The effectiveness of the Republican Party's Blitzkrieg assault on the fundamental institutional infrastructure of our democracy does not reflect some particular genius or wily strategic planning on the part of the billionaire-funded madmen carrying it out.
This was not a shock attack on an impregnable fortress, the sudden shock dissolution of a union with strong institutions, a shared civic culture, and a clear vision of governance.
The success of these democracy-haters and kleptocrats reflects the fact that for more than forty years, our democratic institutions have been on the decline, growing weary and decadent, during which time the people have been cynically divided-and-conquered with the most massive propaganda operation in history (at least, outside those practiced over the centuries by the various major Abrahamic faiths).
The Republicans became representatives for a single corrupt constituency--a handful of petulant heirs, princelings, billionaires and pirates who resented the civic constraints of a civilized society, like taxation, oversight, regulation, and equal application of the rule of law, and carefully selected legislators and judges who were willing to abandon the republic and the constitution in order to make sure that rich men wouldn't have to pay taxes, polluters wouldn't be constrained by regulations, and corrupt, crooked businessmen would be liberated from oversight and liability law.
At the same time the Democrats lost their way altogether: divided and at war with each other since the 1970s (split into hostile factions by the humiliation of the 1972 loss and the internal party war between the Carter wing and the Kennedy wing that erupted so destructively in the late 1970s), they have never recovered the sort of unifying identity that existed in the era of FDR and that even, for many years, smoothed over the considerable gaps between the interests of Southern and Northern Democrats.
They descended into deal-making, Clintonian "triangulation" and mealy-mouthed, fearful, Bizarro Solomonic baby-splitting.
With the death of the "smoke filled room," the era of the noisy ideological or profit-driven lobby rose up: Democrats were increasingly, responsive to the loudest voices in the room, all the while guided by polls and operatives rather than by their constitutional oaths or fundamental principles and policies.
They even lost their ability to speak spontaneously, living instead under the weight of focus-grouped mantras, an unhealthy dependence on the noisiest lobbies in the room, and the chidings of the professional strategists and pollsters (who make a good deal of money win or lose, no matter how arrogant, wrong, or detached from the real world they may be).
We were in full decadence long before 2016. Democracies that are still robust don't elect men like Donald Trump, elevate men like John Roberts and Mitch McConnell, or tolerate men like Elon Musk.
This problem was decades in the making. If our republic is to be revived in anything like recognizable form--and there's no guarantee that it ever will--- it will take at least that long. Consider that in the year 2025, we have still not recovered from the aftershocks of a civil war that, theoretically, ended in 1865.
'Martin has also threatened Sen. Chuck Schumer for publicly stating to two U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 'you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.' Schumer made that statement five years ago."
Well, tit for tat. Here's what Brett Kavanaugh said seven years ago during his sneering, red-faced rant at his confirmation hearing:
" 'Since my nomination in July, there’s been a frenzy on the left to come up with something, anything to block my confirmation,' he said. He referred to Democrats calling him 'evil.' Then he turned directly to Democratic senators on the committee. 'You sowed the wind,' he said, and 'the country will reap the whirlwind.' "
The difference is that Schumer apologized for his unvarnished comment whereas Kavanaugh followed through on his threat by voting with the majority of the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade, among other judicial assaults on our norms.
Thanks for this comprehensive summary Radley. Will be good to have this list to refer to.
But a piece of feedback regarding this bullet:
"Outside of Guantanamo, the administration is also preparing to house immigrants at military bases around the country. You might call them “camps” where immigrants will be “concentrated.”"
To make an obvious point, the horror of the Concentration Camps (and everyone knows what is meant when those words are said) was not the fact that folks were concentrated in camps; it was the fact they were extermination camps where everyone was murdered.
There are reasonable arguments to be made that we shouldn't be sending immigrants, even ones that aren't here legally, to military camps. But implying that these camps are somehow akin to Auschwitz of Dachau or Bergen-Belsen isn't helpful. It just provides folks who disagree are on the fence with a good reason for simply dismissing everything you are saying,
"To make an obvious point, the horror of the Concentration Camps (and everyone knows what is meant when those words are said) was not the fact that folks were concentrated in camps; it was the fact they were extermination camps where everyone was murdered."
Not quite. The Nazi regime maintained both concentration camps and extermination camps. Both were hellish, but not equally so. The difference is that the purpose of the extermination camps was to kill everyone who arrived there, while concentration camps were intended to remove undesirable people from society. People were sent to concentration camps without due process. The camps existed entirely outside the rule of law and as a consequence no inmate could appeal to the court system.
For more information about Nazi camps, see the following entry in the United States Holocaust Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia:
Concentration Camp System: In Depth
The camp system was extensive. It included concentration camps, labor camps, prisoner-of-war camps, transit camps, and killing centers.
