Dear America,
The Kevin McCarthy fiasco is a demonstration of the dysfunction of the Republican ethos in two respects. First, when McCarthy was nominated for Speaker of the House, there was record setting resistance to his election to the office. I have had my say about McCarthy's ineptitude, partisan dogmatism and preemptive loyalty to party over loyalty to the nation, so I won't reiterate those opinions further, but I feel compelled to point out that skepticism regarding his competence was obviously rampant in the first place during the process of the Republican Party's nomination, and they nominated...then elected...him anyway. They did so after he promised to be the captive party hack of the "Freedom Caucus"--and I must say that the odiously self-serving and peremptory choice of that designation by a group of less than twenty rabid reactionary partisans would be laughable if it weren't so despicable--which doesn't comprise even a significant constituency within the Republican caucus as a whole, much less the nation. That fringe component of the Republican Party has members like Mat Gaetz and Jim Jordan, two of the most devious and disingenuous human beings on earth, Louie Gohmert, half a moron if that, and Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who has both integrity and intelligence, but unfortunately her integrity disappeared when she was in business and her intelligence is out looking for it. This group of reactionaries believes in freedom, but only for those sharing their beliefs in areas like religion, sexual identity, nationalism in the form of compulsory flag waving and the like. For all those whose behavior and beliefs don't comport with their definition of righteousness, they have nothing but contempt and opprobrium. Their definition of Freedom is such that it does not extend to anyone but them; freedom to believe other than they do merits condemnation and "canceling." That is the cadre that is now in control of the Republican Party as evinced by their success in ousting McCarthy on the first try.
Second, now that I have invoked values as an indicator of dysfunction, the Republican Party continues to seek to dictate to us, America, what we may and may not think, and they want to change "may" to "can" by law. They stand for book banning (and I wouldn't be surprised if banning turned to burning by the next election), blocking gender conversion even for those who demonstrably need it in order to avail themselves of the founders' promise of the right to "the pursuit of happiness" for all, what they call parental rights, which is a euphemism for letting right wing fanatics prevail on school boards to revise history so as to vindicate slavery as something that slave owners did to improve the lives of slaves with skills that they could use after they were freed, the proscription of sexual preference for those who are not strictly heterosexual, denying poor people governmental assistance when the can't fend for themselves and so on, all of which they characterize, again peremptorily, as "Christian values," and they have no tolerance for values of any other kind. And that constellation of dysfunctional ethics and contempt for all those who differ from them--the second form of dysfunction to which I referred at the outset--is dangerous, as in a threat of totalitarianism.
The didacticism and sanctimony of the Freedom Caucus, the Republican Party and conservatism in general is a menace. It is not so because their values differ from mine. They can believe what they want and live by those values in this country as long as it remains truly free, not in the sense of the arrogation of the term for themselves by the Freedom Caucus but in the sense of our founders' commitment to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And I have no problem with that. But I do object to them concerting their efforts to circumscribe the freedoms of others to make them comport with theirs, and to teach our children that it should be so when they are in school. I object when they as parents try to dictate to other parents how they should raise their children and what medical care they can provide for them. I object when they fly OUR flag and claim that it stands for their beliefs.
In the sixties, some young people took to sewing that flag to the seats of their pants. Ordinarily I would declare aversion to doing so, but in that instance it was the only way that some of them could express their intolerance of intolerance. I don't know if that strategy would work today, though it along with parallel tactics and strategies worked to change the nation then. But something has to be done to prevent a disastrous and subtle slide into "Big Brother" authoritarianism. You can vote, America. Remember the threat when you go to the polls.
Your friend,
Mike
The Kevin McCarthy fiasco is a demonstration of the dysfunction of the Republican ethos in two respects. First, when McCarthy was nominated for Speaker of the House, there was record setting resistance to his election to the office. I have had my say about McCarthy's ineptitude, partisan dogmatism and preemptive loyalty to party over loyalty to the nation, so I won't reiterate those opinions further, but I feel compelled to point out that skepticism regarding his competence was obviously rampant in the first place during the process of the Republican Party's nomination, and they nominated...then elected...him anyway. They did so after he promised to be the captive party hack of the "Freedom Caucus"--and I must say that the odiously self-serving and peremptory choice of that designation by a group of less than twenty rabid reactionary partisans would be laughable if it weren't so despicable--which doesn't comprise even a significant constituency within the Republican caucus as a whole, much less the nation. That fringe component of the Republican Party has members like Mat Gaetz and Jim Jordan, two of the most devious and disingenuous human beings on earth, Louie Gohmert, half a moron if that, and Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who has both integrity and intelligence, but unfortunately her integrity disappeared when she was in business and her intelligence is out looking for it. This group of reactionaries believes in freedom, but only for those sharing their beliefs in areas like religion, sexual identity, nationalism in the form of compulsory flag waving and the like. For all those whose behavior and beliefs don't comport with their definition of righteousness, they have nothing but contempt and opprobrium. Their definition of Freedom is such that it does not extend to anyone but them; freedom to believe other than they do merits condemnation and "canceling." That is the cadre that is now in control of the Republican Party as evinced by their success in ousting McCarthy on the first try.
Second, now that I have invoked values as an indicator of dysfunction, the Republican Party continues to seek to dictate to us, America, what we may and may not think, and they want to change "may" to "can" by law. They stand for book banning (and I wouldn't be surprised if banning turned to burning by the next election), blocking gender conversion even for those who demonstrably need it in order to avail themselves of the founders' promise of the right to "the pursuit of happiness" for all, what they call parental rights, which is a euphemism for letting right wing fanatics prevail on school boards to revise history so as to vindicate slavery as something that slave owners did to improve the lives of slaves with skills that they could use after they were freed, the proscription of sexual preference for those who are not strictly heterosexual, denying poor people governmental assistance when the can't fend for themselves and so on, all of which they characterize, again peremptorily, as "Christian values," and they have no tolerance for values of any other kind. And that constellation of dysfunctional ethics and contempt for all those who differ from them--the second form of dysfunction to which I referred at the outset--is dangerous, as in a threat of totalitarianism.
The didacticism and sanctimony of the Freedom Caucus, the Republican Party and conservatism in general is a menace. It is not so because their values differ from mine. They can believe what they want and live by those values in this country as long as it remains truly free, not in the sense of the arrogation of the term for themselves by the Freedom Caucus but in the sense of our founders' commitment to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And I have no problem with that. But I do object to them concerting their efforts to circumscribe the freedoms of others to make them comport with theirs, and to teach our children that it should be so when they are in school. I object when they as parents try to dictate to other parents how they should raise their children and what medical care they can provide for them. I object when they fly OUR flag and claim that it stands for their beliefs.
In the sixties, some young people took to sewing that flag to the seats of their pants. Ordinarily I would declare aversion to doing so, but in that instance it was the only way that some of them could express their intolerance of intolerance. I don't know if that strategy would work today, though it along with parallel tactics and strategies worked to change the nation then. But something has to be done to prevent a disastrous and subtle slide into "Big Brother" authoritarianism. You can vote, America. Remember the threat when you go to the polls.
Your friend,
Mike
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