Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Fare Thee Well, and Get Ye Lost





















Now, hatred is by far the longest pleasure; men love in haste, but they detest at leisure. --


Byron


For the past eight years, Republicans have diligently cultivated the doctrine of Fuhrerprinzip and nurtured the Cult of the Imperial Presidency. In two weeks the harvest will start to come in as the voters ratify the reign of His Ineffable Holiness, Obama the Blessed (peace be upon him).


By no later than next Spring, the Republicans -- who will deservedly be
reduced not merely to the status of minority party, but that of an unpleasant political afterthought -- will be force-fed the nettles that sprouted from the seeds of despotism they planted during Bush the Lesser's first term.

Wreathed in pseudo- sanctity: Meet the new political "messiah"....



Between the passage of the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force (aka the Enabling Act) in 2001, and enactment of the Military Commissions Act just before the 2006 mid-term elections, the Republican Party demolished every remaining restraint on executive power.



In the past few weeks, amid an economic disaster precipitated in large measure by Republican-approved public profligacy, Republicans (with the honorable and consistent exception of Washington's sole statesman, Rep. Ron Paul, and a handful of others) eagerly collaborated with Democrats in creating an economic dictatorship operating out of the Treasury Department. They also authorized the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars to socialize the costs of fraud and criminal corruption on Wall Street.



Bush the Lesser thus ends his lamentable reign by presiding over the greatest redistribution of wealth in human history. This
accomplishment makes a very nice matched set with the Bush Regime's other significant achievement, a fully functioning system of totalitarian control that is only now beginning to make its presence felt in tangible ways.



...same as the old "messiah";
the electorate is about to get fooled again.



It's entirely appropriate that Hugo Chavez, the repellent yet consistently quotable Marxist ruler of Venezuela,
has gloatingly observed that "Comrade Bush ... is to the left of me now."


Republicans seeking to stave off their richly deserved electoral massacre have rummaged through their shelves in search of a credible re-election theme, only to find that the cupboard is bare, the pantry is empty, the garden has been razed, and nobody at the local grocery store is willing to take their check.



So they have surrendered unconditionally to what has always been the unifying element of the Bush-bot Coalition: Pure, unalloyed, tribal hatred of the Other Side, whether defined as "terrists" (that's Bushian for "terrorists"), "leftists," "liberals," "cultural progressives," or merely "People with library cards who speak in complete sentences and don't merely recite the latest thought-stopping slogan retailed on the Sean Hannity program."



Conservatism, which was once flavored with an almost imperceptible touch of principle, has long since ceased to be anything other than a cynical movement devoted entirely to obtaining and retaining political power.


















This is all they have left:
Appealing to the basest instincts of its base, the California branch of the Grand Old Torture Party now admits that "waterboarding" is torture, only to embrace the idea that it is suitable treatment for its political rivals.




Once the Bush-centered conservative movement is deprived of power, it will undergo a process I'm tempted to call
reductio ad odium -- that is, it will be reduced to nothing more than a shared hatred of the Obama-centered liberal faction.


The post-Bush conservative movement's lead demagogue will be the public figure best able to make a thick, unpalatable reduction sauce from all the charred bits of resentment and residual ambition that cling to the political frying pan. I suspect that it will be ideologically brown in color and have a flavor similar to that of other bloody-minded nationalist movements whose deeds made 20th Century history so stimulating.




In the meantime, Mr. Obama -- who is hardly diffident in embracing what he takes to be his destiny to "change the world" -- will inherit the world's largest, most expensive, and most powerful executive apparatus. From those who built that apparatus or supported the project we can now hear angry, anguished warnings about the dangers of entrusting it to the likes of Obama.


Many of those people, carried away in flights of adolescent hubris, apparently believed that the Republicans would rule in perpetuity. Others, who must be the kind of people surprised by the advent of winter each year, simply didn't foresee the possibility that the GOP would fall out of political favor.













Stay classy, GOP:
This charming little illustration was circulated among California Republicans -- the "mainstream" variety, not UROC -- most of whom see nothing amiss with keeping military contractors and other corporate welfare whores on the federal dole.



It's possible that at least some who had been captured by the Bushcult will rediscover the virtues of the separation of powers, checks and balances, and the other key concepts and practices of federalism that we were ordered to discard in the name of national unity in the "war on terror." This is a
possibility in roughly the same sense that it's possible 50 Cent could secretly be an authority on Elizabethan poetry.


The Wall Street Journal spent the last eight years hymning the glories of unrestricted executive rule and heaping anathemas on those who opposed perpetual war and the destruction of the Anglo-Saxon concept of due process. Its editorial board recently gave tremulous voice to concerns over the uses to which an Obama Regime would put the powers now concentrated in the presidency.



The elevation -- or is the proper term "condescension," given his quasi-divine status? -- of Obama to the presidency "would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history," insisted the
Journal's editorial collective in words that practically shivered with anxiety. This "period of unchecked left-wing ascendancy" would "mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s."



