-wrong">widespread</a>
and terrible problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/sv-datasheet-a.pdf">Centers for
Disease Control</a>, 19% of undergraduate women have “experienced attempted or
completed sexual assault since entering college.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But19% cannot possibly be the work of a few
deliberate criminals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There must be
something profoundly wrong with the sexual culture itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly, it happens much too often that the
woman feels coerced and the man either doesn’t realize or doesn’t care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The latter case is clearly rape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The former is not what we would normally call
rape, and at least some of the time it represents little more than male inexperience
and cluelessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But much of the time it
represents something much darker, something deeply dysfunctional and
destructive: egregious male narcissism and privilege.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is male sexual power maintained through
sheer physical strength, and it engenders female fear and <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/10/6952227/rape-culture-is-a-tax-on-women-CA-yes-means-yes-dierks-katz">diminishes
female options</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s hard not to see
all of this as part of the broader social problem of male domination of women.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The new rules
and laws are designed to combat that privilege and domination, and they mostly
do so by implementing “<a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/9/6951409/yes-means-yes-californias-new-sexual-assault-law-explained">affirmative
consent</a>”, which defines sexual consent as ongoing, explicit agreement, not
the mere absence of explicit refusal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes
means yes” supersedes “No means no.” The state of California recently enacted a <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/9/6951409/yes-means-yes-californias-new-sexual-assault-law-explained">law
mandating</a> that all its colleges enforce sexual assault guidelines using the
new, stricter definition of consent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/17/colleges-across-country-adopting-affirmative-consent-sexual-assault-policies">many
colleges</a> across the country have instituted new procedures based upon the yes-means-yes
standard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But <a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jun/13/sign-here-before-we-proceed-beyond-kissing/">many</a>
<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/390291/illiberal-ezra-klein-charles-c-w-cooke">conservatives</a>
(who generally oppose feminist-inspired change) <a href="http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/06/26/senator-mccaskill-obama-administration-bureaucrats-americans-rapists-sexual-assaulters/">and</a>
<a href="http://reason.com/archives/2014/06/22/californias-absurd-intervention-over-dor/">libertarians</a>
(who generally oppose government intervention) find them objectionable, as do
many <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-affirmative-consent-20140525-story.html">liberals</a>,
some of whom have characterized the new policies as “<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/does-liberalism-have-an-answer-to-campus-rape.html">illiberal</a>.”
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twenty-eight <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/10/14/rethink-harvard-sexual-harassment-policy/HFDDiZN7nU2UwuUuWMnqbM/story.html">members
of the Harvard Law faculty</a> recently protested against the procedures Harvard
uses, complaining they “lack the most basic elements of fairness and due
process [and] are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused.” Feminist lawyer
Robin Steinberg worries – as reported by <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119778/college-sexual-assault-rules-trample-rights-accused-campus-rapists">Judith
Shulevitz</a> in a piece titled “Accused College Rapists Have Rights, Too” –
that these new types of rules “reveal a cavalier disregard for the
civil rights of people accused of rape, assault, and other gender-based
crimes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Some
supporters of the new rules deny they endanger anyone’s legal or procedural
rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/16/6982559/yes-means-yes-ezra-klein-people-wrong">Ezra
Klein</a>, editor-in-chief of the liberal website <a href="http://www.vox.com/">vox.com</a>,
writes “there’s no contradiction between a fair and clear process, real
protections for the accused, and an affirmative consent standard — and there's
no reason one shouldn't support all of them simultaneously, as I do.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In theory, of course, that’s true; changing
the standard of sexual consent doesn’t necessarily infringe anyone’s
rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But trying to legislate such a
strict standard for an activity so inherently full of <a href="http://reason.com/archives/2014/10/07/ruining-sex-in-california">subtleties
and ambiguities</a> is asking for trouble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And, unlike the rules for actual criminal courts, where guilt must be
proven beyond a reasonable doubt, a college panel can find a student guilty – <a href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/2013/08/the_dubious_rape_trial_at_vass/">and
expel him and ruin his life</a> – based upon only the preponderance of
evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The combination of a very high
standard for consent plus a very low one for guilt moves the onus of proof from
the accuser to the accused; it amounts in practice to the <a href="http://fredrikdeboer.com/2014/10/13/the-burden-of-expanding-the-police-states-power-to-prosecute-sex-crimes-will-fall-on-the-poor-and-the-black/">elimination
of the presumption of innocence</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>California’s new law
mandates that even sex within a healthy relationship requires “affirmative
consent” every time, in effect re-labeling almost all present-day sex as
assault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the law’s defenders say <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/06/25/3453041/affirmative-consent-really-means/">not
to worry</a>, since it will <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/09/29/affirmative_consent_in_california_gov_jerry_brown_signs_the_yes_means_yes.html">only
be enforced</a> when a woman has been genuinely coerced and not in those countless
everyday cases in which it legally applies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, how reassuring!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But some
defenders of the new law argue that such excess is necessary to effectively
address the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Klein is eager to
put the fear of God into all men:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If the Yes Means Yes law is taken even remotely seriously it will
settle like a cold winter on college campuses, throwing everyday sexual
practice into doubt and creating a haze of fear and confusion over what counts
as consent. This is the case against it, and also the case for it. Because for
one in five women to report an attempted or completed sexual assault means that
everyday sexual practices on college campuses need to be upended, and men need
to feel a cold spike of fear when they begin a sexual encounter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Klein is right
that something must be done to address our dysfunctional, patriarchal sexual
culture, but is suffocating all sexual relations with fear of juridical
authority a constructive way to do so?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even our rather damning analysis of that undeniable dysfunction concedes
that ambiguous situations can arise innocently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But Klein’s perfectly OK with criminalizing that ambiguity:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Critics worry that colleges will fill with cases in which campus
boards convict young men (and, occasionally, young women) of sexual assault for
genuinely ambiguous situations. Sadly, that's necessary for the law's success.
