Reviving the Vital Center

Trying to make sense of it all. I think now will be as good a time as any to give up following current events so closely and try to make this more of a blog about history that occasionally comments on the present instead of a political blog that occasionally references the past. I can't really remember how to do that, but it is probably time to try because the present is basically lost. There's just not a whole lot to talk about in a one party state. Sure I could jump on the blame game train but I think there's enough of that going on already and it is quite disgusting. I kept thinking that the center has not held, all of our institutions could not restrain the cancerous growth of fascism. And when confronted by the reality of a strongman backed by a flood of racists, authoritarians, and reactionaries all of those institutions folded. The Democratic party could not, or would not accept that their fellow Americans had really gone off the deep end and try to fight them on those grounds. The children of darkness lie, cheat, intimidate, bully, break all unwritten rules, they fight dirty and the children of light just couldn't meet them on the same terms.

Of course I am talking about going back to my roots and studying Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and Reinhold Niebuhr anew. Also it will be helpful to study the works of anti-communists like James Burnham and anti-fascists who will most likely become reintroduced into the popular mind as they have not since before the Second World War. Beginning with Schlesinger's idea of the Vital Center, which he defined in an article for Society from May/June 1998 which revisited the book of 1949 as:

[A] contest between democracy and totalitarianism, not to contests within democracy between liberalism and conservatism, not at all to the so-called "middle of the road" preferred by cautious politicians of our own time. The middle of the road is definitely not the vital center--it is the dead center. Within democracy the argument adheres to FDR's injunction to move always 'a little to the left of center.'"

 We are still too close to the event to judge when the definitive break from that vital center began, the point at which our political discourse was no longer between liberalism and conservatism, but democracy and totalitarianism. Most historians are hard-pressed to judge the point when descent into totalitarianism in Weimar Germany became inevitable, dictatorship and the loss of freedom was mostly assured before Hitler became chancellor. And because democracy's death in Germany lurched and heaved about like a storm, the anti-fascist parties could not concentrate to resist the Nazis. I remember reading a book called The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town by William Sheridan Allen where he described how the Nazis slowly arrested a person here, a person there, installed party members in private clubs and trade unions, and never presented a single huge event or action that could unify resistance. Allen wrote that the Social Democratic party had their own paramilitary forces, lying in wait for the big moment to make their stand but it never came. The Nazis co-opted other right wing political parties and clubs, planted members in local media and law enforcement, and generally consolidated their power slowly and methodically until there was nothing left to resist them.

That isn't to say that this time it will be the same with the trump republicans, but as I wrote previously non-authoritarian Americans have to be prepared for anything. It is possible that the vulgar talking yam will surround himself with such incompetent sycophants that they won't get much oppressing done, but I won't be holding my breath. It is an incredible turn of events though, that during the 1930s and 1940s Americans were on guard against extremism from the right and left, however brutal it might have been, but today our institutions are either collaborating or acting like nothing is wrong.

What would it take to actually revive that tenacious defense of freedom? To return to the politics Schlesinger wrote about so long ago will first require recognizing that none of this is normal. Today's republican party is unprecedented in it's rejection of democracy and desire to harm as many of us as possible. We can't wait for the fascists in our midst to self-destruct, they have to be resisted... somehow.

What Now?

As we slog towards accepting reality, it really did happen, fascism has come to America whether it has immediately exposed itself or not, the question now is what to do next. We mourn the loss of a century of progress, we mourn the real damage donald will do to our fellow Americans, and we rage against that which made it happen. The republicans were playing the long game when they took over states in the midwest weren't they? Our neighbors out there in the provinces really were just chomping at the bit to strike a blow for whiteness. Every prediction about authoritarian followers came to pass, they could ignore every flaw in their caudillo as long as he flattered them, reinforced their prejudice, excused or legitimized their aggression, and supported their self-righteousness.

I'm not much for hope, but there are things that could happen to reverse this. Every one a very thin reed and none have much expectation of success. First, there could be evidence of election tampering or hacking that would change the outcome in some state or another. Second, there could be a number of electors who grow a conscience and vote for the winner of the popular vote. There could be some last minute move to nullify the electoral college altogether. Barring that, we could have a military coup of officers who actually take their allegiance to the constitution seriously in light of Russian involvement and prevent donald from taking office. Fourth, President Obama could just refuse to let donald take office.

After you stop laughing from that comedy routine we'll continue.