No responsible adult possessing a scintilla of political knowledge and so much as a particle of honesty could write those words and expect them to be taken seriously. The
Journal seems to mock its own argument by complaining that the Obama-led liberals would actually reduce federal power in some ways. For instance, they may demand "the watering down of No Child Left Behind testing standards," or "the end of Guantanamo and military commissions"; the former would scale back unconstitutional Bush-era centralization of education, the latter would end a civil liberties abomination that threatens the liberties of everybody.



The rest of the
Journal's editorial offered several variations on a familiar theme, namely that under the reign of the "Liberal Supermajority" the State would confer its burgled bounty on a different set of beneficiaries, and wield its enforcement powers on behalf of a different set of prejudices.


All of this is inspired by the equation that defines all modern politics -- Lenin's axiom that the central political question is "Who does what to whom." Both branches of the Dominant Party are thoroughly Leninist, in that they appear to recognize no limit on the power of the State (Lenin defined his governing model as "power without limit, resting directly on force") and seek to be the "Who" rather than the "Whom" in the ruling equation.



We are weeks away from the election, months from the actual vote in the Electoral College, and the Inauguration is on the other side of New Years' Day. Nonetheless, Obama's handlers -- from Joe Biden to Madeleine Albright to Colin Powell -- are so anxious to institutionalize a new Leader Cult that they're skipping all of these intermediate steps.


Predicting an unspecified "challenge" to the Holy One during the first six months of his reign, Biden -- speaking to an audience of donors during a stop in Seattle -- seemed to be pleading that Obama's adherents display a religious devotion to his administration, irrespective of the decisions they make and the reaction they get from the untutored public.


"Gird up your loins," admonished Biden. "I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you're going to have to reinforce us."



It's not clear whether the "generated crisis" Biden predicted with utter certainty would take the form of a military confrontation abroad, a new and devastating permutation of our ongoing political collapse, or perhaps the need to deal forcefully with internal opposition to the glorious new order.


What is clear, however, is that even as Bush-era True Believers will trade places with the Outcasts, the Cult of the Presidency will enjoy a growth spurt -- and everyone will be ordered to set aside their reservations about the New Redeemer's decisions in the name of national unity.
I eagerly hope that, when that confected crisis comes, the embittered Republicans tell the Democrats to inseminate themselves. I hope that this, in turn, leads Democrats to escalate their demands for Republican submission.


Among my fondest hopes is that eventually this political conflict becomes an irreconcilable split between the "Red" and "Blue" Americas, and that this rupture would provide opportunities for regional secession by those of us who want nothing more to do with the Empire, its wars, its corruption, and its collapsing economy.


There is a certain diabolical genius behind the division of the United States into "Red" and "Blue" factions. Each of the constituencies cattle-penned into one of those categories covets the power of the central government to compel the other to do its bidding.



After dilating at length on the resentments that define contemporary Conservatism, I'm obliged to point out that Liberalism is just as laden with animus toward those who don't share that creed.


In late 2000, when the Bush/Gore election was going into extra innings, former Clinton Regime spokesliar Paul Begala took the opportunity to execrate "Red State America" as a land of irrational, violent bigots:


"You see the state where James Byrd was lynch-dragged behind a pickup truck until his body came apart -- it's red. You see the state where Matthew Shepard was crucified on a split-rail fence for the crime of being gay -- it's red. You see the state where right-wing extremists blew up a federal office building and murdered scores of federal employees -- it's red. The state where an Army private who was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat, and the state where neo-Nazi skinheads murdered two African-Americans because of their skin color, and the state where Bob Jones University spews its anti-Catholic bigotry; they're all red too."



Columnist William O'Rourke of the Chicago Sun-Times amplified this theme, designating the states who had rejected Al Gore as "Yahoo Nation."


O'Rourke described "Yahoo Nation" as "a large, lopsided horseshoe, a twisted W, made up of primarily the Deep South and the vast, lowly populated upper-far-west states that are filled with vestiges of gun-loving, Ku Klux Klan-sponsoring, formerly lynching-happy, survivalist-minded, hate crime-perpetrating, non-blue-blooded, rugged individualists."



"Yahoo Nation," he continued, boasts not so much as "one center of thinking America, the teeming centers of creative and intellectual life." Gore's Blue State constituency, by way of contrast, included what O'Rourke was pleased to call "America's great cities: New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle."




What neither Begala nor O'Rourke, nor anyone else of their ilk, has ever explained is this: If "Red State" Americans are such irredeemable degenerates, why are they permitted to participate in the political process at all?
One possible answer is that the current system is built around a cynical symbiosis between "Red" and "Blue": They are indispensable foils for each other, each anxious to be the "Who" rather than the "Whom."


By mobilizing resentments through appeals to various hot-button issues that never grow cold through resolution, the Power Elite that created this artificial division herds people into the voting booth to perform a liturgy that has no demonstrable impact on public policy, but ensures the continued "legitimacy" of the Regime.
In this way, all of us -- Red, Blue, or of neither of those synthetic political shades -- are rendered part of the "Whom," the undifferentiated "people" on the receiving end of whatever the ruling "persons" see fit to inflict on us.


But this arrangement may, at long last, be breaking down, just as the delusion-based fiat money financial system has entered its terminal phase. As we descend into what will be a long and bitter depression, it's possible that, not all that far in the future, the "Red" and "Blue" Americas might decide that they really don't want to be part of the same polity.