It's those cases — particularly the ones that feel genuinely unclear and maybe
even unfair, the ones that become lore in frats and cautionary tales that
fathers e-mail to their sons — that will convince men that they better Be Pretty
Damn Sure. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It is indeed
“sad” that legislating such a strict, unprecedented, unfamiliar, confusing, dangerously
broad standard could harm what are essentially innocent young men, but “it’s
necessary for the law’s success.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This is the grim
face of authoritarian expediency, all the more alarming for its heedlessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Klein, et al, all women are justifiably
afraid of all men, and that situation must be replaced by one in which all men
are afraid of legal or semi-legal punishment, even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unjustified</i> punishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
pro-affirmative-consent crowd may dispute it, but <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/lets-argue-some-more-with-ezra-klein.html">their
position in effect</a> is that our normal understandings of due process, presumption
of innocence, and sexual ambiguity stand in the way of protecting women from
the most violent and reprehensible expressions of patriarchy, and therefore
must be discarded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/10/6952227/rape-culture-is-a-tax-on-women-CA-yes-means-yes-dierks-katz">Amanda
Taub</a>, female fear of men “reinforces power imbalances that keep women out
of positions of success and authority.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And here’s Klein with the answer: “Ugly problems don't always have
pretty solutions.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Egalitarian
righteousness plus thoughtless pragmatism equals liberals doing quite illiberal
things.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But the point,
of course, is that it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
illiberal, not when you remember that the animating purpose of liberalism is
the fight for the oppressed against the powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To affirmative consent supporters, women are
the oppressed and men are the powerful and anything is justified in the service
of female liberation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can weakening
the rights of oppressors itself be an act of oppression?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Habitual identification with the oppressed
seems to prevent liberals from realizing that they’re actually winning <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/five-signs-weve-reached-the-marriage-equality-tipping-point-20141020">the
culture wars</a>, or that they have achieved genuine social and legal
power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this view, the state and the
university are not capable of oppression, since they fight for the oppressed
against the oppressors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can agents
of liberation themselves be oppressors?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
see the same dynamic play out in liberal intolerance <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2014/04/tolerance-acceptance-and-approval.html">toward
opponents of same-sex marriage</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
we should note, as does <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/10/16/codifying-consent-ctd-2/">Andrew
Sullivan</a>, the heavy influence on campus culture of post-modernism, with its
insistence that there is no truth independent of some political agenda, and
that, as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Foucault-Effect-Studies-Governmentality/dp/0226080455">Michel
Foucault</a> put it, “politics is war by other means”; such views do not
exactly make one conciliatory toward any oppressive class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we see why the affirmative consent
doctrine has so far only been applied to academia: it’s the only place where
illiberal liberals are powerful enough to get away with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/inside_higher_ed/2014/10/affirmative_consent_what_will_yes_means_yes_mean_for_sex_on_college_campuses.html">For
now</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But if
self-righteous identification with the down-trodden is so inherent in
liberalism then why don’t all liberals support the affirmative consent
movement?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is it that makes some
liberals resist?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are two countervailing
principals at play. The first is a broader pragmatism, understood not as mere
expediency, but as something more like humility, as appreciation for the limits
of human action in the face of the unimaginable complexity and intransigence of
human existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This amounts to a more
tragic view of life, one in which there are no perfect solutions, no set of
principles that would solve all our problems if only we applied them more
thoroughly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more liberal liberal
understands that some of our most important and desirable goals – such as
liberating women from patriarchy – can conflict with others equally or more
important – such as protecting individuals from authoritarian abuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And secondly, the wise liberal understands
how particularly important it is to fight that authoritarianism, even the liberal
version.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With power comes responsibility
and that responsibility does not disappear simply because your goals are noble
and your cause is just.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Virtuous
intentions are meager protection against an overzealous or unscrupulous
prosecutor armed with an ill-conceived and over-reaching law.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The broader,
wiser pragmatism is – like the expediency itself – a borrowing from
conservatism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the skepticism of
juridical authority is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">essential</i> to
liberal thought and liberal political culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Go back and look at that list of historical liberal fights for the
oppressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the very first is the
protection of the individual against misuse by the state, which primarily takes
the form of individual legal, political and civil rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those rights are typically seen as inherent and
inalienable, but we can understand them better as protectors of individual
interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libertarians typically treat
them as absolutes and fail to see their instrumental nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And libertarians fail to perceive any
oppression beyond state oppression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Modern liberals understand how limited that view is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re wise enough to see the iniquitous power
relations that surround us: in capitalism, in culture, in patriarchy, in
religion, in the family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they must <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">insistently</i> remember the special case of
oppression that is legal oppression, the special danger of a state or a
university with the power to punish and destroy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is how we keep liberalism honest and