Of course it's ridiculous to expect any relief from above. Of course, to actually resist would require organization, an existing institution that could accommodate the majority of Americans who either didn't vote or didn't vote for donald. What would that look like?  One of the big takeaways from Thomas Frank's Listen Liberal was that Democrats don't actually care about winning elections. It's all about looking professional, acting professional, and being seen as professional by their peers. That might be too broad of a generalization, what good is it if you are seen as a gracious loser if the republic is lost? And who are you posturing for? Are people preparing for their frogmarch into political prisoner status with dignity? Gosh, it's all so confusing. But the Democratic Party is now a hollow shell with no power and effectively no organization. It's only role in the new order will be as scapegoat for all republican failures and cruel policies the republicans will implement. I can just see Paul Ryan, "The zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin" blaming Democrats and liberals for his draconian budget when it starts to really hurt the republican voters. No? Somehow a failed businessman, pathological liar, and overt racist couldn't draw attention from a mainstream media obsessed with emails.

So now that the unthinkable has happened, what is next? We have to be prepared for anything. I can't think of anything that could be out of bounds. It is not being alarmist to be prepared. The irony is thick though, that everything Alex Jones and the conspiracy theory crowd is now a possibility. Hate to say it but we shouldn't assume anything will stick around in the new order. Do you see anyone attracted to and getting into a trump administration as giving a warm squirt of piss about quaint things like civil rights, due process, the rule of law, free and fair elections, and all the other traditions of the American republic?

We have to proceed under the knowledge that we are an occupied nation. We will have to start thinking like guerrillas. Not in the sense of fighting or violence, but in the sense that our government is no longer, in any sense, a force for good. There is no longer any possibility or expectation of fairness or impartiality from any aspect or agent of the government. Just like that Ronald Reagan's derpy one liner about the most feared phrase in America "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" has been inverted and applied to anyone not on board with the new order, and it will probably end up biting a lot of those who gleefully signed up to make america great again.

I understand the need to vent through protests and demonstrations, but make no mistake, nothing good will come of these. Take a look at the comment section of any news story covering the protests, the republican assholes are just laughing at you. And there are a hell of a lot of decent people who saying that they don't like the protesting and that we have to play fair. Quick question, did any amount of protesting make even the slightest difference against all the war crimes and cronyism during the dubya years? Please tell me how, because all I saw was a bunch of rednecks and couch potatoes calling protestors traitors, anti-American, lazy, whiners and no appreciable difference in the conduct of government. Very soon, it will be advisable to limit your exposure. Don't make yourself a target and start to think of yourself as a valuable asset to restoring the America we care about. Again, I don't want to be an alarmist, but I have spent too much time studying dictatorships to think you can get away with too much. Remember, the bush criminals trampled on the Constitution with impunity and this new order will only push harder. Expect individual rights to go the way of the dodo, and if some are able to stick around, good, but there will be a big asterisk after any laws guaranteeing your rights.

After the unbelievable things trump got away with during the campaign, can there be any expectation that he or members of his administration will care about you or your rights? Limit your exposure, act under the radar if possible, and above all remember that we are an occupied nation. The "rogue" elements in the FBI that sank the Clinton campaign are probably working the facial recognition software overtime to catalogue everyone destined for a camp. It might be worth considering to start deleting personal information on social media or anything that could be damaging. Not worth the risk. We have about two months to get our shit together before it gets real. I for one am really going to miss President Obama and already consider the last eight years of frustration and obstruction and harm to my own career and that of friends and colleagues to be a golden age of sorts. Fond memories of when government wasn't actively persecuting its constituents.

Good night, and good luck.

They Chose Oblivion

Again, where to begin? Again, my news feed is filled with pessimism, cynicism, fatalism, and apathy. Only today the cries are amplified, as are the memories of 2000. It is happening all over again. All we heard about in 2000 was that George W. Bush was a "compassionate conservative" whom you'd like to have a beer with. We heard next to nothing about how he actually governed Texas, or ran his businesses, or his personal life. Instead, we heard endless tirades about Al Gore the "serial exaggerator" and was boring. Then Gore was tarnished by both the real and made up scandals of his boss. It would have been impossible for media to address at length every awful thing about Donald Trump, but they didn't even try. Nothing lasted, not even the Access Hollywood tape where he just flat out admitted that he likes to molest women and was proud of sexual assault. 