Try as I might, I can't see why this would be a bad thing. Our current configuration is not a reflection of some divinely ordained design, after all. There's no reason why several "Americas" wouldn't be able to share the same continent, engaging in peaceful commerce and otherwise minding their own business. And it's difficult to see how such an arrangement would be "un-American"; those who truly love America would want the world to be blessed with not one, but many of them.


Given the unfortunate outcome last time a group of American states decided to quit the "Union" club, it's clear that the dangers of political fission are great. But remaining artificially yoked together in a bankrupt, increasingly untenable Union would most likely be fatal to liberty.


Painful as it would be for the USA to disintegrate, this may well be the only way that we can avoid descending irretrievably into undisguised tyranny -- and Obama might just be the figure to precipitate such a breakup.


And given the fact that Washington is entirely broke and likely to run out of credit, there's even a chance -- a tiny one, mind you -- that this breakup could happen without Red and Blue replicating the mass bloodshed that accompanied the attempted divorce between Blue and Gray. Without the financial means to carry out an actual civil war, Red and Blue might simply have to say to each other, "Fare thee well -- and get ye lost."


It probably won't happen that way. But keep a good thought, anyhow.

____
Just in case you're interested, the grammatically dubious title of this essay was inspired by this.

Available now!











Dum spiro, pugno!

48 comments:

Anonymous said...

The republikkkans will go quietly and let obama ya mama win?? I wish it were so. The election is already stolen martial law kicks off on November 5. Stupid human earth monkeys that want to be ruled get what they deserve.

Common Patriot said...

Another great essay. I am a long time reader and just wanted to say thank you. This is one of my favorite reads on the internet.

Keep up the good fight.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, I think you're correct about the future course of the conservative movement. Most conservatives are so blinkered by the tribalist Right/Left mentality that they will seek a strongman to lead them, an ex-cop or ex-soldier who preaches the glories of domination and submission. And the cruder and more thuggish he is, the more fervently they will love him.

Anonymous said...

Well said, as always, Mr. Grigg.

For years, I questioned people why they supported BushCo's expansion of executive powers even while they bleated in terror when Klin-Ton tried to take the same steps in the 90s. It's clear that stupid people just can't learn and now they'll get to pay the price with a different ruthless crowd that opposes them.

B.O. is obviously going to be a polarizing figure on his mildest days and Mr. Beria-Biden is just going to add fuel to the fire as the two of them try their hand at American Marxism. By the spoils system, resources and favors are going to be diverted back to the blue states and the red states will get to pick up the political and economic tab, leading to some very angry people. If we don't have riots and armed civil unrest here and there, similar to 1940's Ukraine under the USSR, I'll be surprised.

The bright spot of this, as you point out, is the possible death of the GOP. They should've been rudely thrown out after the "Contract With America" proved to be binding on only one side (the voter). When people are broke, hungry, facing fuel rations and told "it's for the good of the nation," they'll be less than cheerful about supporting a group of people who made the mess possible in the first place and then lost the ability to oppose Karl Obama. I hope that the various alternatives to the G(L)OP (l for looting) are considering ways to actively court Republican refugees.

Still, since every administration has been succeeded by something worse than its predecessor, I can't help but feel like I'm standing outside in the minutes before a bad storm blows through. With a party monopoly, a super majority in the senate and four Supreme Court nominations, plus unlimited executive power, there's no longer even a hint of balance of power or opposition in Das Capitol. In short, over the cliff we go even faster.

I'd like to bring Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison to the future to have them look for a way out of this mess, but I don't believe I'd hear much except for quiet cursing, stunned expressions of shock and inquiries about someplace to get a drink.

Regards.

Anonymous said...

Trackback. Hope springs eternal, sir.

Anonymous said...

Another good column Will . . .

For some time I've actually looked forward to an economic collapse as a catalyst for changing our corrupt political system, but I'm beginning to have second thoughts.

As was seen in the Soviet collapse, a collapse of the economy isn't going to be enough to wipe every vestige of the corrupt state from our shores. It will only temporarily weaken it, then it will simply mutate and change form taking with it the toxic tendencies it has become permeated with.

The slate needs to be wiped clean of the ideologies and people who have created and nurtured it.

Those of the 'elected' class should share Saddam's fate. All others should have all assets and property seized and restored to those whom they've plundered (if that were possible). This would render the parasite class effectively neutered - turn all gov't employees into the streets with the clothes on their backs and nothing more.

One can always dream . . .

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Anonymous said...

Interesting and cogent as always, Will.

And you may be in one of the few remaining places in the former Republic where some degree of self-selection over the last few years of increasing Tyranny has led to a greater concentration of liberty-oriented individuals than in most of Amerika.

For now, the real differences between the Red and Blue teams seem less significant to those who play ball with Socialism than those Yankees and Mets who simply play ball.

But I pray that you are right in your optimism. One way or another, we are advised by our only true King to "Come out of her, My people...that ye be not partakers of her plagues."

We can see the plagues at hand. The remaining question is how to come out.

Tom Bionic said...

Hey Will

I've read in a few places that the national guard in Idaho has had their armory seized and raided by the FEDS.