beneficent. Wisdom demands that we respect the destructive power of all those
oppressions, while humility demands we acknowledge the limits of
liberation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But crucially, the earnest, passionate
liberal hatred of oppression demands we never sacrifice the most important
liberation for any other.</span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-84866711754450018882014-09-29T19:55:00.000-04:002014-09-29T19:55:13.721-04:00My Family, My Country, My Self<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSBIjH2r5LliwiZziQCX_G4dKVvzBFcwkfLfMhCazqSXns0L_cLBoz7QSD5C0aNryKWSbJ3MAlKUL62CToAdbaVLlQruQd0qhnOeMGDzXOVgXQtKJtsenv5-r0TDnsVFJ0KoveWYZl8k/s1600/The+Tower+of+Babel+by+Pieter+Bruegel+the+Elder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSBIjH2r5LliwiZziQCX_G4dKVvzBFcwkfLfMhCazqSXns0L_cLBoz7QSD5C0aNryKWSbJ3MAlKUL62CToAdbaVLlQruQd0qhnOeMGDzXOVgXQtKJtsenv5-r0TDnsVFJ0KoveWYZl8k/s1600/The+Tower+of+Babel+by+Pieter+Bruegel+the+Elder.jpg" height="290" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="//img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" />
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/9/13/6135905/open-borders-bryan-caplan-interview-gdp-double">Open
Borders</a> movement, which seeks to remove all barriers to immigration, has <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/09/17/a-universally-derided-idea-whose-time-has-come/">recently</a>
been working hard to gain attention and credibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider this argument from economist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Caplan">Bryan Caplan</a>:
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What would you think about a law that said that blacks couldn’t get a
job without government’s permission, or women couldn’t get a job without the
government’s permission, or gays or Christians or anyone else? So why, exactly,
is it that people who are born on the wrong side of the border have to get
government permission just to get a job?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">He’s saying,
of course, that denying someone a job because they’re from another country is
as unjustifiable as rejecting them because of their race, gender, religion or
orientation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first glance, it almost seems
plausible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are plenty of practical
arguments in favor of increased immigration – for example, that it would raise
both American and world GDP – and some seem persuasive, though some are <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/if-people-could-immigrate-anywhere-would-poverty-be-eliminated/275332/?single_page=true">controversial</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what’s fascinating about Caplan’s pitch –
and what makes it representative of much Open Border thought – is that it makes
a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/03/17/the-moral-case-for-open-borders-2/">moral<span style="font-style: normal;"> case</span></a></i> against restricting the flow of
individuals across borders: it calls any such restriction unjustifiable
coercion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The University of Colorado's
<a href="http://spot.colorado.edu/~huemer/immigration.htm">Michael Huemer</a>
claims that border control clearly violates every would-be immigrant’s human
rights; it represents the violent power of the state infringing the right to
sell one’s labor wherever there’s an employer willing to pay for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Caplan, Huemer and others, no country
anywhere on Earth has the right to restrict immigration at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sounds quite implausible, even ridiculous,
right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It completely violates our normal
intuitions about the nature of sovereign states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, in this case, intuition is correct.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Imagine an extended
family that, through a somewhat unusual set of events, includes both whites and
blacks, Christians and Jews, men and women (of course), straights and
gays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now imagine the rich patriarch of
this family is a terrible bigot and distributes his largesse (in gifts, in
cash, in jobs, etc.) only to the straight, white, Christian men of the
family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, he’s being unfair to the others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s immoral to discriminate against anyone
simply because they’re black, Jewish, female, or gay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now imagine the patriarch has a change of
heart, discards his bigotry and gives freely to everyone in the family,
regardless of race, religion, gender or orientation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yea, fairness is achieved!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, but he never gives to anyone outside the
family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that immoral?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be a little stingy, a little
ungenerous, but is he violating the rights of non-family-members?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here’s the point: there’s nothing wrong with favoring those with whom
you have a special bond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being outside
the family is different than being black, Jewish, female or gay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re allowed to love and nurture family
members more than non-family members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You’re not just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">allowed</i> to
love them more, of course, you’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">required</i>
to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn’t that the point of a
family?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To love everyone the same is to not
really love anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generosity can be
global, but commitment must be local.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And what
applies to families applies to countries, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Imagine a remote, undeveloped country, call it Aggressia, ruled by a
belligerent tyrant who invades and terrorizes his small, poor, defenseless
neighbor, Miseria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s stipulate that
the invasion will not affect the rest of the world in any substantial way:
neither country has any important natural resource, there’s every reason to
believe that the tyrant won’t invade any other countries, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you advocate sending the American
military to kick Aggressia out of Miseria?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Almost certainly not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You would
feel terrible for the people of Miseria, you would probably applaud if America sanctioned
the invaders or isolated them diplomatically, but you would strenuously resist
placing Americans in harm’s way for sake of Miseria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world is a messy place and we can’t fix
every problem (<a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-kristol-what-could-go-wrong-bombing-isis">neo-conservatism
notwithstanding</a>).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Now imagine
that Aggressia hasn’t invaded Miseria but instead manages somehow to invade and