But now we're stuck with him. Because dumbasses and obnoxious pricks along with white supremacists projected all their vengeance fantasies on a vulgar talking yam. I shouldn't really speak to what motivated people to vote for another born-rich failure, this time from the big city. But, there was this little voice in the back of my head that really feared this outcome. After growing up and living/working around the xenophobic white working class types for so many years, I was left with the profound impression that had George W. Bush just out and out went racist the way Trump did, he would have taken the Rust Belt outright and not even needed to have his brother, among others, steal Florida for him. As it was they reveled in the fact that we were killing muslims overseas, and when hurricane katrina drowned New Orleans they shrugged as black people died and made fun of or showed their utter contempt for looters. I heard endless tales of how black people were moving up from Milwaukee, sucking up welfare dollars, having lots of bastard kids, driving up rent, driving down property values, committing crime, stealing white women, you name it. My conscious mind thought, 'but that was a long time ago, surely people can't think that way anymore' but obviously, that is exactly what they still think.

These people chose to act on their hate. They projected their desires onto Trump. What they want is for the "other" to go away. Cut off food stamps and section 8 rent vouchers so nonwhite people can't live near them and will eventually starve, and definitely start executing drug dealers. Trump has talked so much that these guys must have heard something they liked. Obviously this is not the limit of racist appeal, jobs are important but also they hear tax cuts and think that magically those tax cuts for the rich will drop prices for things they want. They also magically believe that tax cutting republicans will get around to dropping taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, sugary drinks, and anything else that they blame "liberals" for. Then there are the guns. I knew guys who slept with loaded pistols under their pillows in case the proverbial home invader (no need to worry about what race the intruders will be) breaks in. Faux martyrdom and comic book heroism barely disguised the glee in their eyes when they thought about shooting a darkie and getting away with it. Liberals and Democrats are always one step from taking their guns or preventing them from buying more. None of the guys I knew were against abortion, far from it. As long as they were not white, abortion and birth control should be encouraged, or even forced.

And the thing is, none of them had the self-awareness to realize this is racism. There was always some kind of rationalization, "they are bad people, I know good ones, I shouldn't have to pay taxes so free-loaders can mooch," and so on. That little voice should have gotten more attention but what good would it have done? And I have to eat my words, I was wrong. No matter how much they formerly tried to deflect or play the victim or even try to convince themselves that it was not racism that motivated so much of their mean-spirited personalities, that's what it was. I heard it all, either through unintentional eavesdropping or direct yelling, but that is the past. The future will not see any attempts to disguise it and trump supporter is thy name.

Most of them are just suckers, too stupid to be trusted with anything. I should never have underestimated how ridiculous and petty most of these guys are, because I read comment sections. It was all right there, no matter how much I tried to assure myself that they were multiple sock puppets for the same dumbass living in his mom's basement or Russian intelligence operative and there were most definitely that, but stupid is infectious and getting away with the racist comments on news stories emboldened the type of shithead I used to work with to no longer look over their shoulder before telling a racist joke. The mask is off again, this time nobody cares.

Democracy has failed, the children of darkness destroyed the foundations for decades by dumbing everything down. Too many people who should have known better sold out for a sweet paycheck or some petty privilege. And now we pay the price. Don't talk to me about the inherent goodness of people or how superior liberalism is for defending individual rights, liberalism is for grown ups, what we witnessed was the temper tantrum of large children. And when children do that, you just have to take it away. They chose oblivion, now we all stand at the edge of the abyss and wonder how long we have or by what method we get pushed in.

The Choice Before Us

I don't know where to begin. My news feed this morning has already been full of pessimism, cynicism, fatalism, apathy, and those are from the decent people. As I said in my last post I have stopped arguing with republicans and my friends are now basically self-sorted ideologically if you know what I mean. What I keep thinking I'd like to say to those republicans I don't argue with anymore though is "this time, just this time, it is time to say 'Enough' donald trump is horrible and you should not vote for him". But is there anything that can persuade anyone politically these days? Can anyone who hates liberals and Democrats actually say "whoa, this time the republicans have gone too far" and not vote, at the very least? I heard a report that a quarter of early republican voters in Florida are doing just that, can that be believed? If nothing else this election season, we should be aware of the fact that news media, especially cable, will never, ever be able to say "enough!" and treat the republicans like the rabid dogs they are. When trump or any republican candidate anywhere does or says something out of bounds, cable news will manufacture something, anything, the Democrat says as just as bad. And we, decent people of America, will just shrug and respond with pessimism, cynicism, fatalism, and apathy.