I believe you eluded to the fact somewhere that your in Idaho. Do you have any info on that at all?

Anonymous said...

William,

I am old enough to remember that when I was a conservative young man, "conservative thought" was not an oxymoron. I bailed out of that movement during the Clinton years, when the seeds of modern know-nothing conservatism were planted. Sadly, I believe you are spot on about the current state of the mainstream GOP faithful and their likely future path. Can you say Spanish Civil War?

As to the breakup of the US, I see Hawaii as the first to go. Even the Feds admit that the "revolution" in Hawaii was a put-up job and that the Hawaiian Republic was legitimate. Hawaii has the most ironclad claim to independent status of any of the states. There are no land-based supply lines, making it hard for the Feds to defend. And so many military families and retirees live there that I find it hard to believe that active duty soldiers will obey orders to bomb Honolulu. Once Hawaii is out, the precedent is set.

Anonymous said...

Grigg scores again.

What a great article.
Timely, relevant and with excellent
analysis and insight.

Ditto to everything you said, Will.
Thanks.

R.S. Ladwig said...

Excellent job exposing the false Left v Right paradigm. It really goes back to what Quigley said, I liken it to a WWF style wrestling match, both wrestlers follow the same script and put up a show of a conflict.

The Left Right paradigm encourages cognitive dissonance, so for example, whenever people raise issues about torture, they must be liberals and the reply is either a) Torture is not happening or b) The virtues of torture must be defended.

I also share your hope for a peaceful Anti-Federalist secession.

Candace4Peace said...

Anything that brings people back together and guides us in a belief of humanity and love, I am in favor of. No dogma, no religion, no political party, no amount of jails, cluster bombs, biological warfare or armaments will save us. I will no longer support hate, war, indifference, or torture financially or rhetorically. I will no longer support a system that berates its own people and steals from their children. I intend to help all that I can, love life and humanity, grow my own vegetables, and bathe in my polluted pond. See you all on the other side of this mess.

Anonymous said...

A wonderful piece. Bush finished installing the totalitarian software, now it looks like Obama, being a fresh face, will have the traction to run some of the programs. Condemning his Holiness will be a hatecrime. I sometimes get hopeful at the thought of secession too, but then I realize that most people are trash in heart and mind. Perhaps it's always been this way, but there are more of us now. There is no escape. I just know that if I ever get a knock on my door, I'm taking as many of them with me as I can.

Anonymous said...

There is a pretty fun computer game called Shattered Union that came out maybe two years ago. The game is premised on the US breaking up into seven regional factions, with the breakup stemming from a contentious election of 2008. Full-blown seccession by 2014. The object of the game is to take over the other factions and reunite the country. When I play, I just defend my territory from attack, since I wouldn't want to see the country unified again. I do occasionally attack the European Union (they take over the mid-Atlantic DC area in the game) forces since I can't see how they have any legitimacy in the fight.

By this I mean to say, I also hope for peaceful seccession. You should see the looks I get from the people who come to my door to drum up support for their candidates when I lay that one on them.

Anonymous said...

Nietschze was my favorite misanthrope. If I was going to hate it would be everything that respirates and has a pulse, not just certain ethnic scapegoats or anything with a different skintone. I wonder if Jonny Pure Aryan was dying in the street and a black man stopped to help would he accept the help?

Anonymous said...

Police prepare for unrest
By Alexander Bolton
Posted: 10/21/08 07:58 PM [ET]

Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible civil unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest.

Public safety officials said in interviews with The Hill that the election, which will end with either the nation’s first black president or its first female vice president, demanded a stronger police presence.


Some worry that if Barack Obama loses and there is suspicion of foul play in the election, violence could ensue in cities with large black populations. Others based the need for enhanced patrols on past riots in urban areas (following professional sports events) and also on Internet rumors.


Democratic strategists and advocates for black voters say they understand officers wanting to keep the peace, but caution that excessive police presence could intimidate voters.

Sen. Obama (Ill.), the Democratic nominee for president, has seen his lead over rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) grow in recent weeks, prompting speculation that there could be a violent backlash if he loses unexpectedly.

Cities that have suffered unrest before, such as Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and Philadelphia, will have extra police deployed.

In Oakland, the police will deploy extra units trained in riot control, as well as extra traffic police, and even put SWAT teams on standby.

“Are we anticipating it will be a riot situation? No. But will we be prepared if it goes awry? Yes,” said Jeff Thomason, spokesman for the Oakland Police Department.

“I think it is a big deal — you got an African-American running and [a] woman running,” he added, in reference to Obama and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. “Whoever wins it, it will be a national event. We will have more officers on the street in anticipation that things may go south.”

The Oakland police last faced big riots in 2003 when the Raiders lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. Officials are bracing themselves in case residents of Oakland take Obama’s loss badly.

Political observers such as Hilary Shelton and James Carville fear that record voter turnout could overload polling places on Election Day and could raise tension levels.

Shelton, the director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, said inadequate voting facilities is a bigger problem in poor communities with large numbers of minorities.

“What are local election officials doing to prepare for what people think will be record turnout at the polls?” said Shelton, who added that during the 2004 election in Ohio voters in predominantly black communities had to wait in line six to eight hours to vote.

