Political Animal
Blog
One thing you learn if you are involved in political controversy for any length of time is that there are two kinds of partisan or ideological opponents. There are those who may have different allegiances, perceptions, policy goals, and even values than you have, perhaps holding them quite vociferously, but who fundamentally understand we live in a pluralistic society with significant areas of commonality, where political competition is essential and diverse points of view are to be welcomed rather than deplored. By and large, these kinds of opponents accept there is such a thing as objective “truth” that transcends ideology, and admit the possibility that empirical evidence can change their minds. And then you have people who understand no “truth” other than the oaths and pieties of their “team,” and would be perfectly happy living in a one-party dictatorship, seeing you silenced or jailed, humiliated or disgraced.
Used to be I didn’t think of that many conservatives as falling into the latter camp, but little news items like this from Dylan Byers of Politico are helping change my mind:
The Heritage Foundation and Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity will host an awards dinner this Friday in honor of Andrew Breitbart, the conservative firebrand who passed away earlier this year.
The first annual Breibart Awards dinner, which will take place in Providence, R.I., is part of the two organizations’ Future of Journalism Summit, which brings conservative news outlets and bloggers together for meetings, panels and training sessions.
When I lived in Washington I used to walk by the Heritage Foundation en route from work to the Metro station every day. I envied the organization its wealth and influence, and considered most of its work wrong-headed and sometimes destructive, but didn’t consider it actively evil, and didn’t even think of crossing myself when I passed its doors. Even after attending a terrifying lecture at Heritage in 1997 by the late Richard John Nuehaus, who in that chilling voice of his urged his well-fed bourgeois listeners to contemplate the need for a revolutionary insurrection against the “regime” that allowed legalized abortion and equal rights for gay folks, I still thought of the think tank built on Paul Weyrich’s vision with Coors money as a place where people like Stuart Butler, the father of the individual mandate, worked. You know: reasonable people with whom I just happened to disagree a lot.
Back then most of the people at Heritage might have enjoyed an illicit thrill reading the “work” of people like Breitbart, much as people on my “team” got a quiet kick out of slumming through the fever swamps of the conspiratorial Left. But they would have hastened to the restroom to wash their hands of any active contact with Breitbartian guerillas, at most considering them convenient distant allies, while fearing they were agents provocateurs planted by their enemies as a sinister joke.
And they sure as hell would not have been publicly handing out awards in the name of someone like Breitbart, holding him out as an exemplar of journalism.
Much as I think there is currently a very large gulf between the two major parties on matters large and small that will have a tangible effect on the lives and well-being of the American people, I still don’t consider it appropriate that U.S. politics adopt the tone of the Spanish Civil War. It was bad enough when the 2008 vice presidential candidate of the Republican Party began accusing Democrats of wanting to kill off old people, or when large numbers of GOP pols got into the habit of accusing Barack Obama of waging a “war on religion.” But when you start seeing the words “Heritage Foundation” and “Andrew Breitbart” in the same sentence, it is time to realize we are at a juncture where defeating these people—not silencing or jailing them, or glorying in their humiliation, but denying them political powwer—has become the only way to restore the possibility of bipartisanship and civil discourse.
Facebook
Twitter
Diane Rodriguez on June 07, 2012 10:32 AM:
Yeah, it's probably time to stop waxing nostalgic about "reasonable" positions on the right. The right stopped that line of thinking about the left many years ago.
ChristianPinko on June 07, 2012 10:39 AM:
Well, duh.
Ron Byers on June 07, 2012 10:42 AM:
I learned long ago that the right has declared war on America, at least the America where I grew up flag waiving proud. I don't want to live in the Randian hell they find attractive.
Good to read your work again Ed. I am so sorry about your loss. You have our prayers.
dp on June 07, 2012 10:43 AM:
Been sayin'.
Sorry about your step-dad.
stormskies on June 07, 2012 10:43 AM:
These sadistic and delusional clowns should wear brown uniforms and jack boots. At least they would be honest then.