occupy the state of Maine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you live in Arizona,
and let’s stipulate that the occupation of Maine
doesn’t affect you or anyone you know in any material way; we have good reason
to believe they won’t invade any other states or hurt the United States
in any other way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say you’ve never
been to Maine or ever even met anyone from Maine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From your point of view the invasion might as
well not have happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, in this
scenario would you advocate American military action to expel the invaders?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hell, yes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You might even grab your firearms (you do live in Arizona)
and drive to Maine
as quickly as possible to join in the fight!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why would you be willing
to risk your life for Maine
but not for Miseria?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The answer is
obvious: you love your country, and you love it more than other countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are committed to it in a way you’re not
committed to any other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yours</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The people in Maine
matter more to you than the people in Miseria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Your concern, your tax money, and your protectiveness flow to your
fellow Americans more generously than they do to those in other countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s nothing immoral about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people take it too far, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They turn patriotism into <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/08/05/how_this_third_grade_teacher_incorporated_rush_revere_into_her_class">chauvinism</a>
or <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2010/11/23/i-say-nuke-em-conservatives-bang-the-drum-for-w/173719">jingoism</a>
or <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/09/buchanans_nativism_is_nothing.html">nativism</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They consider America <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/09/obama-putin-and-exceptionalism.html">politically
and morally superior</a> to other countries in some essential way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They care about foreigners very little or not
at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such people give patriotism a
bad name. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you can be a patriot and
still be a generous humanitarian, just as you can love your family more without
loving humanity less. You can care about all your fellow humans, you can feel
you owe all of them your sympathy and your material help (when practical), but
still feel a special bond and obligation toward America and Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite what cosmopolitans and pacifists
think, patriotism is not a species of immorality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can you call that Arizonan immoral when
he’s rushing off to Maine
to fight for strangers?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But the Open
Borderers ask:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there’s nothing wrong
with being choosy with one’s loyalties then why was it wrong in the bad old days
for white employers to favor white workers over black ones?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are patriotic special considerations
justifiable when racial ones are not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here’s <a href="http://spot.colorado.edu/~huemer/immigration.htm">Huemer
again</a>:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We do not cringe to hear that American businesses should hire
native-born Americans rather than immigrants, any more than Americans three
generations ago would have cringed to hear that white-owned businesses should
hire white people in preference to blacks. Naturally, nationalists may attempt
to devise explanations for why nationality is different from race, and why
nationalism is really justified. This is not the place to attempt to argue that
point. I would like simply to put forward for consideration the thought that
perhaps we have no right to feel ashamed of our ancestors, and that our
descendants may feel about us the way we feel about our ancestors.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(Actually, no
one today would defend hiring a native over a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">legal</i> immigrant, but Huemer seems to mean that no one objects to favoring
American workers and products over foreign ones.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
Huemer, attaching one’s primary social loyalty to one’s country is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">arbitrary</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How is it any better than attaching it to one’s
town, or one’s profession, or one’s race?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wouldn’t it be much better if we attached it to humanity as a whole and
avoided all this petty squabbling?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The answer is
that some distinctions between people are arbitrary and some are not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a group of people share the same physical
and social space with a dominant majority, are citizens of the same state, are
part of the same national culture, but differ only in skin color, then it’s not
morally justifiable to discriminate against them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Racial differences are not relevant to
loyalty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>National ones are, mostly for
practical reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Democracy, individual
liberty and broad affluence need something like a culturally homogenous modern polity
to nurture them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Modern individualism
requires state protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moderation of
capitalist excess requires a reasonably robust regulatory and social insurance
state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Modern capitalism itself requires
a reliably enforced legal framework.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
modern politics demands national loyalty, as does the common defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part of the problem with those old-time
racists was that they wanted it both ways: they expected blacks to fight
equally in war for a country that didn’t otherwise treat them equally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They embraced patriotism when it benefitted themselves
but not when it benefitted the racial other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eventually America
expanded patriotic blessings to include blacks; that seems a happier ending
then if they had abandoned patriotism and group loyalty altogether.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But all of
this is fairly obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So why don’t the
Open Borderers see it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mostly, it seems,
because of their general animosity toward the sovereign state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They tend to be extreme libertarians and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism">anarcho-capitalists</a>;
they oppose almost every intrusion of the state into economic affairs, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any</i> affairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To them, borders between sovereign states are
merely artificial constrictions on the flow of goods and labor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a poor man from Tijuana
wants to work in San Diego
for wages lower than the American minimum wage but higher than his wages at
home, then stopping him at the border is a cruel deprivation of his human
rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if more immigration brings
down the wages of some Americans (how much is unclear) then that’s too bad,
that’s just how the <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/9/13/6135905/open-borders-bryan-caplan-interview-gdp-double#interview">free
market works</a>:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Americans who lose from immigration are those who are very
low-skilled, who also don’t speak very good English to begin with, and also
don’t own real estate. It's a quite small group. If you’re a real nationalist
who cares about all Americans, then you should favor immigration because only
like 5 or 10 percent of Americans are losing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Oh well, only
15 to 30 million Americans would be screwed by open borders; that’s OK because
they’re the poorest and least educated, so we shouldn’t feel so bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not like we as a people have any
responsibility to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">them</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides, the state has no collective
authority; state regulation of the marketplace is no different than <a href="http://spot.colorado.edu/~huemer/immigration.htm">inhuman barbarism</a>:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If we rely on the analogy between states and clubs, then the state
could require citizens to cut off their left arms, refrain from expressing
political opinions, refrain from voting if they are female, and so on. Whatever
the law requires, one could propose that abiding by that law is a condition on
membership in the civil society. Thus, the state may demand that anyone who
wishes to retain their citizenship should follow these laws.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That’s right,
there’s no philosophical middle ground between stateless freedom and abject
totalitarianism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Open Borderers do get
points for ideological consistency; they drive their libertarian principles to
the farthest logical conclusions, undisturbed by pragmatism, charity, or any
other apparent consideration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put
another way, they’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fanatics</i>. Only
under the strain of such ideological extremism is imposing a minimum wage equal
to forced amputation and a nation protecting its demographic integrity equal to
immoral coercion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Such a radical
stance makes the Open Borders movement a natural ally for the <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/09/13224/">Global Citizen</a>
movement, which seeks to neuter or abolish the sovereign state altogether. Both
groups make dubious arguments against patriotism, and both would radically
weaken the state (though some Open Borderers do maintain some <a href="http://openborders.info/blog/global-citizenship/">minimal commitment</a>
to the state).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And both groups think of
citizenship as little more than an easily acquired and easily surrendered legal
contract; here’s Nathan Smith of <a href="http://openborders.info/">openborders.info</a>:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As for “the view that citizenship in an actual country is merely
arbitrary or contingent,” this isn’t so much a “view” as a plain fact. I’m a US citizen because, by accident of birth, I was
born a US
citizen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Actually no,
that’s wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Citizenship is a legal
status, of course, and therefore can be changed; but it’s a superficiality, a
technical legal expression of an existential fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Smith <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i>
an American, not because he was a person who could have been born anywhere but just
happened to be born here; he is an American because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he is the person that America
created</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>America forged Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To confuse citizenship with national identity
is to confuse a marriage license with a marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Post-modern life sees all social
relationships as incidental choices, but such a view leaves no room for real
connection. But we are all born with commitments, connections and obligations
and these are not so easily abandoned or absolved, nor so easily acquired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is this unavoidable condition of human
existence – that we are products of unchosen social contexts – that is the
source and justification for all group loyalty, for better or <a href="http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2014/03/immigration_my.html">worse</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love my country because I love myself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But the
constricted ideology of the Open Borders movement essentially misunderstands
the sovereign state and its constituents; it sees patriotism as meaningless,
economic regulation as totalitarian, and national belonging as just one of many
contingent, arbitrary choices one may tenuously adopt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be honest, though, there is definite
appeal to that libertarian vision of a world without borders or states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many ways it’s a world to be devoutly
hoped for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would presumably have no
widespread wars, less poverty, more education, less irrational hatred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine there’s no countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it doesn’t withstand closer
scrutiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world where countries have
been replaced by many diffuse loyalties is one without any real commitment or
sense of community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a world without
any protection against capitalist exploitation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a world with no protections for workers, consumers or the
environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a world where cultural
and local and individual distinction all blur into the broad materialist,
consumerist haze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s quite possibly
the world toward which we are heading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
may rejoice in its arrival or you may grieve, or both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what you cannot do is deny the right of
nations to resist its dull triumph.</span></div>
Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640145456028209512.post-61807493582428452122014-06-27T08:21:00.000-04:002014-06-27T08:21:24.186-04:00The Perils of Purity<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL3Dki0b8FIoBuGrVaeVu9NY9JHIRSFnDLIlZrUgvuZID44ThaI5AFOFRQ9AzKB-1z5Vmm0JzHkEL6yvVJrpsWv_6NFd7D3fruCR6FYJgyPnhMnSMvPVDOHjizMdLzAw-f3YsOYS2mdD4/s1600/St+George+and+the+Dragon+-+Raphael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL3Dki0b8FIoBuGrVaeVu9NY9JHIRSFnDLIlZrUgvuZID44ThaI5AFOFRQ9AzKB-1z5Vmm0JzHkEL6yvVJrpsWv_6NFd7D3fruCR6FYJgyPnhMnSMvPVDOHjizMdLzAw-f3YsOYS2mdD4/s1600/St+George+and+the+Dragon+-+Raphael.jpg" height="400" width="302" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">St George and the Dragon by Raphael</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="//img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" />
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">George Orwell repeatedly condemned
the leftists of his time and place – 1930’s England – for their thoughtless and
irresponsible rhetoric: their unreflective pacifism in the face of the fascist
menace, their self-deluded justifications of Stalinist brutality, their blithe
dismissals of patriotism and middle-class virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Orwell’s insight was that they spoke
irresponsibly because they knew they would never achieve any real political
power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Power may <a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely.html">corrupt</a>,
but marginality breeds recklessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
power and marginality distort judgment for the same reason: they insulate one
from public accountability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They both <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alienate</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep that dynamic in mind when you consider
the ongoing struggle between the GOP establishment and the Tea Party
insurgency.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Tea Party has lost most of the
battles recently, with establishment candidates winning <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-06-17/tea-party-is-still-at-the-kids-table">primary
elections</a> in Kentucky, North Carolina and Georgia, but the Tea Party <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/us/thad-cochran-faces-chris-mcdaniel-in-a-primary-runoff-election-tuesday.html?_r=0">forced
a runoff</a> in Mississippi (which they just <a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/263738/the-real-lesson-in-thad-cochrans-big-win">narrowly</a>
and <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/26/will-there-be-a-consequence/">bitterly</a>
lost).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on June 10<sup>th</sup> one
of the pillars of the establishment, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/06/eric-cantors-shocking-richly-deserved-defeat.html">unthinkably</a>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/eric-cantor-faces-tea-party-challenge-tuesday/2014/06/10/17da5d20-f092-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html?tid=trending_strip_3">lost</a>
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/virginia-win-gives-tea-party-new-lease-on-life-1402454951">his</a>
<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/06/eric-cantor-loses-primary.html">primary</a>
<a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/06/11/the-cantor-shocker-blog-reax/">race</a>
to <a href="http://time.com/2854650/who-is-dave-brat-eric-cantor/">David Brat</a>,
an unknown, <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/06/david-brat-christian-rights-favorite-economist.html">hard</a>
<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/06/11/david_brat_half_elizabeth_warren_half_ludwig_von_mises.html">right</a>
economics professor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many on the <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/10/david-brat-defeats-eric-cantor/">right</a>
<a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/virginia-7-here-people-rule_794857.html">heralded</a>
Cantor’s defeat as a win for the people against the powerful, as <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/10/great-american-miracle/">David slaying
Goliath</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it was the conservative
grass roots <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/eric-cantor-rides-tiger-is-devoured/">that
sent Cantor</a> – who is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/11/eric-cantor-loses_n_5482675.html">quite
conservative</a> – to Congress to <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/06/david_brat_defeats_eric_cantor_how_did_the_house_majority_leader_lose_to.html">fight
the right fight</a>, and now they perceive him as a big-government sellout?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the last few years the Tea Party has
successfully moved the Establishment to the right, and there is now precious
little programmatic difference between the two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/180119/gop-civil-war-more-petty-wrangling-over-infinitesimal-ideological-distinctions">John
Nichols</a> of the Nation perceives, both rival GOP primary candidates in Mississippi “oppose
abortion rights and marriage equality, support restrictive Voter ID laws,
promise to oppose minimum-wage hikes, rip ‘Obamacare,’ the IRS, the EPA and
OSHA and trash ‘entitlement’ programs.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But if the fondest desire of both
groups is to <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/11/toward-smarter-welfare-state.html">curtail
the welfare state</a> and reduce the national debt, why do Tea Partiers hate
their own leaders so?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s seems the
conflict is largely symbolic and <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/06/conservatives-hate-deals-not-immigration.html">temperamental</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, the Establishment sees the national
debt and the welfare state as complex realities to be prudentially and
incrementally blunted and reduced, while the Tea Party sees them as monsters to
be slain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The grassroots hungers for a
crusade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2013/10/16/ted-cruz-is-doing-the-right-thing/">love
Republican Senator Ted Cruz</a> because he tried to kill Obamacare by shutting
down the government and threatening debt default; and they <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2013/10/10/house-gop-preparing-to-give-up/">hate
Eric Cantor</a> <a href="http://time.com/2854761/eric-cantor-dave-brat-virginia/">because he
buckled</a> and voted to end <a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/cruz-led-conservatives-put-boehner-in-a-double-bind/">Cruz’s
threat</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the Establishment doesn’t
understand; they want the same things, so why does a mere difference in tactics
elicit such acrimony and <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/17/principle-over-profits/">demand such
purity</a>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/16/what-all-the-partisanship-narratives-forget/">Erick
Erickson</a> of redstate.com has an answer:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What the circle
of jerks in Washington
sees as a conservative quest for purity, many of those in flyover country see
as fighting against out of touch, entrenched elements in their party who’ve
grown far too cozy with lobbyists and Wall Street. The conservative fight in Mississippi, Virginia, Texas, and elsewhere is mocked and ridiculed by a
left-leaning and establishment-oriented press when, in reality, it is
overwhelmingly a response to a Washington
that has grown out of touch. Yes, the grassroots want more conservative members
of Congress, but they want them because they believe the people there are in
the pockets of special interests and the politicians have abandoned their core
beliefs for cash and connections.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That is, Cantor only pretended to
want what Cruz wants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tried to
hoodwink the base with slogans and <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2014/06/11/320841955/meet-david-brat-the-giant-killer-who-knocked-off-eric-cantor">dishonest
ads</a>, but he was more interested in a profitable <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/opinion/paul-krugman-eric-cantor-and-the-death-of-a-movement.html">career</a>
of accommodation and obeisance to Wall Street money and Washington power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the Tea Party is finally hip to that
game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The GOP pretends to be fighting
against the federal <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/02/17/stimulating-leviathan-state/">Leviathan</a>
but only the conservative base <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i>
wants to slay the monster. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They pursue purity
not out of temperamental indulgence or ideological dogmatism, but out of
necessity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only the chaste heart,
nurtured on the common sense of the common folk, inspired by the love of Constitutional
freedom, eager for <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/06/11/dont-under-estimate-the-power-of-right-wing-populism/">battle
against aristocracies</a> of privilege and power – only such a <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/11/10-observations-last-nights-miracle-people/">knight
in shining armor</a> can resist the Whore of Babylon that elite America has
become.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Purity isn’t the Tea Party’s
goal, it’s their weapon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Righteousness –
and the ideological clarity that flows from it – protects them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It does seem the Tea Party is more
serious than the Establishment about ending the welfare state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Erickson is kidding himself that purity
is merely an instrument for conservatives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Purity has always been at the heart of American
conservatism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one can yearn for crusades
who isn’t dazzled by his own purity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
the conservative common folk, America
has been corrupted and polluted by sexual license, godlessness, illegal aliens,
liberals, the welfare state, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
failure of the Bush administration and the successes of the Obama
administration have convinced them that the Republican Party is complicit in
that corruption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s the point of a
Republican Party if it can’t stop Obamacare?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Tea Party, as the more perfect distillation of those conservative
impulses, is predicated upon the notion that sufficient purification is the
solution to all our problems, that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">purity
can be won only by the pure</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus
their infamous aversion to compromise and conciliation; compromise only
pollutes good with evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the
American essence itself that has been compromised and that needs to be
purified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the GOP must be cleansed
before it can become the vehicle for that purification.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But only if real conservatives
come to power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So then why is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-republicans-elect-kevin-mccarthy-as-majority-leader-steve-scalise-as-majority-whip/2014/06/19/212a6a24-f7d0-11e3-8aa9-dad2ec039789_story.html">the
man</a> who is <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/eric-cantor-to-step-down-as-majority-leader-107732.html">replacing</a>
Cantor as Majority Leader <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/04/09/after-boehner-cantor-and-mccarthy-are-not-options/">not
a Tea Party</a> purist?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/petesessions-drops-out-of-majority-leader-race/?dcz=">Two
ambitious</a> House Tea Partiers made half-hearted attempts, but they were
bested by a better-connected and better-organized <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/01/22/surprise-surprise-kevin-mccarthy-backs-amnesty/">moderate</a>
conservative backed by the Establishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-in-house-gop-leadership-elections-the-establishment-way-prevails/2014/06/20/1e46ae02-f876-11e3-8aa9-dad2ec039789_story.html">Dana
Millbank</a> so nicely explains, a true believer will never learn to work the
system as well as a pragmatist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
failure of the Tea Party to capture Cantor’s post is widely seen as a simple
expression of Tea Party weakness within the Republican caucus: there just
aren’t enough of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Tea Partiers
everywhere were quite angry that Cantor’s primary loss didn’t result in the
elevation of <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/11/not-mccarthy/">one of
their own</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re even angry at their
own Tea Party House conservatives who, as <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/16/thank-you-house-republicans/">Erick
Erickson</a> says, “refused to step up and make a play for leadership, choosing
instead to just obstruct.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
grassroots is ever more eager to topple more GOP leaders.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But maybe that’s why no Tea
Partier took the post, because once one does there’s a target on one’s back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Purity is never sated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conservative populism that sees regular
folk as pure and Washington
and Wall Street as corrupt automatically makes any elected leader – even a Tea
Party leader – suspect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/brat-pack_794960.html">Michael
Warren</a> of the conservative Weekly Standard writes:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 45.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 387.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As majority
leader, Cantor likely expected Republican voters to appreciate their
congressman’s proximity to the center of political power in this country. But
that’s not what Nancy Russell [chair of one county’s GOP in Cantor’s district]
heard from her fellow Virginia Republicans. “I almost feel like they’d rather
not have their representative in the leadership,” she says. In a cautionary
tale for any ambitious member of Congress, Cantor’s success in Washington was, back
home, his ultimate undoing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The base is so hyper-aware of the
temptations of political life – influence-peddling, elitism, cronyism – and so
dogmatically and habitually hostile toward any concentration of power that, like
right-wing commissars, they constantly <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/08/marco-rubio-spurned-by-original-tea-party-supporters-over-immigration.html">scrutinize</a>
their leaders for signs of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviationism">deviationism</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s easy to imagine that many Tea Party