“On Election Day, if this continues, you may have some tempers flare; we should be prepared to deal with that but do it without intimidation,” said Shelton, who added that police have to be able to maintain order at polling stations without scaring voters, especially immigrants from “police states.”

Anonymous said...

Pandemic, America's Final Solution?
Albright, Biden and Powell have all chimed in
about a generated crisis to test manchurian puppet Obama when he gets selected to read
scripts for the elites. This threataganda seems
to be timed to coincide with the collapse of the US financial system when Obama takes office. It seems that a man made pandemic(read U.S. Military strain of a weaponized virus) will be unleashed. This would be the best way to manage the masses during a severe downturn - We can't have people gettting together during a depression now can we. When your neighbors get sick, you are going to tell them to get the fuck away from you, perfect way to keep people isolated and afraid, and most importantly, ready for whatever solution these sick fucks have schemed to cull and manage the herds.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this article. Well thought out, but then, I have seen you produce nothing less. Sigh!--so what to do? Secession seems nice but my forefathers tried it and it ended in dismal failure. Could the current financial crisis supply the Achilles Heel that Davis, Lee, Jackson, Stuart, and Forrest hunted for? May God be so gracious to us.

Anonymous said...

Secede!

dixiedog said...

I like your title here, Will. I know you mentioned it was inspired by the 1960s techno-comedy "Get Smart," but nevertheless I can imagine "Fare Thee Well, and Get Ye Lost" is analogous to a 17th century polite way of sayin' the contemporary and more mundane, "Live well [or die], and bugger off!" Needless to say, I'd probably tend to simply say the latter...hehe.

I'm such a "hater." Besides, in this era, if one happens to oppose ALL forms of socialism, corporatism, affirmative action, eco-nazism, femi-facism, egalitarianism, many other kinds of -isms, and are frank in your utterances, he/she will be rubber-stamped a hater.

Oh my reputation...yawn...

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! You a hater!", they cry.

There's WAY too many commoner crybabies, teet suckers, and all around "we need a LAW!" whiners in this hyper- hissy, pissy, prissy country.

I really like your writing style, Will, because you put to pen such crystal clear concepts, yet apparently also exquisitely and deliberately deceptive in your descriptive prose and, thereby, help to shape how those concepts will inevitably be tossed about, smacked around, and processed within some folks’ craniums. It’s really amusing and fosters a chuckle every now and again when I read the comments ;).

It's simply interesting to observe how your penchant for navigating the ideological and philosophical maze carefully, and most skillfully, to the extent that your writing manages to attract folk of supposedly vastly different and clashing philosophies and ideologies. Yet, once again, your points are most poignant and crystal clear describing how you oppose the statist view in ALL (let me repeat that - ALLLLLL) its manifestations. That's what apparently is missed by some of your devotees. I guess it's because you spend an inordinant amount of, shall we call it, "attack" time on, or detailed dissection of, one form of statism and its respective practitioners, while subtly and frequently omitting others. Thus, predictably, in the ensuing tossing and smacking within their craniums some folk invariably translate your pieces incorrectly (myself included). Yes, folk unfortunately tend to construe omissions in writing/speaking as implicit support and the reverse as well. Very clever there, Will.

I suppose you, by the nature of the beast (writer), necessarily have to navigate the maze very carefully and skillfully to retain readership, perhaps? Most of us, not so beholden, are probably a bit more transparent and frank, so it's understandable.

Reminds me of that particular Geico gecko commercial in which the gecko quickly retorts with "more experienced" in place of his previous "older" drivers quip. He manages to make it more "palatable" to the seniors. Same basic conundrum.

On secession, I'm in total agreement with your take as this thought, as you know, is old news with me.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Republicans desperately wanting to retain their power: Today I received, via e-mail, a phony Ron Paul endorsement of my bloodthirsty neocon "representative" John Culberson (R-TX), complete with Dr. Paul's very own signature! Hah!

Culberson has always been a Bushbot cheerleader for the Terror War and the mugging of Iraq. On his web site, he makes it painfully clear that he will do Israel's bidding in all things Middle Eastern. On the "Limited Government" page of his "Issues" section, he says nothing about the PATRIOT Act, torture, the militarization of local police forces, etc. Lots of bluster about fiscal conservatism, though. In other words, the empty promise of fascism on the cheap. (Save it for people who haven't figured out how the fiat money scam works, John!)

I might have believed the purported Ron Paul endorsement of Culberson, had the e-mail contained any traces of moral or constitutional reasoning. This invariably is the language in which Paul expresses himself. But the message was boilerplate Republican agitprop: fear of Democrats and the money they're pouring into the challenger's coffers.

Yes, these goons are running scared. But they're not half as frightened as the thousands of innocents who are being roughed up, looted, and killed by their tyranny.

Anonymous said...

The Republicans sowed their seeds before Bush the Inept took office with six years of profligate spending on the old national credit card to levels the Democrats couldn't believe.

Bush just came along and confirmed what lying sacks of cowardly crap the vast, vast majority of them were. The sooner they are in the guillotine line the better. Plenty of room for the Democrats as well.

Bob said...

It's too bad that Aaron Burr finished off Alexander Hamilton about 20 years too late.

