Friday, June 27, 2014

The Republican Party in the "Awkward Stage"

The GOP Senate runoff election in Mississippi is instructive at how useless that party is in the cause of restoring the Republic.  Consider:
A Republican Party campaigning on making the Senate “conservative,” used liberal Democrats to preserve an incumbent Republican and defeat a conservative. The actual conservatives are the outsiders with the GOP establishment doing all it could to preserve its power at the expense of its principles.


The problem for those who call themselves Republicans is that it is harder and harder to say exactly what a Republican is these days. The great lesson from Mississippi is that Republican means, more or less, that if elected the party will reward its major donors, who are just different than the Democrats’ major donors. Policy differences are about different donors, not an actual agenda to shift the country in a different direction.
Consider:
“[They] orchestrated flyers that called me a racist,” [McDaniels] said. “They said I would end food stamps for everyone. They went into the same communities with speaker trucks and said that I was trying to suppress votes in those communities. They did every dirty trick in the book, behaving just like liberal Democrats do.”
Consider:
National advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association and the American Action Network have gone to bat, with the NRA rushing to Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran’s aid
As if we needed another reason to despise the NRA ...

Consider:
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question,
now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked
from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already
it was impossible to say which was which.
Consider:
America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.
....

On the road to tyranny, we've gone so far that polite political action is as useless as a miniskirt in a convent. But most people are still standing around numb and confused, knowing something's wrong with the country, but hoping it isn't quite as bad as they're beginning to suspect it is.
....

Something's eventually going to happen. Government will bloat until it chokes us to death, or one more tyrannical power grab will turn out to be one too many.
Or you can relax in the belief that the Party of Caesar will be checked by the Party of Antony.  And the circuses are entertaining and the bread is free.

4 comments:

Divemedic said...

The handwriting is on the wall: The Republic is dead. It was sacrificed on the altar of power, with politicians throwing our rights on the fire to preserve their political careers.

It is mathematically certain that this country WILL fall. The only question is when.

Once that happens, there are two possible outcomes: Either the people will rise up and overthrow it, or the government will become a totalitarian police state. Even if the people overthrow it, it is more likely that we will get a Fidel Castro than a George Washington.

The immediate future looks bleak, in either case.

Goober said...

It is mathematically certain that this country WILL fall.

It is mathematically certain that ALL countries will fall. Eventually. Nothing new here.

Either the people will rise up and overthrow it, or the government will become a totalitarian police state. Even if the people overthrow it, it is more likely that we will get a Fidel Castro than a George Washington.

I think you underestimate your countrymen. Fidel Castros and Francos and the like rise to power because no one can stop them.

The people of the United States of America, when called to arms, can field an army larger than the five largest standing armies on Earth. Fidel would have had his work cut out for him, even if all we were able to field was a disoroganized rabble of pissed off dudes with guns.

No, the government that takes the place of the existing government would do well to be extremely friendly, I think.

Jselvy said...

I believe that we might see a shattering of the union. Four or five smaller countries in what is now CONUS.

Divemedic said...

@ Goober:
G Washington was a rare find. Name five popular uprisings that resulted in more freedom for the citizens, and were not simply replacing one dictator with another.

The USA got lucky, and that luck ended when Lincoln converted the President into a defacto king. We are much more likely to wind up with a dictator than we are a freedom loving benefactor.

The people that run around and hope for a revolution are going to be unpleasantly surprised when it happens. There will be turmoil and internecine warfare for decades, if overthrow is the way the government goes.