Congressmen don’t believe leadership is worth the scrutiny.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And the realities of the
legislative process demand from its leaders just the sort of compromise and deal-making
that the base finds so repellent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True
believers will still come to Congress, maybe even in greater numbers, but true
believers make unproductive legislators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They only make good <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/jonathan-chait/92941/the-debt-ceiling-crisis-and-the-failure-the-establishment">obstructionists</a>
(much to Erickson’s disappointment).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They can shut down the government and refuse to raise the debt ceiling
but at the last minute the grown ups have to step in and make sure that the
world keeps running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The less purist,
more career-oriented, more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">realistic</i>
conservatives like John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell understood that Obamacare
could not really be stopped and the debt ceiling could not really be breached.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may be careerists – with Cantor the most
slippery and <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/06/everybody-hates-eric-cantor-a-roundup.html">repulsive</a>
<a href="http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/10/why-eric-cantor-lost/">careerist</a>
of them all – but careerism forces them to govern prudentially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Tea Partiers – unfettered with the responsibility
of actual governance – are free to make outrageous demands and release fire-breathing
<a href="http://www.redstate.com/2013/10/16/advancing-ever-advancing/">denunciations</a>
of the <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2013/10/17/mcconnell-debt-plan-press-release-conservatism/">capitulators</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pressure from the base may compel even the more
sensible leaders to <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/09/ted-cruz-now-ruining-john-boehners-life-too.html">grandstand</a>
and take us all to the brink of disaster, but as bearers of responsibility they
understood that the business community, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/10/11/ted-we-hardly-knew-ya/">the
American people</a>, and simple reality <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/10/red-october.html">dictated
their capitulation</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And on some level the purist
conservatives must understand that they can only act <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/opinion/the-cry-of-the-true-republican.html?ref=opinion&_r=0">so
irresponsibly</a> because they don’t control the Congress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On some level they must be grateful that
those more pragmatic leaders saved them from their own reckless and irresponsible
actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the shrewdest ones among
them must know that the American people <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/11/toward-smarter-welfare-state.html">don’t
really want</a> Leviathan to be slain, that most people are happy to receive
their Social Security checks and their Medicare reimbursements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conservative base is still being conned,
but now they’re being conned by their own pure heroes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And really, of course, they’re conning
themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tea Party hopes are simply <a href="http://americanactivities.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-party-of-raging-irresponsibility.html">incompatible</a>
with American political and fiscal reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Tea Party Congressmen, demanding government shutdowns and calling their
own leaders <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/27/Boehner-squish">squishes</a>
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/11/1298610/-Eric-Cantor-RINO">and</a>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/marklevinshow/posts/10151763319048832">RINO’s</a>,
are doing the most they can given the present circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One can either be a purist or a responsible
legislator, one cannot be both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During
the campaign <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/06/david_brat_defeats_eric_cantor_how_did_the_house_majority_leader_lose_to.html">Cantor</a>
complained to a conservative crowd about Brat’s cheap criticism: “It is easy to
sit in the rarefied environs of academia, in the ivory towers of a college
campus, with no accountability and no consequence.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was answered with jeers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how is the Tea Party back bench any less
of an ivory tower?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 432.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We clearly see the fundamental Tea
Party ambivalence toward power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They desire
it and they fear it. They wish to acquire federal power so that federal power
can be subdued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They know they need
power to purify America
but they’re excessively fearful of the corruption it brings and they’re insufficiently
respectful of the responsibility it demands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And they <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/06/21/tea_partys_embarrassing_irony_how_its_ideal_nation_rejects_basic_american_beliefs/">fear
democracy</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They fear its ends – the
maintenance and expansion of the welfare state – and they fear its means –
compromise, deal-making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Democracy, like
responsibility, is messy and confusing and disillusioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It is incompatible
with purity.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Tea Party’s goals
are unreachable, their means are romantic and their populism is visceral and
immature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their only real accomplishment
has been to hamper responsible and productive governance.<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">And
to eat their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brat slew Cantor as
David slew Goliath, but he could easily become the next Goliath himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will soon face the choice whether to
remain pure or to become effective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
he chooses the former he consigns himself to futility, though it can easily be
a noisy and gratifying futility in which the conservative media complex hails
him as a hero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If he chooses the latter,
however, in a few years we’ll be reading bitter right-wing denunciations of
“Brat the RINO” and “Brat the sellout” and beholding his primary demise at the
hands of a genuine, true, pure, immaculate candidate to his right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Eric Cantor will smile.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span></span>Thomas Kaempfenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748498150084160324noreply@blogger.com0