"After the Republic"

If it is not res publica, it is because the government has turned against the people:
The Democratic Party—regardless of its standard bearer—would use its victory to drive the transformations that it has already wrought on America to quantitative and qualitative levels that not even its members can imagine. We can be sure of that because what it has done and is doing is rooted in a logic that has animated the ruling class for a century, and because that logic has shaped the minds and hearts of millions of this class’s members, supporters, and wannabes.

That logic’s essence, expressed variously by Herbert Croly and Woodrow Wilson, FDR’s brains trust, intellectuals of both the old and the new Left, choked back and blurted out by progressive politicians, is this: America’s constitutional republic had given the American people too much latitude to be who they are, that is: religiously and socially reactionary, ignorant, even pathological, barriers to Progress. Thankfully, an enlightened minority exists with the expertise and the duty to disperse the religious obscurantism, the hypocritical talk of piety, freedom, and equality, which excuses Americans’ racism, sexism, greed, and rape of the environment. As we progressives take up our proper responsibilities, Americans will no longer live politically according to their prejudices; they will be ruled administratively according to scientific knowledge.
Emphasis added.

22 comments:

  1. raven5:21 PM

    Re. The firefly/serenity clip- I have often been astounded by the cognitive dissonance leftists espouse with regard to this series, which puts their ideal state in the role of the enemy. In particular, River Tams little diatribe about "meddlers". Yet somehow, they cannot see.

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  2. Indeed, the director -- Whedon -- has somehow managed to both almost perfectly capture my world view, portray it as the heroic view in his universe, and at the same time have no idea who I am or what people like me want in the real world.

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  3. Yeah, it is stunning.

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  4. I agree with Codevilla that the train left the station years ago wrt remaining a republic valuing liberty. It would take a miracle to change that trajectory, and political parties aren't in the miracle business (however much they may claim that they are).

    But I'm not sure revolution is in the cards either--at least not in the near term. Empires seem to be subject to civil wars, and when one dynasty starts to lose hold of the reins I expect wars, but the first dynasty hasn't completely coalesced yet. I think. Maybe it will start with a civil war among the would-be dynasts.

    I don't see the signs I'd expect for an incipient "conservative/constitutional" revolution: a few explosions here and there, getting more and more frequent as time goes on. I see explosions all right, but they're pretty one-sided and not on a "conservative" side. There's no forceful push-back. Perhaps cable/internet is the opiate of the masses--something to keep us sedated while the action is going on.

    I'm not looking forward to any of the scenarios.

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  5. Anonymous7:30 PM

    Whedon lets the story flow, even when he personally doesn't agree with the characters. I read an interview with him somewhere, I think it was part of a book about him and Sartre (grad school *shrug* You read odd things), and he commented that he trusts the story to tell itself to a large degree, and the characters as well.

    His subconscious must be an interesting creature.

    LittleRed1

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  6. I don't see the signs I'd expect for an incipient "conservative/constitutional" revolution: a few explosions here and there, getting more and more frequent as time goes on. I see explosions all right, but they're pretty one-sided and not on a "conservative" side.

    I don't think American conservatives would be inclined to a terrorist uprising. I think they'd prefer a campaign that didn't target or endanger innocents, at least at this stage: opinions about what constitutes an 'innocent' may harden.

    Still, the most likely fighters at this stage are GWOT veterans. They have low opinions of terrorists, and high opinions of police (who would invariably end up in the crossfire). That's got to be tamping down any early phase violence.

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  7. I'd figure the most likely fighters at this stage would be people a little off center: John Brown types.

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  8. Eric Blair9:38 PM

    Optimates vs. Poplulares. This continues to remind me of the Roman late Republic--Mind you, don't take that too literally, but still.

    Trump is no Marius or Caesar, and Clinton is no Sulla for that matter, but this election is basically a popular revolt against the "establishment".

    And as I've said before--there's this talk of violence, but look around you and who would be the target? I don't think anyone has thought that through at all. Not on either side.



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  9. I've thought about it some. I think the two main groups of opposing fighters would end up being law-and-order conservatives vs. give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death conservatives.

    A little "Sons of Liberty"-style civil disobedience and harassment would be a different matter, of course.

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  10. ... who would be the target?

    If you were fighting a guerrilla war, the civil servants at the local level. You'd want to sever the population from the aid they get from the Federal government.

    If you were fighting a more discrete war, it would be a campaign of assassination against political officials -- and possibly certain other figures involved in bribing political officials.

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  11. Anonymous11:55 PM

    20 trillion in debt and growing.
    Debase the currency enough people will stop working as what is the point?
    ......you can pretend to pay me, and I will pretend to work........
    there is a start of a revolt right there.

    Stop filing your income tax, or paying your obamacare penalty.......
    another revolt.

    start ignoring laws and get others to do so
    another revolt.

    Stock up on as much ammo as possible
    thats a poison pill right there....

    Collectively we can really. screw. things. up.

    Codevilla wrote this paragraph:

    .......Never before has such a large percentage of Americans expressed alienation from their leaders, resentment, even fear. Some two-thirds of Americans believe that elected and appointed officials—plus the courts, the justice system, business leaders, educators—are leading the country in the wrong direction: that they are corrupt, do more harm than good, make us poorer, get us into wars and lose them. Because this majority sees no one in the political mainstream who shares their concerns, because it lacks confidence that the system can be fixed, it is eager to empower whoever might flush the system and its denizens with something like an ungentle enema...........