Anonymous said...

It's funny you bring up secession or breakup. I've been thinking along the same lines lately and wrote this post to reflect my thoughts.

http://daveeriqat.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/the-eight-countries-of-the-former-united-states/

Dave
http://daveeriqat.wordpress.com/

Chris Ferrell said...

Justinian diverted the attention of the masses with the green and blue rivalry (although the adherents almost destroyed Constantinople) and not the Washington nobility misdirects our attention with the red and blue rivalry.

I agree that the only way out of this pointless cycle that will point to a resurgence of liberty is through the dissolution of the US of A. Regional secessionist movements are gathering followers. It may happen and it is the only hope for us to live as free men and women again.

Keep up the good work Will

Kevin Craig said...

I always expect to learn a new word or hear a new song from every new post. (It's safe to say I never listen to any music written after Bach.) Usually the new words are linked to some dictionary or other, and the YouTube video of some new band I've never heard of allows me to find out more if I'm so inclined.

So how come no link to "50 Cent?" I've never heard of the guy before, but figured that it must be yet another new artist that Will has heard of that I haven't. I had to go hunting for myself, without your expert guidance. That could be dangerous in this genre!

Anonymous said...

Dear Will,

Karl Marx was right, but not in the way he imagined. There are two classes at war with each other in America, but they are not classes defined by money or wealth – everyone in America is rich beyond the wildest dreams of someone from Togo or Haiti. The two classes are defined purely in the minds of Americans.

First, you have the peasants. They may have PhD’s and jobs paying a quarter-million a year or live in million-dollar homes, but their mentality is thoroughly and completely that of the village peasant. They are suspicious, aggressive, nasty, crafty, conniving, inbred, jingoistic, credulous of miracles and flim-flam, easily led, belligerent, prejudiced against outsiders, consumed by hatred and rage, easily stirred to violence, and perpetually convinced they are being cruelly persecuted by the aristocrats. They misspell every other word in English, insert apostrophes before any “s” which terminates a word, and their vocabulary is limited to about 100 words, three of which are “Nascar,” “Jesus,” and “Glock 9-millimeter.” They believe in the utter and ruthless destruction of their enemies, whom they fancy they see under every hedgerow. Jesus is their champion and will trample and crush their myriad enemies - anyone different in any way from themselves - under his hobnailed boots. They are called Republicans.

Second, you have the aristocrats. They may live in an apartment and teach school for a living, but their mentality still is that of the aristocrat. They live in a perfumed world of classical music, elegant turns of fine speech and rational discussion, where all is sweetness and light, nothing bad ever happens, there are no enemies, only persons with other rational opinions to be listened to respectfully, and the world is a kind and gentle garden of lovely flowers and green lawns. They can recite Webster’s dictionary from memory, and can even name a play by Shakespeare. Enemies should be treated with kindness and sympathy for their limitations, and invited to express their opinions rationally in ordered forums of discussion. Jesus is their champion, who soothes their left cheek as he urges them to turn their right cheek to the aggressor, who thereby will be convinced of the error of his ways and also become an aristocrat. They are called Democrats.

And as these two dogs fight it out, or, rather, as the peasants savage the aristocrats with pitchforks and clubs, the owners of the dogs stand outside the ring watching the fight and making bets on the outcome. Will sweetness and rationality prevail? Will ugliness and hatred win? It matters little – whichever one wins the fight, the dog owners who have fed and trained their animals for the fight will win either way.

Lincoln did us all a disservice. He should have let the peasant states – descendants of Irish and Scots peasants who believed in slavery and the violent imposition of will by the strong upon the weak, now known as the Red States, go their own way, free of the constant irritation of having to listen to some Eastern Elite intellectual pontificate about freedom and the Constitution. And also the Blue States could have lived in a harmonious paradise of intellectual learning and Enlightenment culture, unencumbered by the mentally unwashed gross masses of peasant Republicans. Instead, we have a mishmash where even in the Blue States you find people of the peasant classes, and even in the Red States you have unhappy misfits such as yourself.

As you observe, all the prime institutions of rational thought and scientific learning – Columbia, Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Penn State, CalTech, Berkeley, etc, etc, all are located in Blue States. The Red States have such glorious institutions as Buffalo Breath Technical College, of which they are inordinately proud – naturally.

Thus, one must choose one’s class and one’s political party in America, and decide if one is to be a pit bull like Sarah Palin or a saluki like Barack Obama. One is then required to engage in a dogfight with the other class for the greater profits of the dog owners watching from outside the ring. It is a marvel to Europeans, how vicious is the dogfight of politics in America. Barely is one blood-soaked campaign over than we start viciously quarreling over the next, biting, gouging out eyes and ripping out tongues. The world wishes America would keep itself to itself and not eternally attempt to export its model of civic aggression and peasant contentiousness to everyone else at the point of a gun. They also wish the dog owners would all go away to live in their beloved homeland in the Middle East, which Mitterand called “that shitty little country,” and leave the Christian nations to practice Christianity, instead of the worship of their goddamned Golden Calf.

