Tag Archives: conservative

The Time is Coming

Philosophy, Politics, ,
MAGA

The time is coming when America will find out who are the Conservatives and who are the MAGA. MAGA? I hear you say. ‘Isn’t’ that just short for “Make America Great Again”? Well, yes it started out that way but I am now using it just the way the world used Nazi in the 1930’s. (Note: the term Nazi was never used in Germany till after the war.) It denotes a political ideology and it’s followers. It also denotes the members of a political ‘cult’. In this case I’m using it to denote the supporters/followers of Donald J. Trump. It doesn’t not mean Republicans nor conservatives. Although if things keep going the way it is MAGA may become synonymous with Republicans.

I expect that by this time next year Conservatives will have to face the bitter truth of just what has become of the Republican Party in the hands of MAGA. I expect to see a great housecleaning of the party by the conservatives. Of course I could be wrong and while there can be many many paths to follow after the 2020 election I think there are only three with high probability. The first, as I indicated, is a great Blue Wave across the nation and the conservatives will have to pick up the pieces of the shattered Republican Party. It will not be easy.

The Issue facing the conservatives still in the Republican Party currently dominated by MAGA is simply put “Where are the Conservatives, here?” Students of the history of the USSR will recognize where I got my inspiration from. But it is still true. It is a question that needs to be asked now and then in any political movement if it is not to succumb to those who will corrupt it. This is the issue now facing the Republicans, MAGA has no philosophical ideology. MAGA is all about the power and the money.

The MAGA leaders can and will do anything for the power. An MAGA like good cultist will believe it. An why they will believe it is because they want to. To not believe would force them to look at world as it is, not as they wish it to be. Let me be very clear now. MAGA is not conservative, it is not liberal, nor is it Fascist, not is it Communist. It is about power and the promise of power. It is about “I get to do what I want to do because I’m powerful.”

Don’t believe me then just look at the way MAGAs act. Not just the politicians, but the everyday Joe MAGA. You just might be surprise.

Why the Left can’t talk to the Right, a hypothesis

Philosophy, Politics, , , ,

For the past week I have been reading Battle Cry of Freedom by James M McPherson and I was struck by what he has to say about the politics of the 1840’s and 50’s.  I think what went on then can give us some insight into what is happening now in the early 21st century.

What struck me was how much the southrons felt that they were being attacked by the abolitionist.  Not just the institution of slavery was attacked, but the individual people of the south felt they were being attacked.  Also the reasoning of the south was locked into feeling that if they gave so much as an inch to the Abolitionist they, the supporters of slavery, would soon loose everything.  Not only that, they felt that slavery needed to be allowed in the north.  Here is one of the earliest examples in American political history of the one sidedness of ‘States Rights’.

Conservatives have often be the most ardent users of ‘States Rights’ to defined what currently is in a state or states, such as Slavery.  But the are equally aghast at the use of ‘States Rights’ to change things.  That is, a state has the right to keep slavery legal but a state does not have the right to make it illegal.  We see this same problem now.  In the modern age we now see this same class of argument with some saying a state has the right to enforce federal immigration law, but other states can not decline to co-operate with the federal government in inforceing that same law.  We see the same thing with the Gun debate.

State’s Rights were much more important before 1868 and the ratification of 14th amendment and the supremisy of Federal law was clearly established.  What is emportant here is the two kinds of illogic being demonstrated.  The first is that Conservatives, because they see themselves under attack, have taken on the mantel of ‘victim hood’ they decry in others.  Next is the illogic of decrying the use of the same reasoning or principle, like States Rights, used by their opponents.  This is not to say that ‘Liberals’ and/or moderates don do the same thing .

It’s just that the Left has a much hard time defending the illogic.  This is fundimintally because the Left is well and truely based in the Rationalism of the ‘Enlightenment’.  For those of you who really don’t know anything much about the ideals of the ‘Enlightenment’ one of its more fundamental principles is the rational debate to resolve issues/conflicts.  The Left accepts as a given that use of debate where both sides use the same rules and that logic trumps rhetoric. The right , not so much.  The those who believe winning is not just everything but the only thing have currently found a home in the political right.

”But there are people on the Left who believe the same thing”. True, but if you ever follow the internal and lower level debates of the Left you will see that often as not the people who say ‘wining is all’ often get slapped down by those listening.  It doesn’t go far now, “or play well in Preoria’.  Not so with the Right.  Because of the long standing tradition of victim hood, the ‘lost cause’, and/or no compromise rhetoric is much more emportant in their debates.  Right now, this day winning is what counts, not winning the right way.

So what now?  How does the Left deal with a Right that enters the debat with the preconceived  notion that the Left is attacking them, by the simple act of disagreeing.  How does the Left deal with the Right who holds that left is fundamentally evil and therefor can not be compromised with?  How do you have a calm discussion with someone who can not consive of the possibility of their being wrong?

What we can expect to see in a HRC Presidentcy

Politics, , , ,

220px-Hillary_Clinton_official_Secretary_of_State_portrait_cropYes, it is two plus years till we need to really worry about who should be President but I’ve been hear quite a lot on “Hillary” Clinton running once more.  There is enough, more than enough, time to talk about her qualifications and liabilities.  What I want to talk about here is what we, the country,  can expect to see if she is elected.

I’m not talking about what can be expected from her, her administration, or the Democrats in Congress.  I want to address the reactions from the right.  We’ve had six plus years of the Obama Presidency, the first non-white Presidency and we’ve seen some very strong reactions from the right.  I think it is reasonable to make some extrapolations on their, conservatives, reaction to the first Woman, non-male, President.

First, I expect a strong effort to de-legitimatize her election on the same order as the ‘Birther’ attacks on Obama.  But!  I do not expect any effort to say she is not a citizen, natural born or not.  If the election is close look for people talking about how it was ‘stolen’ by voter ‘fraud’ and machine politics of the cities.  I think this because I see that the GOP has been quite successful in playing to American conservative disdain and horror of anything not Small Town/Rural.  While I expect there will be some misogynistic at work I think it has more to deal with hate & fear of change and the new than of women.  By 2016, the conservative movement will have had to deal with eight years of  new and change and they have had more than enough.  They will be pushing even harder for someone who is ‘just like me’, who represents ‘things as they were and the way they should be’.  I dread what there reaction will be if faced with eight more years of things going/being wrong.

Does this mean I’m not in favor of   a woman being President? No.  Of  Hillary Clinton being President?   Again No.  What I am saying is we must be prepared for the reaction of some of those members of the conservative movement who are ready, willing and able to do what ever is needed to appose anything done by Hillary, just because she is doing it.  We need to be ready for them not to compromise on anything, not because they are bad or evil, but because they are good people who happen to believe that compromise with Hillary (or the left) means ‘compromising with the devil’.  Many feel that they are ‘compromising more than enough’ when they let the left join them in doing something, anything.  We have seen this type of activity and thought for the last few years and we can expect more to come as the 2016 election approaches.

We have been in this same situation many times in our history and I dare say we will be in this situation in the future.  I submit for you consideration that there are a great many similarities between now and the 50’s and 60’s.  Not the causes mind you, but with what is happening, how people are acting and reacting.  The danger this country faces now is the rise of the unscrupulous politician(s).  People like Huey (Kingfish) P. Long  of the 30s or Joe McCarthy of the 50s.  These people can do a great deal of harm before they are brought down.  But more dangerous are the people who honestly believe they are doing what is right, for the best of the country, and who are just dead wrong.  These people can not be brought down, they can only be apposed.  More about them at another time.  For now it is enough for us to deal with the unscrupulous politician.  These people can make a new Clinton Presidency a living hell.