    Yes, I really like the idea of an "ungentle enema"

    -Mississippi



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  12. Anonymous7:53 AM

    "who would be the target?"

    Simple, those who benefit from the current status quo.

    I could name a few examples in my Neighborhood.
    Those who set up and formed Nipples on Leviathan
    and who have attached themselves to render sustenance

    or those who directly practice a form of Law fare against the population. Abusing our laws to exploit the innocent.

    For example, the Stanley Chesley's of the world who participate directly of pay for play, and are bold crooks.
    Hell, the Clintons come to visit them every few month in our Neiborhood and we have to deal in the traffic delays

    Link: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2014/08/05/lawyer-stanley-chesley-ordered-to-pay-42-million-over-fen-phen-debacle/&refURL=https://www.google.com/&referrer=https://www.google.com/

    Really, I could name at least a dozen of em in my City. Can you?

    -Mississippi

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  13. I think further speculations along this line are not good for the soul.

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  14. Maybe not, but your goes to underline Eric Blair's point. The line of thought itself is rejected as spiritually unhealthy.

    As a point of military science, I can tell you what would be effective. But I don't see any of us doing the most effective things, because we who would be best at it reject terrorism and targeting of innocents on moral grounds. So that leaves a raft of second-best options, few of which would be effective enough to justify pursuing them.

    Thus, we wait, and try to find a better solution.

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  15. Yes, I really like the idea of an "ungentle enema"

    It is amusing, and would be therapeutic as well. A twofer.

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  16. Anonymous10:39 AM

    A third party stopping welfare payments would probably cause a good bit of disruption. Probably starting with the first swipe of an EBT card that failed.

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  17. Anonymous6:58 PM

    Look at this......I do hope our secretary of state is looking into to this in Ohio
    so much is not true, yet we are dealing with HRC

    BREAKING: “Tens of thousands” of fraudulent Clinton votes found in Ohio warehouse
    http://christiantimesnewspaper.com/breaking-tens-of-thousands-of-fraudulent-clinton-votes-found-in-ohio-warehouse/

    - Mississippi

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  18. Mississippi, that looks like one of those sites that peddles fake sensational stories. Nothing there appears to be true. Also the Photoshop on the "ballot boxes" is so bad, you can see where the original writing was clone stamped over and the words "ballot box" are jaggy where the rest of the photo isn't. The letters also aren't aligned with the boxes.

    Not that I don't think they'll stuff ballot boxes, though.

    I don't think you really need to target people, I think Mississippi has the right idea- start taking away modern conveniences and technological crutches we've gotten accustomed to and you could really do a number on people without direct physical violence. Think modern version of CIA handbook for simple sabotage

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  19. Anonymous5:35 PM

    I saw the ballot box story. 1) It's so sensational that I want more proof. 2) That said, this year, and after what happened in Sioux County IA in 2000, and a few other places in 2012, I'm far more inclined to believe than I want to be. (Sioux County IA, several boxes of ballots were found in the basement of the county courthouse several weeks after the national election. The names didn't jive with those on the county's voter roles. No one knew or would admit to knowing how they got there or where they'd come from. Other things appeared and I moved away and didn't learn about the final outcome.)

    LittleRed1

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  20. I'm not sure I see the point in that kind of rebellion. The folks who run the system aren't going to suffer. They're rich, well-connected, and the most you'll do is inconvenience them slightly.

    The people who will pay the price for that kind of rebellion are the rest of us.

    Or maybe I'm missing it?

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  21. Ymar Sakar9:34 PM

    It was pretty obvious to me even in 2007, before the advent of Hussein Obola, that the US Republic was dead. And everybody was acting like that either didn't matter or they could do something about it. Well, they tried for a few years, but nothing much happened, they failed to resurrect the dead thing. After all, they didn't have divine power, that's to be expected.

    The funny thing about being given a conclusion that is so apparently true, that it actually takes a few years to figure out why it is true. Since humans didn't give it to me and I didn't derive it from using known human methods, the whole thing is kind of flipped upside down.

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  22. Ymar Sakar9:56 PM

    And as I've said before--there's this talk of violence, but look around you and who would be the target? I don't think anyone has thought that through at all. Not on either side.

    The 3% percent online have. So has the author of Unintended Consequences.

    The Other side's best examples are Bosnia, Mogadishu, Libya, Syria, Vietnam, and Iran. Even at worst, those are incapable of crushing the American cellular networks right now, let alone in the future.

    Still, the most likely fighters at this stage are GWOT veterans.

    Which is why Hussein specifically started attriting them in Afghanistan. Plus if a country lost a war that was won by COIN, then COIN would be disqualified and no longer taught to students. Without COIN, there's not much danger of a successful insurgency throwing off their Leftist masters in the US. One of the best ways an insurgency can train themselves to succeed is to see what it takes to successfully counter an insurgency, then one up it.

    I find it ironic Grim posted a Firefly clip. Perhaps he'll find it easier to understand why I kept throwing this quote around at times, seemingly at random over the years.

    Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave.

    Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) Serenity



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