Hegelian Justifications

Long ago, Estase remarked that the old Greek categories of Effectiveness and Excellence had been completely conflated. That is to say, success is prized so highly that even morally corrupt means are considered acceptable. The right's saying of "That's not my problem,"applies equally to poverty, racial issues, and now, even to our legal system. This degraded moral sensibility accompanied the transformation of right-wing politics into a mere attempt to safeguard the position of the well-off. 

First, Mark Levin depicted the Constitution as having right-wing ideology baked into the crust. When you only like our founding document based on a delusion, it leads the Trump faithful to, even after the Save Save America riot, say "We can't vote our way out of this, "showing their ongoing interest in violent revolution. 

Second, the acceptance of a morally rancid person like Orange Blatherskite was a sign that the moral rot of NTC (Nothing to Conserve) was already setting in. 

One of the consequences of conflating Effectiveness and Excellence is that the NTC people think and act like Marxists in the sense that success excuses every form of crime. In Marxism, this was due to the skeletal role Hegelianism plays, that also being its most dangerous component. Hegelianism taught that success would justify every crime. NTC has much the same viewpoint, accentuated by its judgment that the American left is actually satanic. 

MAGA Goes NTC

The hillbilly sans-cullottes over at The Federalist have apparently decided that the term conservative is outdated because American government has nothing to conserve. Ridiculous and apocalyptic--just what we expect from Trumphumpers. But I think we have a new acronym to replace MAGA--NTC(pronounced "nutsy").  

  If American government has nothing to conserve,  perhaps it has something to do with Trump's disregard for the democratic and legal norms that kept politicians' hands out of the public still and ensured peaceful transfer of power. 

     It has been clear for some time that anything that even resembled eighteenth century Whiggery has been purged from the Republican party by the ideological mess that is MAGA.  Donald Trump has nothing in common with John Adams.   Talk radio overcame anything that ever resembled intellect, and the NTC nonsense makes a mockery out of Trump supporters' claims to love the Constitution.Laura Ingraham said a while ago that  the Constitution wasn't sacred because it might be improved upon.   Estase dreads what Laura Ingraham would consider an improvement on the U.S. Constitution. All you have to see to prove this disrespect is the minimizations and rationalizations for the Save America Riot and its concurrent fake elector scheme. 

    All of this amounts to the once-proud Republican party checking out and withdrawing from American democracy.   What is there to call NTC but the final embrace of authoritarianism?

Alternate Realities

     Americans have seemed to be in what Alasdair MacIntyre would call an "epistemological crisis;"  a new situation causes people to confuse "seems" with "is."  This goes back at least as far as the Obama birth certificate controversy.   Then came Sandy Hook.   Next came "Pervy Ted," and the idea that Rafael Cruz shot Kennedy.   This was followed by rewriting history to make Robert Mueller and John McCain less than the heroes they are.   Recently Moonbat Taylor-Green claimed that the July 4th Highland Park shooting was a "false flag. "

     And then there's the 800 pound gorilla in the room;  the Save America Riot,  which Orange Blatherskite's apologists have sought to justify while denying their culpability in.   Some of these people still talk about mules and a stolen election. 

     This week's search warrant served on Orange Blatherskite's mansion led Fox to spout vituperation against the FBI along the lines of "they hate Trump, and they've coming for you next!"  This sort of overheated,  hyperbolic rhetoric led a MAGA freak to shoot up an FBI office in Cincinnati. 

     Fox's dishonesty was such that last night (Aug. 12) Fox pretended that the motives of the Cincinnati gunman were unknown.   Just as with January 6, Fox conveniently forgot how much incitement they created for a criminal attack on our government. 

     It is difficult to decide whether the Trump movement's alternate reality is genuine epistemic confusion,  or just a strategy of politics based on prevarication.  The danger is,  of course,  is that this is typically fascist or totalitarian behavior.  The Nazis completely rewrote history to make Germans natives of the Himalayas.   They claimed that Germany had lost WW I although they won every battle.  And,  of course,  their Thule Society worldview made Jews Germany's natural enemies.   This was all rank nonsense,  but the Nazi regime needed it to exist. 

     RINO has gone from meaning a liberal Republican to meaning anyone who rejects this alternate reality.   It doesn't help a bit that Democrats have undermined same Republicans like Peter Meijer by buying ad time for their alternate reality opponents.   Note well that Illinois Democrats intentionally dissolved Adam Kinzinger's district for their own advantage.   Obviously,  Democrats don't see Trump epistemic confusion as a fascist threat,  but as a good opportunity for themselves. 

Horst Weasel

The person Orange Blatherskite said handled pressure better than a four star Marine general.   He played on his smart phone while Rome burned. 

Sympathy for the Devil

Looking at monetary cost instead of human rights or freedom is what passes for Republican foreign policy now. 

     Estase feels real nostalgia for the days when Republicans were strong on foreign policy and tough on Communism.  The viruses of isolationism and Jacksonian Nationalism are now combined with a ridiculous urge to blame the behavior of a foreign despot on Joe Biden. 