Now we can understand where the Republicans are coming from when they rabble-rouse their peasant audiences against “Eastern Elites.” The peasant mind burns with undying hatred for its perceived oppressor - the perfumed aristocrat. And the aristocratic mind lives in eternal hope that the Gadarene swine will grow in tender appreciation of the pearls cast before them.

Yours sincerely,
Lemuel Gulliver.

Mark Moore (Moderator) said...

Alexander Hamilton did right in the end.

Gentlemen, I cannot see how succession will help us at all, especially if divided into bull-headed Republican and bull-headed liberal states. Only ONE THING can protect us from big government- a virtuous population. Virtuous people have no need of government masters.

Big government is a judgment of God. Splitting up into two unrighteous camps will just ensure that each lives under oppression. The case is made more plain in this audio/video file.

I wish we would talk about the necessity of restoring virtue as much as we talk about secession, revolt, etc...

Anonymous said...

'[I]t's possible that, not all that far in the future, the "Red" and "Blue" Americas might decide that they really don't want to be part of the same polity.'

Hear, hear. More and more I realize that "New World Order" is not the hackneyed phrase of paranoiacs creepily echoing Bush Senior, but a real and growing cancer metastisizing from its center, Washington DC.

Anonymous said...

I need to retract (with regret and disgust) my earlier claim that some supporters of Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) faked an endorsement from Ron Paul. The endorsement is genuine. I called Ron Paul's office today, and they confirmed it.

After all these years I shouldn't so naively expect any GOP politician to stand fast on principles, especially when he is tempted to make pragmatic alliances with the enemies of liberty.

I still see Ron Paul as a champion of the Constitition, and as good a pol as we're ever likely to see in Washington. But this was a bad choice on his part.

Anonymous said...

Blog admins you are doing something right but be careful some blog hijacking is going on. I use Opera browser with auto redirect turned off. It says 302 document found here and asks if I want to redirect at some blog pages this is turned off and the article is there with the comments which I have never seen before. In name url bar a () symbol follows. There is some .ru scans in the firewall as well weird. It's the pinko commies!! muahaha

Anonymous said...

G-Bo gator is no hater I'll hollar at ya later!

dixiedog said...

mark moore: I wish we would talk about the necessity of restoring virtue as much as we talk about secession, revolt, etc...

mark, we have...or just speaking for myself I have. I and I'm sure many others agree with you, but it nevertheless really gets tiring playing a broken record.

Excerpt 1 [Virtue and Diligence]:
Our entire governmental construct in America is critically dependent on the people's virtue and diligence. If the aggregate people lose their virtue, this governmental construct by this Constitution of ours is unworkable and collapses.

Excerpt 2 [Virtue]:
Government doesn't operate in a vacuum, taylor. We, the people, have contributed hugely to the shaping of this government. Government doesn't just magically morph into a police state over a population that has any significant real virtue. Elections would be shaped by the commoners collectively holding their representatives accountable when they stray. Read the story of David Crockett and the farmer in Tennessee. Of course, the representatives themselves have to have some residue virtue in their own souls as well. David Crockett certainly had that.

Excerpt 3 [Politicians largely reflect their constituents] (from another blog):
...How does a known crud like Ted Kennedy keep getting reelected over and over again indefinitely? It sure isn't by acting in contradiction to what the commoners he represents believe, desire, and agree with. IOW, he reflects the commoners. Why should he change his stripes when it gets him repeated reelected?

Again, the politicans reflect the commoners they represent. The commoners make the politico, not the reverse.


It's clear that the electorate in a democracy/republic shapes its own government and the same naturally and logically will largely reflect the electorate in its overall character makeup and integrity. I think any genuine supporter of the U.S. constitution believes this is true as well, but a lot of folk, not wishing to alienate the commoner masses, never would likely say so openly and clearly for obvious (but still wrong) reasons.

Speaking of breakup and secession. Again, speaking for myself, I've only advocated breakup based on philosophical grounds and belief systems, not whimsical political affiliations and certainly not meaningless satirical labels such as "red," "blue," or "magenta."

However, that said, I don't really see a breakup being successful simply because we've allowed the government by this late stage to become way too powerful to effect it. And, like Will mentioned, it was tried before and, of course, we all know the end result of that concerted effort at breakup. It crashed and burned literally and violently.

liberranter said...

Mark Moore, I think you've hit the nail squarely on the head. Succession, under current socioeconomic and political conditions, will do nothing to restore liberty. I live in one of the reddest of Red states and cannot see how succession would result in anything other than replacing the current Washington-based tyranny with an identical one imposed by Phoenix. In other words, tyranny imposed at the LOCAL level is no better than that imposed from afar. While one might argue that local tyranny is easier to overthrow, that idea is belied by the simple principle of majority rule, the cancerous tumor upon which all "democracies" are based. If the local majority demands rule by a fascist dictator, that is what the minority will be forced to live with.

As for the restoration of a "virtuous population" that embraces the concept of liberty (perhaps manifested in some form of anarcho-capitalism), the cancer that is destroying any vestiges of such a framework has metastasized to the point of being incurable all over these United States. As you pointed out, Mark, a fragmented confederation (or multiple fragmented confederations) of autonomous states that are residue of the former USA will only result in smaller versions of the dystopia that already prevails in a "unified" nation.

liberranter said...

