We already know (well, many of us do) that the GOP establishment, with the help of a number of “conservative” bloggers who are more and more becoming a rather slick part of that establishment’s messaging apparatus, are on board with the Big Government / “compassionate conservatism” agenda — to the point where the Bushies and Bill Kristol, to name just a few on the right, defended Obama’s quasi-amnesty overreach; and even here on this site, we see time and again putative “staunch” conservatives deploying a kind of legal relativism that they try to couch as political pragmatism, itself just a friendly label for what I’ve long called “losing more slowly”: these people accept (and in some cases embrace) the inevitability of Statism and as a result wish to join the permanent ruling elite who under such a system will manage the citizenry.
All the rest is political theater, playing up a distinction without a difference.
I will say this directly, therefore: these people are not our allies. They are not on our side — the side of liberty, of individual sovereignty, of a representative republic, of constitutionalism; and just because they claim to want us in their big tent doesn’t mean we should join them just to slow down the Democrats. That just means we’re getting used by people with flag lapel pins rather than erstwhile barking hippies and their revolutionary chic functionaries.
They’re presenting us with a false and cynical choice, is the current GOP — both of which options lead to our eventual enslavement in a centralized state lorded over by a permanent political class and their bureaucratic and administrative handmaidens: either join the GOP and its slow walk left (a technocratically managed conversion to statism), or don’t, and allow leftists like Obama to speed the process along.
WHY ARE YOU LETTING OBAMA WIN?
I realize that many intelligent people on this site advocate for retaking the GOP. But honestly, I don’t think it can be done. Instead, we have to figure a way to force the GOP rightward, to make them earn our support, or else leave it altogether and form a coalition with Reagan Democrats — many of whom I suspect are quite interested in maintaining individual autonomy and reject the leftism that has overtaken their party.
We are losing the country. And what’s worse is, we’ve been set up to lose it no matter how we vote. I firmly believe that the GOP establishment quite enjoys the idea of all the control a large centralized government offers — not to mention the riches it provides to them and their most ardent backers.
In this regard, they are not terribly different from the leftists — save that the leftists are acting out of sense of ideological duty, while the GOP doesn’t much care, provided they can get in on some of that big government action.
Pragmatism.
The mouthpieces for neostatist Republicanism may succeed in redefining “conservatism” as anti-Palin, anti-Cain, anti-TEA Party, pro-Romney pragmatism. Which will mean the era of Reagan really is dead.
Letting go of principles for temporary power does nothing more than reinforce the idea that temporary power is quite enough for those who have it, thank you.
And thus concludes my latest feckless cry out to the universe.
****
update: Shit or get off the pot, GOP.
Gowdy video.
The questions what to do and the answers which we choose to flow from them are pragmata, everywhere and always the subject of politics.
Rep. Gowdy has a way of getting straight to the point. The folks that put him in office should be proud. You will not be seeing any of this on CNN or the nightly “news”.
Well just for the record, I’m still with you on this one. Not voting this fall in the presidential election.
One of my lib friends snickered and said “good, more help for Obama” — and I don’t bother responding because the general voting public simply doesn’t understand. Nor do they care to educate themselves.
My own parents have gone full-on Republican, totally buying into the idea that they have to stop Obama.
Thank you for the post and for the audio, which I have linked here: http://bobagard.blogspot.com/2012/06/white-house-invokes-executive-privilege.html
All that is missing is a call for term limits for all folks in DC, not just the politicians.
Team R needs to commit itself to finding more effective leadership in Congress I think, particularly in the house
until they do that it’s hard to take them very seriously – there’s just no rationale for Boehner to remain the speaker for years and years and years – he does a piss-poor job framing issues and an even worse job communicating to America what the stakes are
…our eventual enslavement in a centralized state lorded over by a permanent political class and their bureaucratic and administrative handmaidens…
Point of order: having seen the tug-of-war between political leaders and the bureaucracy on a number of occasions, I must insist that the bureaucracy is nobody’s handmaiden. Rather, as we’ve seen several times in recent months, the bureaucracy runs away with every bit of authority it can wrangle from the political class, and ignores any legislature or executive that tries to pull back on such authority.
If the political class are the forest rangers, then the bureaucracy is a “controlled” burn. Except that the wind is always howling, the tinder is bone-dry, and no rains ever come. That’s some handmaiden.
This site is moribund. Death is but days away I fear.
Please forgive a moron, but Isn’t this what Nixon did on Watergate? and the truth ( well, the MFM truth ) did out.
I simply don’t know enough about executive privilege to understand what can and cannot be done here. Is it still possible ( like through a special prosecutor) to get these documents?
Moribund? No Jeff…you have a lot of lurkers like me that are still learning. Hang in there. Pretty sure it’s just the lack of sleep.
Moribund? Nah, traffic picks up in the evenings I’ve noticed. You need to hire a sitter and take the missus out for dinner sans kids.
The Queen of Hearts.
YES!!! Holder has been held in contempt!! Rah Rah yay yay…so the hell what. What now? My understanding is a full House vote, which I’m fairly sure will hold up.
Again? Please forgive a moron? What then?
Sadly, prolly nothing Blitz. Technically, Holder could go to jail for one year, but I doubt it.
But Leigh? GG Liddy did far more than that…and honestly came out as a hero to some ( Including me ) . What I really meant was can we GET the documents? Can we get to the truth legally?
What next?
Subpoena the tapes.
I’m just talking about the contempt of congress count. Whether there are other shenanigans that can be proven? I don’t know.
One of the lawyers here should be able to help.
Tapes? TAPES??….Shit, we should subpeona TOTUS instead. Pretty sure that the machine runs the machine.
The effin’ Teamsters oil it, AFSCME finances it and SEIU threatens it until it does what they want…
Yes, I’m ranting, but I still don’t have an answer. CAN we get the document necessary to impeach this bastard?
Jeff, this whole thing is just picking up a head of steam. Patience, my friend.
Easy for me to say, but we are in uncharted waters and the next six months are going to be historic. We need this place to at least record these times for posterity. We also need it so we can keep poking the statists in the nose.
Rush said a long time ago that he would tell us when it was time to give up the ship. My own early warning system will be pw.
Right said Red.
Another learner here, and an appreciative one. Whatever the mode of wee the people’s reclaim, it will no doubt be bound up in the sort of raw truth I find on this site.
Welcome Subconch. I’ve been here since about 9/11…My god there is such a learning curve!!! But I stick with it. Jeff and the cobloggers and the commentary are worth it.
– I’m not going anywhere, not now, not after we’ve had to sit through 3+ years of this lunitic Leftist bullshit day after day, watching as our country gets litterily deastroyed by this insane cult of assholes, and now, whem they’re rotten idea’s and asocial theories are finally showing the inevitable total fail, quit?
– Yeh, I’ll quit….I’ll quit when the last Proggressive is strangled on the guts of the last Marxist bastard. That’s when I’ll quit.
BBH? with you my friend…However, a we need to get together, ALL of us, in order to disobey. I have no idea ( not being a marxist) how to herd the cattle!!
Tapes? TAPES??
Sure all narcissists have tapes. Be nice to eaves drop on Emmanuel, Holder, Jarrett and Obama as they planned the obstruction.
– We don’t need to disobey anything Blitz. We just need to find people that will represent US in DC and state legislations.
– The framers gave us the Republic and the means to keep it safe, Its just up to us, and if the media gets in the way, we can take care of those assholes as well.
I do miss the armored panzer rat though… My cat and he would get along famously as long as destruction of, well everything was involved. That and drinking hooker blood while pissing off pretty much any Casino dealer with their card counting…
Disagree BBH. I’ve had enough. The Constitution has been shredded ny this administration and their appointees. I see NO way out other than Civil Disobedience.
I don’t WANT to go there, but I think it’s coming.
BT? I doubt that the malignant narcissist (sp?) would do that. He’s more paranoid than I am, an I KNOW they’re out to get me!!
oops…./sarc
This looks very promising.
I live in Mass MV, I know the ( insert word here ) record of my alleged congresscritters.
Just didn’t want to go NSFW
– The Constitution hasn’t been shredded Blitz, it’s simply been ignored. We need to make that sort of treason seriously costly for anyone who tries it in the future.
– Starting in the 50’s the Left got here by step by step infiltration of the school system, the media, the public unions, and local and national pokitics.
– We can get it all back the same way, but we don’t have to take 40 years doing it. We have a very energized, hard up, and pissed off electorate on our side this time.
– With so many people hurting, the Left can’t fillibuster it’s way out of this. Watch what happens with the T party the nest time around.
Not so sure BBH. Wickard V Filburn….1930’s…. Commerce clause. Roe v Wade 1960’s ( I think) … Then ( and I can’t remember the exact case? ) but the one that allowed private property being taken for the GOVT good….
It HAS been shredded, and Barry is the worst of the worst.
kelo
No BBH….what we have, and I know this because of where I live and where my business is, is an illegal, UNCONSTITUTIONAL entitlement society. My damned brother allowed a debit card for food stamps ( He doesn’t know any better, 20 years younger) to pay for a tire!!