     Moonbat Taylor-Greene responded to Putin's disgusting invasion of Ukraine by tweeting that it was terrific that the Communist dictator was "standing up " to the U.S.  She then addressed obscenities to NATO, our State Department,  and our Department of Defense. 

     Such amazing foreign policy wisdom and patriotism is not limited to Orange Blatherskite,  Tucker Carlson,  or the mentally diminished representative from Georgia.  Fox News has invited on numerous ersatz foreign policy experts like Fred Fleitz and Christian Whiton.  On his March 7th broadcast,  Jesse Watters (whose first response to the invasion was a craven worry that Ukrainian refugees might be resettled in the U.S.), made a disgusting display of blaming the U.S. for the war.  Watters,  a lame Bill O'Reilly wannabe,  always had a Colbert Report feel to him.   If Orange Blatherskite were caught with a big stash of kiddie porn,  Jesse Watters would have claimed it was for research into the imaginary Deep State conspiracy to protect an underground network of pedophile Democrats.  Apparently Watters agrees with Josh Hawley that we should have agreed to Putin's demand that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO,  because Watters basically accused our government of goading Putin into this war.  He prefaced a video of H-> on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show by saying that Democrats intended to turn Ukraine into a "killing ground ."  Not unpredictably,  that wasn't really what Hillary Clinton said. 

      Estase understands that Fox News exists to blame everything on Joe Biden.   On the other hand,  it should be ashamed to remove the locus of responsibility for the war in Ukraine from Vladimir Putin.   There is no way around the fact that Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters are offering sympathy to evil war criminal Vladimir Putin. 

King Mob

     Julius Caesar was someone who claimed to represent the people and destroyed the Roman Republic.   Today's populism is all about Jacksonian Nationalism,  and is comfortable with imperial power being assigned to the president.   

     Populism has distorted our foreign policy and trade policy.   It has led to a new breed of irresponsible politicians. 

    By putting the least sophisticated among us in control,  populism is a return to King Mob that Daniel Webster fought against in the 1830's.

     Donald Trump's supporters make a lot out of their claim that America is a republic and not a democracy.   However,  these same people hate the independence of elected representatives.   Moreover,  a "power to the people " mentality is more democratic than republican.

     Another attitude inconsistent with republicanism is Trump supporters' attitude that the former president was the boss of lawmakers,  and that he had some kind of right to absolute loyalty and obedience from them. 

      Trump supporters like to self-identify as "federalists," even though none of them are smart enough to understand the Federalist Papers.   Real federalists wouldn't think a president had the right to choose which laws to enforce. 

     The idea of expansive executive power that Trump believed himself to hold is exactly what America didn't need.   The power of Congress has been weakened by 80 years of executive encroachment.   Of course,  Congress is the kind of institution that defines a republic.  Obviously,  short-changing Congress may be authoritarian or democratic,  but could never be republican.

     The concept of party loyalty bears a questionable relationship to principle.   The kind of Jack Kemp free-market ethos that used to mark the Republican party was exchanged for a cheezy protectionism that sought to one-up even our allies.   Instead of leading the world's democracies,  Trump wanted to retreat to Fortress America.   He didn't understand the basic fact that our European allies are doing us a favor by being in NATO,  and it is for that reason that the United States had always provided most of its funding.   Of course,  it is probably too much for Orange Blatherskite to understand the UN Charter.   And then,  of course,  there is the fact that he turned a party founded on civil rights into the party of Pepe the Frog.

     Populism has also warped our foreign policy discourse by leading rightist media to promote obscure think tanks peddling Jacksonian Nationalism.   Fox recently aired a segment with a representative of such a group who excused Putin's past thefts of Ukrainian territory by pointing to the presence of ethnic Russians there.   Estase's  astute mate pointed out that this was the same argument Nazi Germany made for seizing Czechoslovakia.   Smoke screens like this are injurious to honest discussions of Russian aggression. 

     Josh Hawley is a perfect example of how populism has replaced conservatism.   Hawley has said that teaching history in schools is useless.   A conservative would want young people to know the accomplishments and sacrifices of past generations.   A populist, however,  would want people to only know Brian Kilmeade-style distortions of history meant to satisfy the conceits of Jacksonian Nationalism. 

     Hawley also propagated the fiction that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.   Peaceful transition of power and the rule of law don't matter as much as holding on to power at all costs.   Hawley doesn't want to conserve the Constitutional system--he wants to remake it according to what Donald Trump wants it to be.   During the Obama years,  Estase saw a right winger online advocating violating the Constitution to protect "the spirit of the Constitution. "  For such as Hawley,  the "spirit of the Constitution " means right wing populist ideology.   Obviously,  there is no such thing as a spirit of the Constitution that differs from its written form.   That would basically be the equivalent of the "living Constitution " fallacy. 

     Hawley gets his political oxygen from the Trumpian media,  who treat him like a hero instead of the fringy dweeb he really is.   Of course,  all of these populists would have no more following than Lyndon LaRouche if it weren't for the Trumpian media.   And for all his culpability in the events leading up to the Save America Riot,  he suffered little blowback .

     If our republic has any future,  it lies with people who don't claim to have authority beyond that granted by the Constitution.   If America is a republic,  it's time to quit appeals to an amorphous "people " that really amounts to King Mob.