Sure, I'm a partisan. Yes, I am a Democrat and yes, I am a liberal and a progressive. But I am also a realist and I care about more than myself and my interests. In my lifetime, there has only been one choice in elections, the worst Democrat is always better than the best Republican. It doesn't have to be this way, and it really shouldn't but for a long time the GOP has not been a serious, responsible party. When that happened is still up for debate, but when Bill Clinton became president republicans went berserk. It was then that Newt Gingrich started coaching republican candidates to start using nasty language to describe their opponents like "disgusting, corrupt, anti-American, traitor, disgrace." It was also then that Rush Limbaugh unleashed his nasty Id upon the airwaves. Donald Trump is the logical culmination of this trend. The choice is so stark. Keith Olbermann put it so well that I have to share the video he posted this morning.

He's not kidding. What Trump has promised to do will end the republic. It will be the end of American elections. It will be national suicide and possibly nuclear war. And none of the republican trump supporters will believe it. No evidence, none of the man's own words will convince them. 

One fun little factoid that Bob Cesca announced on his podcast is that a Democratic president has not been succeeded by another elected Democratic president since 1857. So, if Secretary Clinton is elected she will be making history for being the first female American president, which is long overdue, and also the first time in a century and a half that policy issues will be consistent over successive administrations. It should have happened in 2000, the situation was similar. The eminently qualified vice president won the popular vote and should have succeeded Bill Clinton, but republican dirty tricks snatched the victory from Al Gore. 

Now, the real Hillary Clinton, as opposed to the fictional one created by Fox News and the right wing hate machine, needs no defense. It is only the relentless need by the disloyal opposition to destroy her that these fake scandals are never put away. She has unique experience as a former First Lady having actually lived in the White House, her temperament, intellect, and poise are very presidential. She has won elected office in her own right and oversaw very complicated foreign policy as head of an entire federal department.

The last eight years would have been much better if republicans had not obstructed absolutely everything and sabotaged the entire government in myriad ways. However, Barack Obama has done an outstanding job in spite of all those obstacles. Which, as Keith said, were entirely man-made and from the inside by a party of rabid monsters who now want us to put their chosen chief psychopath in charge of the very government they have repeatedly assured us they will destroy if given the chance. 

So, whatever your objections to Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party... Get Over It! They are the only grown-ups around. There is only a choice between moderate, serious governance; and oblivion. Trump must suffer an incredible defeat, and take down as many elected republicans as possible so we can finally put the GOP down and start over. We need a moderate center-right party of actual conservatives and a reform-minded center-left party, and that will only happen if the current crop of authoritarians and nihilists are shut out of the government they hate so much.

More Tiger Beat on the Potomac

I'm a glutton for punishment I suppose, but hey, if Driftglass can wade through David Brooks columns and hours of awful cable news to find the silly stuff I guess I can too. I listened to the Politico 2016 Nerdcast again, their final broadcast before the election (possibly?) and goddamnit they were stinking it up again.

First, they yapped about the Wikileaks stolen emails and gave away the game about "journalism" Tiger Beat style. So the next time Russian intelligence hacks someone's emails and internal documents they won't make the mistake of dribbling them out like a trail of breadcrumbs for professional mice on the campaign trail and play them like fiddles better. Then they reacted to the fact that African-American early voting turnout is lower than in 2012. "Oh, is Hillary Clinton having a hard time keeping their enthusiasm up?" No, you asses, the republicans went nuts passing voting restrictions aimed "with laser-like focus" at suppressing black voters. Remember when the Supreme Court said that racism was a thing of the past so we didn't need states who have historically violated the Civil Rights and Voting Rights of African-Americans to get pre-clearance before passing laws about elections? No huh? Yeah, they did that and the bad south among other states immediately started making things difficult for voters who may not like to vote for republicans.

That is as far as I got actually. I was so infuriated that I couldn't continue listening.

Good grief, I remember the news reporters breathlessly showing the "long lines" in largely Democratic precincts in Ohio on election day 2004 as being so positive for John Kerry. You remember why the lines were long and people were stuck waiting in line for hours and hours right? IT WAS BECAUSE THE REPUBLICAN SECRETARY OF STATE FOR OHIO REMOVED ALL THE VOTING MACHINES FROM URBAN AREAS TO OVERSTOCK RURAL REPUBLICAN AREAS SO THE WHITE REPUBLICANS COULD VOTE QUICKLY WITH NO LINES AND DEMOCRATS GOT DISCOURAGED AND LEFT! This time it is limiting early voting and making sure that the ID laws are as strict as possible to discourage as many Democrats as possible.

Not to mention the addition of dirty tricks about "vote by text". I know I'm ranting but dammit, these assholes do this kind of crap every election. And nobody ever goes to jail for it. Lies, lies, lies. And no one ever suffers for it. Well, the victims of the lies do.