I don’t see a way to get it back. The Govt. owns the schools, the ….oh fuck….everything at this point!!!
The media? without a purge? not going to change and not going away.
WE do not have a pissed off electorate….THEY do. We don’t do that. we just go vote.
Blitz, if the sleeping dragon does not awaken between now and November, then you and I can be charter members of the North East Chapter of the Galt’s Gulch Guerrillas.
– “Was it over when the Japs bombed Poland?…..Was it over When Hitler invaded Martha;s Vinyard?….Hell no it wasn’t over, and it won’t be over this time until we fill the Big Dig and all the lunch truck owners yell Food Fight!!! ….”
I’d not call it a revolution, because we had one of those already. Perhaps a recovery effort, a restoration of fundamental values that’ve swirled away with each successive generation. Is such a recovery even feasible, given the monolithic Borg-bloc the two parties represent? Their shared sameness; depressing.
A small consolation derived from the (finally!) massive coverage of Fast and Furious: it’ll be even more difficult for the bastards to mount an attack on the 2nd. And that, my friends, is the only thing that backs us up.
The TEA Party needed a wakeup call. D’you think this event will galvanize? It took BHO’s immaculation to form it; I hope we don’t have to wait until his re-up to get up to speed. Kicking the shit out of Romney (call it fundamental training) is the first order of business. Let him lose if he can’t comprehend the lessons.
Jeff G. says June 20, 2012 at 2:20 pm
This site is moribund. Death is but days away I fear.
Horsehockey Mr!!!
It’s always darkest before a storm
AND A STORM IS COMIN MAN!!!
So quit with the lamenting; man your foxhole and keep firing.
It’s preservation–keeping the flame.
For the day when what has been kept safe can be restored.
[…] awarded to Jeff Goldstein for reminding us of the Enemy Within our ranks: We already know (well, many of us do) that the GOP establishment, […]
No the site is not moribund. Some of us just have to work harder to keep up with the bills. And the Obamunist and the Commiecrats have everything to do with that, too.
As for the choices we have, unfortunately they are ugly and two. 3rd parties are a pathetic joke.
Seriously, have you ever gotten involved with local Libertarian Party meetings? Many of these people seem to be motivated only by legalized pot, and would wind up signing off on the rest of the Demunist agenda. That is, when they haven’t gone off the deep end as Ron Paul cultists talking like they just came back from the mother ship and talking about Israel and “Zionists” in rather ugly ways.
Or how about the American Independent / US Taxpayers / Constitution / Can’t even agree on (or get a quorum for) a name change Party? Yah, that’s not the ticket either.
I’m sure Winfield Scott and Millard Fillmore thought the same thing about the upstart Republicans in the 1850s.
I’m sure Winfield Scott and Millard Fillmore thought the same thing about the upstart Republicans in the 1850s.
Sigh. Reality check. The Whig party had *already cracked up* over the slavery issue. When the Republican Party started in the congressional elections of 1854, it was *already* the #2 party. And the GOP isn’t going to crack up anytime soon. Getting rid of the Obamunist is a unifier, although the risk of Mitt becoming like the Bush family and RINOing us into trouble again is a real possibility.
The only issue I can really see dividing the Republicans is the immigration issue, where the Wall Street Journal greedheads just can’t give up their cheap gardeners and maids and will import more future Commiecrats.
But if you insist on your faulty example, let us examine what happened to the Republicans in 1856, when Millard Fillmore’s “Know Nothings” gave the election over completely to the Slaveocrat Party and set the nation on a course toward Civil War.
A better example for you would be what happened to the Conservative Party of Canada in the 1990s, a death and rebirth in a decade. But things like that are likely in parliamentary systems, which is thank goodness why we don’t have them in the USA.
I find the “sigh” thing incredibly annoying. Same with “reality check” really.
There might be a time and a place for that, I suppose, in places chock full of retards but that wouldn’t be here and it wouldn’t include Ernst regardless.
How about you just disagree and say why without the sullen teenager routine? It’s tiresome.
I’d rate that as likely, myself. Leading to the real possibility of Republicans losing one or both chambers of Congress in the ’14 mid-terms. How that plays out going into ’16, I don’t know.
And my only point in bringing up the Whigs is that third parties are only a joke until they’re not.
Here’s the thing about poisoning the well: that’s also where you drink.
The conditions that allow an actual discussion to occur don’t magically appear. It requires some work and the denial of the occasional zinger or overused cliche.
My guess is that the Tea party movement and the Republican party will not continue to coexist. One will subsume the other.
How that plays out is largely going to be up to the GOP.
Oh, one more thought on getting rid of Obama being a unifier:
Mitt Romney can’t make me despise Barak Obama any more than I already do,
and I’m still not voting for Mitt Romney.