The effectiveness of the Republican Party's Blitzkrieg assault on the fundamental institutional infrastructure of our democracy does not reflect some particular genius or wily strategic planning on the part of the billionaire-funded madmen carrying it out.
This was not a shock attack on an impregnable fortress, the sudden shock dissolution of a union with strong institutions, a shared civic culture, and a clear vision of governance.
The success of these democracy-haters and kleptocrats reflects the fact that for more than forty years, our democratic institutions have been on the decline, growing weary and decadent, during which time the people have been cynically divided-and-conquered with the most massive propaganda operation in history (at least, outside those practiced over the centuries by the various major Abrahamic faiths).
The Republicans became representatives for a single corrupt constituency--a handful of petulant heirs, princelings, billionaires and pirates who resented the civic constraints of a civilized society, like taxation, oversight, regulation, and equal application of the rule of law, and carefully selected legislators and judges who were willing to abandon the republic and the constitution in order to make sure that rich men wouldn't have to pay taxes, polluters wouldn't be constrained by regulations, and corrupt, crooked businessmen would be liberated from oversight and liability law.
At the same time the Democrats lost their way altogether: divided and at war with each other since the 1970s (split into hostile factions by the humiliation of the 1972 loss and the internal party war between the Carter wing and the Kennedy wing that erupted so destructively in the late 1970s), they have never recovered the sort of unifying identity that existed in the era of FDR and that even, for many years, smoothed over the considerable gaps between the interests of Southern and Northern Democrats.
They descended into deal-making, Clintonian "triangulation" and mealy-mouthed, fearful, Bizarro Solomonic baby-splitting.
With the death of the "smoke filled room," the era of the noisy ideological or profit-driven lobby rose up: Democrats were increasingly, responsive to the loudest voices in the room, all the while guided by polls and operatives rather than by their constitutional oaths or fundamental principles and policies.
They even lost their ability to speak spontaneously, living instead under the weight of focus-grouped mantras, an unhealthy dependence on the noisiest lobbies in the room, and the chidings of the professional strategists and pollsters (who make a good deal of money win or lose, no matter how arrogant, wrong, or detached from the real world they may be).
We were in full decadence long before 2016. Democracies that are still robust don't elect men like Donald Trump, elevate men like John Roberts and Mitch McConnell, or tolerate men like Elon Musk.
This problem was decades in the making. If our republic is to be revived in anything like recognizable form--and there's no guarantee that it ever will--- it will take at least that long. Consider that in the year 2025, we have still not recovered from the aftershocks of a civil war that, theoretically, ended in 1865.
'Martin has also threatened Sen. Chuck Schumer for publicly stating to two U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 'you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.' Schumer made that statement five years ago."
Well, tit for tat. Here's what Brett Kavanaugh said seven years ago during his sneering, red-faced rant at his confirmation hearing:
" 'Since my nomination in July, there’s been a frenzy on the left to come up with something, anything to block my confirmation,' he said. He referred to Democrats calling him 'evil.' Then he turned directly to Democratic senators on the committee. 'You sowed the wind,' he said, and 'the country will reap the whirlwind.' "
The difference is that Schumer apologized for his unvarnished comment whereas Kavanaugh followed through on his threat by voting with the majority of the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade, among other judicial assaults on our norms.
Thanks for this comprehensive summary Radley. Will be good to have this list to refer to.
But a piece of feedback regarding this bullet:
"Outside of Guantanamo, the administration is also preparing to house immigrants at military bases around the country. You might call them “camps” where immigrants will be “concentrated.”"
To make an obvious point, the horror of the Concentration Camps (and everyone knows what is meant when those words are said) was not the fact that folks were concentrated in camps; it was the fact they were extermination camps where everyone was murdered.
There are reasonable arguments to be made that we shouldn't be sending immigrants, even ones that aren't here legally, to military camps. But implying that these camps are somehow akin to Auschwitz of Dachau or Bergen-Belsen isn't helpful. It just provides folks who disagree are on the fence with a good reason for simply dismissing everything you are saying,
"To make an obvious point, the horror of the Concentration Camps (and everyone knows what is meant when those words are said) was not the fact that folks were concentrated in camps; it was the fact they were extermination camps where everyone was murdered."
Not quite. The Nazi regime maintained both concentration camps and extermination camps. Both were hellish, but not equally so. The difference is that the purpose of the extermination camps was to kill everyone who arrived there, while concentration camps were intended to remove undesirable people from society. People were sent to concentration camps without due process. The camps existed entirely outside the rule of law and as a consequence no inmate could appeal to the court system.
For more information about Nazi camps, see the following entry in the United States Holocaust Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia:
Concentration Camp System: In Depth
The camp system was extensive. It included concentration camps, labor camps, prisoner-of-war camps, transit camps, and killing centers.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/concentration-camp-system-in-depth
Thanks for the compendium.