Related to my previous comments, Bill Barnwell reinforces this point exactly in an article posted on today's Lewrockwell.com:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell88.html

liberranter said...

Correction: That should read "secession", not "succession."

Anonymous said...

Excellent piece Will.

Joseph Farah of WorldNetdaily agrees:
http://wnd.com/index.php?pageId=78574

When the coercion of Big-government mandated Neo-Babelism is removed people will naturally segregate into groups they want to be around.

This union began in conspiracy (www.ismellarat.com) and will end in infamy unless those that name the name of Christ Jesus withdraw from the beast so as not to partake of its punishment.

This union is long overdue for disintegration and Christians should be at the forefront of calling for Godly withdrawal.

Mark Moore (Moderator) said...

I feel reassured gentlemen.

Anonymous said...

@robin
I also received a Ron Paul endorsement of my Congressman, Roscoe Bartlett. Disappointing to say the least, as he has practically been in lockstep with BushCo...
Happily, I voted for Chuck Baldwin, and wrote in a Libertarian challenger to Bartlett.

Anonymous said...

Some of the worst tyranny occurs at the local level. Regional or state secession, therefore, may not be a panacea for our political ills. That isn't to say that top down oligarchical rule from Washington is desirable either - it isn't and may, in fact, be one of the worst options conceivable. Until Americans stop looking upon government as thug used to provide them unearned wealth and violently intervene in the peaceful affairs of others including their businesses, transactions and voluntary associations we are probably doomed in the long run regardless of the size of the ruling jurisdictions. Economic education would certainly be helpful but thanks to the tax enabled mass mind numbing and pacifying effects of the public schools we may be well past the point of hoping to enlighten enough people before it is too late. I hope that I am wrong.

Anonymous said...

"Until Americans stop looking upon government as [a] thug used to provide them unearned wealth and violently intervene in the peaceful affairs of others..."

Sir, there's not many other ways to perceive the State. The State is, by nature, violent: it is fueled with the violence of taxation. It is a thug that takes unearned wealth pre-emptively, and that ultimately at the point of a bayonet.

As one of my friends recently pointed out, if you think you have a right to kill someone over something, then feel free to involve the State in the situation. Because that is the only tool the State has: Coercion. Violence. Force. I will have nothing to do with the violence that is the State. All of my interactions are voluntary. How about yours? Do you want to kill another person if he doesn't want to submit to your will, whether it be fighting for your war in conscription, or subsidizing your policies by taxation? Aye. Voting is violent.

-Sans Authoritas

Anonymous said...

To Lemuel Gulliver:
That was an excellent summary !! My father has insights and eloquence such that you have been blessed with. I will sit there and listen to him pontificate on current topics for hours and (usually) never tire of listening.

Anonymous said...

Any American with any sense has either expatriated or is working on it.

Bob said...

No matter who wins in November, we're still going to be stuck with a Hamiltonian statist in the White House.

Anonymous said...

Presented with the question of secession, most civic-minded "good government" folks would cry, "But what will happen to our federal funding? What will happen to my Social Security and Medicare benefits?"

Ironically, the real problem is exactly the opposite. The government's own Financial Report of the United States indicates a negative net worth of over $50 trillion, including entitlements programs.

http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/index.html

If the red and blue states (or more likely, regional entities along the lines of Joel Garreau's "Nine Nations of North America") could only dump the D.C. millstone and emerge as debt-free independent nations, today's malaise would be transformed to runaway boom overnight.

A key condition for maintaining such prosperity would be to return to a sound currency which acts an inherent check on the "unlimited liquidity" which our overlords currently deploy to such corrosive effect. Democracy and paper money mix like teenagers and whisky.

But how can we dispose of the ghastly, debt-enslaved D.C. harlot? What's needed is to abandon D.C. as the "bad bank," saddling it with the hopeless debt load of the US fedgov, while leaving behind only a Serbian-style rump state like a boil on the nose of the American continent. How about relocating the U.N. there, throwing the doors wide, and declaring this failed experiment to be an open city of piracy, hooliganism, drug and gun-running? Oh, wait -- IT ALREADY IS!!! ;-)

Anonymous said...

There is a fairly decent amount of public support already for secession in places like Vermont, Alaska, California (at least the part of the state wanting to leave California), the South, and of course, Texas. With major turmoil and tension, these thoughts are only going to grow in popularity.

However, I feel that if a secession attempt is made, that an armed attempt to stop it will be made, just like it was with the awful tyrants Lincoln and King George. This could lead to all sorts of interesting scenarios, but would probably come down to whether or not higher military leaders would obey orders to fire on American citizens, and the response that armed American citizens gave to those troops.

Of course, it goes without saying that this was another outstanding article from Grigg.

- Dead Austrian Fan

Anonymous said...

Yet another thought-provoking piece, Mr. Grigg.

Your sweep of the facts is logical and your conclusions coherent; unfortunately, homo politicus, like homo economicus, is anything but rational.

Perhaps we are seeing the death throes of the current politico-economic order, but if so the end will be bitter and messy.

On the positive side, at least our men in blue will uphold law and order...

Anonymous said...

Related comments on phony left/right.
http://www.911blogger.com/user/2926/track