Tuesday, December 29, 2020

The Right-Wing Philistine

     Liberalism demolished Plato and Aristotle's vision of the good life.   The fact that almost no one, right or left,  thinks one correct way of living exists means that natural law principles are unintelligible to professional conservatives,  who say things that gladden any secondary liberal's heart, like that natural law is a "solopsism."  
      As recently as Edmund Burke,  government was "a partnership in all science;  a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue,  and in all perfection. "  Today's so-called conservative thinks anything other than fighting wars and running prisons isn't the government's "business."  This brings us back to Orange Blatherskite, whose ability to run hotels made him the perfect presidential candidate for right-wing philistines, who also failed to recognize that presidents can't bark orders at legislators,  and that constantly firing appointees was no way to create a working government. 
      Right-wing philistines loved the way Orange Blatherskite "owned the libs."  If John Locke made American politics class warfare,  many saw O.B. as a right-wing Carlos Hathcock, dispatching one lefty after another with zippy tweets.  This masked the fact that he had no legislative skills whatsoever.   An intelligent president doesn't watch both parties horse-trade and blogroll for five months,  and then red-line provisions in a bill at the last minute.   This is yet another sign that Orange Blatherskite thinks lawmakers are somehow his employees,  instead of other elected officials who themselves hold authority. 
      It is past time to stop Donald Trump's rape of the Republican Party , but the fact that conservatism has been warped into an obsession with cutting social programs and insulting liberals makes this unlikely. 

No comments: