{"id":14729,"date":"2009-04-16T10:34:39","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T16:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=14729"},"modified":"2009-04-16T10:34:39","modified_gmt":"2009-04-16T16:34:39","slug":"pragmatism-and-heart-ache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=14729","title":{"rendered":"pragmatism and heart-ache!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or, when is a contrived mea culpa<\/em> nothing more than a passive-aggresssive attempt to prove oneself correct and insightful in the long term?<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, there still isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much organization and little professionalism, but it turns out that I was the one lacking realism. I failed to grasp the excitement this idea generated and how it would animate the grass roots to actually get out of their chairs and do something about the creeping statism and generational theft being perpetrated by the Obama Administration. I also failed to give any credit to the thousands of ordinary citizens who, without any help from an organized political structure and with little or no money, managed to organize around 800 of these tea parties, and make a virtue out of their inexperience by being imaginative and working hard. In the end, results count. Today will see uneven results from venue to venue but overall, will no doubt be judged a success — if not by the media then by the movement itself.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

But my concern in February, as it is now, is that the rhetoric about what the tea parties will accomplish will not match the reality of what actually occurs. Exaggerated claims<\/a> of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revolution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as appear on the PJTV site are not only unrealistic but defeat the purpose of the movement by scaring otherwise sympathetic people off. Most Americans probably do not want \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revolution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d nor are they necessarily in tune with the goals of the tea party – not when 71% of Americans approve of Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s handling of the economy<\/a>. The best that can be said is the that success of the tea parties show that many Americans are uneasy about this administration\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions in spending our way to oblivion and that higher taxes for everybody are a dead certainty as a result.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Well, either that, or that the media — which on the (paying) right is peopled these days by “pragmatic conservatives” like Mr Moran who have an almost Clintonesque fidelity to polling — has been successful thus far in painting these protests as quaint and vaguely pathetic. Maddow’s jeering<\/a>, or Roesgen’s contempt<\/a>, is complemented by the sneers of people like Moran. And taken altogether, this framing of the Tea Party movement (which, the subtext makes clear, is emblematic of movement conservatism) likely has a tangible effect on how people react publicly<\/em> to it.<\/p>\n

Or, to put it another way, for all his talk about how these protests are likely to be seen as offputting by moderates who might otherwise be sympathetic to them, Moran is actually being less descriptive<\/i> than he is complicit<\/em> in that very framing<\/a> he claims so concerns him.<\/p>\n

That Moran (and he is not alone in this, naturally) manages to affect a kind of patronizing paternalism is hardly surprising, then, given that this seems to be the default attitude of those pragmatists who have concluded that GOP victories are more readily available to conservatives than is a grassroots uprising in which the principles of classical liberalism are forcefully reaffirmed. Consequently, to their way of thinking it should be the former that we spend our energy chasing — with the latter representing an impossibly “purist” fanaticism that must necessarily be rejected by educated realists and policy wonks who don’t wish to see the GOP consigned forever to the political wilderness.<\/p>\n

For Moran, the polls bear this out: he sees Obama’s purported popularity and he fears it; but even more so, one gets the sense he fears the de-legitimacy that comes with being labeled part of an “extremist fringe” — and in order to avoid such, he is willing to help progressives (whether intentionally or not) define the very “extremists” he must forever lurch left of to remain safe from the same dismissive scorn he has helped enable. Disagree with me, he seems to be saying. Just don’t stop taking me seriously as a thinker<\/i>.<\/p>\n

It’s a shell game, and the pragmatists in the GOP continue to play it, doubling down with each fresh loss, pretending that the next time the shells are shuffled they really might<\/em> find that pea. Evidently, keeping a place at the table is preferable for these folks to watching from the sidewalk, even if to remain playing these same “realists” repeatedly have their principles stolen by con men in a game they know is entirely rigged.<\/p>\n

Rick is a very bright guy, and I don’t mean to pick on him here. But for the purposes of this argument, he quite concretely represents one side in the current “conservative” divide. I happen to believe he is on the wrong side of things; but I also believe it is necessary to have these kinds of arguments about strategy going forward, because doing so will likely determine whether or not classical liberalism — the founding ideology of this country — can find representation in one of the two major political parties.<\/p>\n

If not, it will have either to concede ground to the pragmatists, or else find another expression outside the traditional two-party divide.<\/p>\n

Don’t think of it as slash and burn. Think of it more as a sculptural pruning<\/i> of an overgrown Bush.<\/p>\n

And what I wish to make clear is that, if articulated outside the Democrat \/ Republican paradigm, classical liberalism is likely to garner support from many whom we now think of as being on the “left” thanks in large part to their having been conditioned to vote Democrat by rote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or, when is a contrived mea culpa nothing more than a passive-aggresssive attempt to prove oneself correct and insightful in the long term? Well, there still isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much organization and little professionalism, but it turns out that I was the one lacking realism. I failed to grasp the excitement this idea generated and how it would animate the grass roots to actually get out of their chairs and do something<\/p>\n

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