I think it more likely that there would be an even bigger, than 2012, push to have Tea Party people primary rinos out of the race and continue the long march through all levels of government.
Which may (or may not) cause the House or the Senate to flip geoff, depending on how earnest Tea Partiers are about long marching. For example, are we at the point where, should we fail to knock-off the RINO in the primary, we sit out the general, or possibly even consider a tactical vote for the Democrat?
I haven’t voted for any Democrat since 1976, my second presidential election where I could vote, I’m not going to start now. Carter is shame enough for one lifetime.
Downticket I’ll vote [R], the top? I don’t know, and I don’t know if I’ll ever know till I’m in the booth.
Haven’t voted for any Democrats myself. On the other hand, if I’d been living in Arizona in ’10, I’d have voted for Hayworth in the primary and then Glassman in the general, just to rid of McCain. If I lived in Utah, I’d be sorely tempted to do something similar with regards to Hatch, whose guaranteed to be a pain in our asses once he no longer has to worry about reelection.
I will almost certainly vote for Republicans downticket, with possible exceptions at the county level that don’t have anything to do with anything important and so even if I gave the slimy bastards a pass and my one vote made a difference it wouldn’t, really. But I have no Senator running in ’12 and I’m 85% happy with my congressman, which is a good 25 to 30 points better than any other Republican congressman I’ve had, and three times better than the Democrat I had in Sacramento. At the state level there’s a recently-new state senator, and an open state house seat; ain’t nobody going to bluster about seniority or how much pork he brings home.
The thing about the presidency is, there’s only one. You either get it right or you get more of what we’ve been getting — sideways with a swordfish. Now, it may be that I’m going to keep getting it sideways with a swordfish regardless who wins, but just because one of them might use a smaller swordfish and be slightly less sideways about it, doesn’t mean I gotta vote for him.
America’s not really in the process of electing her president she’s electing her mortician
and me I prefer Mitt
Whatever, mister mitt sniffer.
I find the “sigh” thing incredibly annoying. Same with “reality check” really.
There might be a time and a place for that, I suppose, in places chock full of retards but that wouldn’t be here and it wouldn’t include Ernst regardless.
How about you just disagree and say why without the sullen teenager routine? It’s tiresome.
If anyone is behaving like a sullen teenager, it is the likes of you who will go off to futile 3rd parties because your dream candidate doesn’t win, if (s)he ever existed in the first place.
Again, have you ever gone to a Big-L Libertarian Party meeting? Or a meeting of the American Independent / US Taxpayers / Constitution / Can’t even agree on (or get a quorum for) a name change Party?
I have. And the sullen overgrown teens abound.
So fuck off with your condescension.
My guess is that the Tea party movement and the Republican party will not continue to coexist. One will subsume the other.
How that plays out is largely going to be up to the GOP.
How that really plays out is up to you. And me.
How about doing something so the Tea party movement gets into and takes the GOP? Is it a Long March, full of setbacks and disappontments all along the way? Oh my god, yes.
But that is how real change happens, not by going off to the intellectual circle jerk of 3rd parties.
There has never been change, ever, because things are always thus, and can never change or be changed.
So stop your bitching and fall in line.
****
Sorry, but I don’t give up that easily, and then convince myself my surrender is but cagey pragmatism. I may not win the battle, but hey, I can just embrace existentialism and consider myself satisfied for having tried and tried and tried again.
Just now seeing this discussion Curmudgeon kicked off. I think Curmudgen misdiagnoses the current political conditions, settling too easily to assume those conditions are defined by an election. As a result, he seems to me to disregard the fracture already suffered within what was the republican party, a fracture I don’t think can be patched over, though the alternatives have not been fully explored as yet.
“I have. And the sullen overgrown teens abound.
So fuck off with your condescension.”
Okay. Now, fuck off with your bullshit about supporting the back stabbing GOP with more backstabbing. You had your chance and you shit the bed too many times. Call your cringing submission to that cycle being an “adult” or “strategic” all you want. I’m done. For me the glamour has faded. I know it’s a scam.
I’m still going to vote for Willard. Yes, he represents losing more slowly, but I think we can all agree with the ‘long march through all levels of government’ thing, and losing more slowly at least means we’ll have more time to work at it.
I honestly believe if Obama is re-elected, we are finished and forever. If the RINO is elected, we’ll still have a shot.
There is no such thing as forever where socialism is concerned. Socialists have trouble building anything that lasts for 30 years without major sources of outside aid. And Europe is currently drowning in its own shit because of stupid leftist technocrats and economic malpractice.