by Tom KandoRepublicans (“Conservatives”) are torn by two extremisms, both equally baneful: On the one hand, there is the Rand Paul libertarian wing, loons such as Michelle Bachmann and much of the Tea Party.
This group is the reductio ad absurdum of the seductive slogan launched by Ronald Reagan in 1980: “the government is the problem, not the solution.”
By now, it is conceivable that this group has managed to brainwash and capture a majority of American public opinion. Judging by website comments, letters to the editor, audience reaction to Jay Leno’s jokes, and small talk by the water cooler, most Americans now seem, like zombies in a trance, to agree that
the best form of government is a non-existent government,
all taxation is theft,
national mandatory health insurance is fascism,
dependence on food stamps and other government hand-outs is immoral,
all public employees are corrupt, incompetent and overpaid,
etc.
Until recently, such Tea Party imbecility seemed to be limited mostly to the usual suspects - uneducated old timers, people whose calcified brains could explain a lot. Sadly, the Gen X and the Millennials are now also jumping on the bandwagon.
It is now useless to ask a worker: “How about that road you take to work every day? Who built it and who maintains it?” or: “Don’t you want to land safely, next time you fly?” or: “Do you want to drink clean water, or poisoned water?”
No. The near unanimity is that we don’t need government. I call this anarcho-libertarianism. It is spreading dangerously. On November 1, there was another anarcho-libertarian terrorist attack, when Paul Ciancia murdered a federal employee and hurt several others at Los Angeles International Airport. His motive was the same as Tim McVeigh’s and Terry Nichol’s: blind hatred of the government. It was the same as that of thousands of gun-toting survivalists and white supremacists holing up in places like Idaho, Montana and elsewhere.
Then there is the other side of Republican conservatism: Traditionally, the GOP has been the most vocal in advocating a strong military, an arms race with the Soviet Union, war against Communism, war against terrorism and other perceived threats, spying and torture. It has advocated government regulation of sexuality and marriage (the DOMA), the prohibition of abortion, the eviction of illegal immigrants and their children who grew up in the US, building more and more prisons and beefing up what is already the most punitive criminal justice system in the world.
In other words, it is the Republicans and the conservatives who have been the most favorable to an Orwellian police state, as long as that state protects a pure, nativistic, Christian, all-American society. They have been the most AUTHORITARIAN. The heck with liberty for all. Only liberty for some.
So which is it? Republican conservatives are Anarcho-libertarians when they rant against government assistance programs. But they favor an authoritarian police state when they wish to impose their agenda and their cultural values on the rest of us.
They claim, absurdly, that the federal government is becoming a dictatorship, because it spends money on roads, on schools and on food stamps. They consider fixing roads evil.
On the other hand, they feel that the state must be allowed to profile, to stop and frisk innocent people, especially when they are black. Nuts.
Listen up, you anarcho-libertarians and McVeigh-type survivalists and aspiring terrorists: America is NOT a dictatorship. It is a democracy.
And listen up, you authoritarian conservatives: We don’t need more of a police state, more spying, more warrant less stopping and frisking, more torture, more prisons, more punitive laws, more power to the NSA, more censorship. America enjoys enough policing and surveillance already. leave comment here
9 comments:
I can only add, Right On!
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I guess if Paul Ciancia is a anarcho-libertarian terrorist, that would make your everyday (and far more prevalent) armed robber or kidnapper into a Leftist Socialist Terrorist since they believe in and engage in wealth redistribution.
anonymous' comment is not very good. You get a C-, and that's generous.
And undoubtedly, you would give your sycophant followers A’s. That’s why if you were still teaching, some conservative student would tape one of your lefty political diatribes and your suppression of opposing views and then anonymously post it on Breitbart.com, CampusReform.org, or Todd Starnes blog on FoxNews.com…that would get you some attention you would not want.
It is good that I’m not just preaching to the choir. Dialogue and disagreements are good.
You don’t like my grading - tongue-in-cheek as it is?
This is a blog, no the classroom, and we still have the First amendment.
I am fascinated to hear of anyone who dares to talk back to these belligerent thugs. I have come to suspect that there is a common psychological profile that connects this group to some kind of traumatic ordeal, that has left them unable to think independently outside of what sound like preprogrammed responses from a coded script, as if they were in a trance. Their family backgrounds are unknown but they frequently exhibit the symptoms of a thought processing disorder as found among certain religious cults. Libertarians I have encountered on the internet come across as brashly overconfident, yet surprisingly thin skinned for a group adopting such a tough exterior. Numerous exchanges lead me to conclude that anyone who disputes any of the dogma of neoclassical economics favored by the group, is assumed to be an enemy of liberty.
My other impression is that while quick to take offense and turn hostile these people seem unable to access any other emotions, and this may be symptomatic of survivors of trauma as well. In any case, this brand of political extremism is disturbing to compare with what may be an undiagnosed psychiatric condition, if so, which remains uncertain but intuition tells me there is something seriously amiss with this group.
I thank Gary for his perceptive comment, even after a year and a half. The medical analogy/metaphor is apt, as I use it myself in a recent analysis of the followers of Donald Trump.
Texas has placed a permanent number of state troopers in the Rio Grande Valley and are treating the area like it would be treated under a police state. Police pulling over people for things as minor as license plate lights that don't work so they have an excuse to treat you like a criminal.
Taking a look at local practices of Republicans shows just how far their hypocrisy extends. They don't care for small government. They just want their OWN government and if that means running it under an iron fist grasping a cross, then so be it.
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