Hedda Peraz on June 07, 2012 10:46 AM:
In a similar vein, Margaret Sanger's organization, Planned Parenthood, is thinking about giving out an award each year to an individual most active in population control. Like the Oscar, it will be a gold statuette, called the "Adolf".
boatboy_srq on June 07, 2012 10:46 AM:
I still don’t consider it appropriate that U.S. politics adopt the tone of the Spanish Civil War.
Why is that? The Right has already gone there many years ago many times over. This is a cultural, generational struggle for the soul of the nation as far as they're concerned, and their goal (depending on who you ask) is either total dominion over the political discourse to create the "perfect republic" they envision or to cause Teh End Tymes and engineer the return of Teh Messiah (one understands their horrified fascination with witchcraft if one considers how convinced they are that Jeebus can be "summoned" like any ordinary djinn).
I'm starting to think that the fight isn't Reasonable People v. Nazis, but Survivors v. Necromongers. It may not, in the long run, matter whether we think it "appropriate" to adopt the extreme language of 1930s Spain (or 1790s France or 1970s Chile) if that decision si being made by our opposition without our input.
R. Porrofatto on June 07, 2012 10:56 AM:
If Breitbart were just one more loudmouthed shock-jock clown in the College Republican mold where point-scoring against liberals is the ne plus ultra of political action, it would be easier to dismiss his beatification as a defender of truth, even by the putatively respectable Heritage Foundation. But since almost everything he did resulted in real damage to real people, here's hoping that Heritage et al rot in hell along with him and Weyrich.
Not to mention that Breitbart was no more a journalist than P.T. Barnum was a patron of the Arts. But then this is the crowd that thinks Jonah Goldberg is a Pulitzer Prize nominee.
Ronald Boggs on June 07, 2012 10:58 AM:
In a civil war, those who do not realize they are fighting a civil war lose and lose big times. We are in a civil war started and enjoyed the by the rightwing. It is a War on America and all that it has stood for and was over the last 200 plus years. The progressive forces are losing in a big way because they do not realize they are in a civil war.
c u n d gulag on June 07, 2012 11:00 AM:
'The Firefighters and Police of America will host an awards dinner this Friday in honor of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov at a dinner honoring him for the creation of his cocktail.
They will be honoring Mr. Molotov for his work on fire and riot prevention.
James on June 07, 2012 11:04 AM:
I'm so very sorry about the loss of your step-father. I wish you and your family peace and comfort in this difficult time.
...Can you please elaborate on your baffling statement about how your "'team' got a quiet kick out of slumming through the fever swamps of the conspiratorial Left." As a good and loyal lifelong Democrat and strong union man, I have no knowledge or memory of anything like this.
j_h_r on June 07, 2012 11:04 AM:
So, you were living under a rock from 1992-2000?
Or did I somehow overlook all these conservatives that believed in "significant areas of commonality" because, maybe, they were all wearing gorilla suits?
Peter C on June 07, 2012 11:05 AM:
My problem is I cannot even remember a Republican in good standing who I can unambiguously put in that first category. I hate having such a un-nuanced outlook, but I can't reclose my eyes. Their tactics are vile and their objectives are immoral.
Those who I thought were honorable - the reasonable Republicans - have surrendered their party and have been purged. Yet, can they remain honorable and not loudly denounce their former associates? No. Not while their party does so much harm.
Daryl McCullough on June 07, 2012 11:16 AM:
Peter C: I think your "...in good standing" clause rules out the examples I'm thinking of, but there have been Republicans who in the past have been willing to work with Democrats on common ground. Some examples:
Chuck Hagel
Dick Lugar
Jim Jeffords
At times,
Orrin Hatch
Chuck Grassley
Arlen Specter
Olympia Snowe
Susan Collins
Lindsay Graham
John McCain
But the ones who haven't already left the party or been drummed out have pretty much stopped cooperating with Democrats.
Peter C on June 07, 2012 11:20 AM:
I agree with @James. I'm drawing a blank on the 'fever swamps of the conspirational Left'. Either I'm too young (which, given how old I feel when reading the worthy Ryan Cooper, seems unlikely) or this is false equivalency when used in a modern-day context.
Peter C on June 07, 2012 11:28 AM:
Yes, @Daryl McCullough, those people are less bad. But they are still too silent and joined too many filibusters to qualify as unambiguously honorable. President Ford is dead, and even he pardoned Nixon.
Again, I hate feeling like Madame DeFarge, but with Rick Scott's latest actions, the wine cask is broken and I'm seeing red.
Jim on June 07, 2012 11:30 AM:
Like others here, I am puzzled by the reference to the "fever swamps of the conspiratorial left". I guess Firedoglake and Greenwald are pretty sharp, but hardly demonize those on the right nor seek to silence voices of opposition. I am with Pete C and think this is the usual false equivalence error to make one appear more "even handed".
Rick B on June 07, 2012 11:31 AM:
I've been aware of the insanity of the modern American conservatives (who have taken over the Republican Party using corporate funding) when I read Sara Robinson's excellent article Is the U.S on the Brink of Fascism? back in 2009 (originally posted in Orcinus.) Her description was on the money.
The conservative takeover of the Republican Party was a result of tribalism reacting against the modernization of American society. Modernization is the way a society becomes an industrial urban nation. It involves a shift of power from local "gentry" to a central government. That shift is a necessity if the mass markets that enable industrialization are to exist. It is normally achieved because of war or the threat of war. The current move towards American fascism is a result of the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the USSR as an existential threat to America. The local powers (meaning non-national - wealthy families, corporate executives and top bankers supported by fundamentalist religious leaders) have conducted a counter-revolution against modern urban industrial life and are trying to reimpose rural political controls on the rest of us.
SecularAnimist on June 07, 2012 11:32 AM:
The Heritage Foundation has never been anything but a corporate propaganda mill, and its so-called "conservative" pseudo-ideology has never been anything but bullshit.
SecularAnimist on June 07, 2012 11:35 AM:
Ed Kilgore wrote: "... the fever swamps of the conspiratorial Left ..."
All "sensible liberal" bloggers know that this sort of false equivalence is mandatory.
me on June 07, 2012 11:37 AM:
wow. they're going to give an annual award named after a fellow who wrote that a supreme court justice was a 'goat-fucking child molester.' just...wow.
me on June 07, 2012 11:40 AM:
oops. wrong sociopath.
josephus on June 07, 2012 11:48 AM:
I think that what is at the root of all this furor by republicans is that they are afraid that they are becoming unessential to America, because we are becoming less "white", and they are afraid that if they let the "messicans" take over that what they have done to the minorities will be done to them.
internet tough guy on June 07, 2012 12:03 PM:
As we all know, the only true way to save the country and discredit the right is to let them seize power and destroy the country.
wab on June 07, 2012 12:04 PM:
The cancer that is Fox "News" is eating away at America.
A. Sociopath on June 07, 2012 12:30 PM:
@me: I guess you think we all look alike. Racist!!!
[hla]
Ed Drone on June 07, 2012 12:37 PM:
I used to say that both Republicants and Democrats had their crazies, but at least the Democrats never ran theirs for high public office. Now I'm going to have to add, "nor nominated them for sainthood."
Jeez!
Ed
Countme-In on June 07, 2012 12:57 PM:
"it is time to realize we are at a juncture where defeating these people—not silencing or jailing them, or glorying in their humiliation, but denying them political powwer"
You mean the penultimate juncture, don't you?
The one just before the bombing of Fort Sumter, or say the juncture preceding the Reichstag fire?
Daryl McCullough on June 07, 2012 1:24 PM:
Ed writes: "...I still don’t consider it appropriate that U.S. politics adopt the tone of the Spanish Civil War."
I think that's exactly the appropriate analog. Both sides comparing each other to Hitler and the Nazis is so boring, and inaccurate. But the conservatives really are acting like the Spanish Nationalists. After the election of a coalition government that the Spanish conservatives felt was too left-wing, those conservatives acted as if the election results were somehow illegitimate.
Of course, it's confusing to Americans to bring up the Spanish Civil War, because in that conflict, the "lefties" were called "Republicans".
Joel on June 07, 2012 1:35 PM:
"an awards dinner this Friday in honor of Andrew Breitbart"
The apotheosis of arrested development.
boatboy_srq on June 07, 2012 1:49 PM:
@Daryl McCullough:
THIS. EXACTLY, PRECISELY THIS.
smartalek on June 07, 2012 2:03 PM:
GOOD liberals!
Still wanting to bring a quill to a gunfight.
And then you wonder why we keep losing...
LaFollette Progressive on June 07, 2012 2:20 PM:
The only problem with the Spanish Civil War analogy is that the Republican government *really did* include parties openly loyal to Stalin, and anarchists who genuinely desired to seize the factories from the capitalists and burn the churches.
Right now, we're seeing a crazed nationalist vanguard bent on de-legitimizing and destroying a governing party that... cut payroll taxes, repaired some roads, required individuals and clerical organizations to pay for corporate health insurance, and imposed some modest banking regulations.
It's not a Civil War between the Spanish Nationalists and the Spanish Republicans. It's between the Spanish Nationalists and the Rockefeller Republicans. But the right-wing propaganda is every inch as vicious. The whole thing is surreal.
Michael Fumento on June 07, 2012 2:21 PM:
As I pointed out in my recent Salon.com article, "My Break with the Extreme Right," whatever you think of BB, and I think very, very little of him, there was never a conservative bone in his body. I wrote:
In the grief-fest at Breitbart's death, forgiven (and indeed practically forgotten) was his crucial role in building the single most popular liberal website, the Huffington Post. Some of Breitbart's friends admitted he was absent of ideology. "I don't recall Andrew Breitbart ever mentioning electoral politics," wrote Tucker Carlson. "It bored him." Breitbart's inspiration, then? George Washington through Benjamin Franklin - printed in primarily green ink on cotton stock.
Now he's being honored by the "conservative" Heritage Foundation! It's ALL sheer opportunism.
TCinLA on June 07, 2012 3:35 PM:
it is time to realize we are at a juncture where defeating these people—not silencing or jailing them, or glorying in their humiliation, but denying them political powwer—has become the only way to restore the possibility of bipartisanship and civil discourse.
Welcome to the war, Ed. It's only been 30 years that it's been going on.
I just hope we aren't waking up to the truth of the enemy too late, as happened to the "Good Germans" back 70 years ago.
But when reality even manages to convince a guy like you of this position, I'm happy to say "better late than never."
geodahir on June 07, 2012 3:37 PM:
Politics has always been rough, but never has utterly lacked rational argument. Today, due to wealth disparity, that has occurred. The only way to return to the "good old days" is to permanently set the tax rates for the wealthy, with no avoidance mechanism. But believe me, I am not holding my breath.
reflectionephemeral on June 08, 2012 1:50 PM:
Heritage has been that way for a while. They've been big advertisers on Rush Limbaugh, and use him & Hannity to raise money.
The collapse of any difference on the right between fever swamp discourse and the words of the party's elites is indeed the big story of the past few years.
Conservative apostate Bruce Bartlett wrote in 2010 that today's GOP is "the greedy, sociopathic party" driven by an "ambition to retake power so that they can reward their lobbyist friends with more give-aways from the public purse." That seems to be a full & complete accounting of their actions.
DisgustedWithItAll on June 16, 2012 5:24 PM:
Just got around to this post.
I can't believe anybody alive for the last 20 years hasn't realized to what extent the Republican party is nothing other than a faith-based, ideological wrecking ball that will stop at nothing -- NOTHING -- to return the country to 1789, or at least the The Gilded Age. Seriously, I can't believe anybody hasn't known this for at least 5 years.
What took you so long, Ed? Maybe you're too close to it. Try reading comments at the WP sometime.