You know, the last eight years or so have educated me – at least socially and politically – as much as the eight years that I spent in high school, college and the first year in the military ever did. Who says you stop intellectually developing after your mid-forties? I suppose the most-eye-opening development is that I have now seen for real and in real-time that which I had only read about in history books; mainly the development, perpetuation, care and feeding of “The Big Lie.” As defined by the erratic but invaluable Wikipedia, that is “a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”
But the ‘big lie’ has worked, over and over again – and most especially and effectively when it is chorused from every corner and by every authority. The latest example and the one which I find most personally outrageous is this one; (found through Legal Insurrection at the National Review); one Alan Grayson, a Democrat member of the House of Representatives has sent out an email to his supporters casually equating the Tea Party with the KKK. As a southern Democrat, Rep. Grayson is, of course, an expert on the KKK, seeing that they served as the shock troops of Southern Democrats. Other leading Democrat Party figures have passed remarks just as disparaging of the Tea Party; I suspect that they are actually mistaking the straw-man Tea Party construction of their own mind, rather than the earnest, hardworking and mostly middle-class fans of fiscally-responsible, strict Constitutionalist and free-market policies which made up most of the Tea Party members I am acquainted with. How such a body of people can be made out to be the sinister Goldsteins and calumniated with such vicious enthusiasm, solo and chorus is almost beyond belief – but they are, and it is only getting worse.
A good portion of the citizens of the United States are being ‘othered’ by those who disagree with them politically and philosophically – and by people you would have thought would know better. The establishment media and pop-culture organs are aiding and abetting this, not realizing that it is only a short step from ‘othering’ to declaring open season – literally. The next step is already being contemplated, although it is hard to tell how seriously the petition to arrest and try the leaders of the Republican Party for sedition, merely for having had the temerity to oppose the current administration. There is something bad in the water, when being in political opposition is considered ground for criminal charges. The comments appended to this story, and this one are dispiriting to read, for too many commenters voice enthusiastic agreement and approval. To be fair, a good few commenters warned against this criminalization of political dissent – since the sauce for the Tea Party goose might just as easily be served up with the progressive gander. Taken all together, this does not augur well and it certainly heats up the cold civil war a couple of more degrees.
When you are taking flak, you know you are over the target.
It is noteworthy that both the Democrats and the Institutional Republicans are attacking the TEA Party and Conservatives. Just as the TEA Party may be supporting primary opponents to Institutionals; the Institutionals and their big money donors are apparently putting together primary challenges to TEA Party elected officials.
The Emmanuel Goldstein meme brings up another, related, Orwellian concept. If the Democrats are the Inner Party, would that not make the Institutional Republicans the equivalent of the IngSoc Outer Party? Same goals, different levels of status.
Clarity and insight are good things.
Subotai Bahadur
“Liberals” (and by “liberals” I mean of course “tax-happy, coercion-addicted, State-fellators”) are the New Tories. Like the Old Tories, their basic message to those who value liberty and wish to restrict the power of the elite is: “Shut up, bend over, and submit.”
I truly those idiots would try to arrest the TEA party folks. They might just find out the real reason for the 2nd Amendment, and the fact that a lot, if not most beat cops will probably not comply with their orders.
Cold civil war indeed, I cannot imagine any other reason for this othering than to try to psychologically prepare the battlefield so that more of the mushy middle will side against the tea party and for the institutionals in a hot civil war. I think that implies that they don’t see a way to avoid war. I still think that this is too pessimistic a view but a few more years of this sort of nonsense may persuade me otherwise.
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I hope you are right Joe. I am not as certain as you are. Most cops pay into a pension system. When push comes to shove most cops will obey whoever controls those pensions. That is definitely not the Tea Party.
TMLutas,
Regards the “Cold civil War,” see this:
Shock claim: Obama only wants military leaders who ‘will fire on U.S. citizens’
http://www.examiner.com/article/shock-claim-obama-only-wants-military-leaders-who-will-fire-on-u-s-citizens
If I did not know better, this NGO Activist comment has the looks of a disinformation campaign aimed at disaffecting field/junior grade military officers and senior NCO’s from the flag ranks in the event of domestic unrest.
The head of Central Command, Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, is seen as one of the straight shooting generals by the lower ranks. Taking him out early, for whatever reason, is going to make waves.
This is why such a comment is so damaging.
It doesn’t really matter if it is truthful, what matters is how credible it is with field/junior grade military officers and senior NCO’s.
The “Othering” PR campaign aimed at the Tea Party certainly assists in the “Shock Claim’s” credibility in the military rank and file, who are far more Tea Party friendly than the average low information voter.
The emergence of extensive and unoffical e-mail lists/back channels means that there is a great deal more lateral communication amoung the troops than there once was, and it is often far more reliable and accurate that what comes through official channels.
The flag officers have not caught up — yet — to the implications to their authority that their loss communication control represents.
A claim like this has likely made the rounds of the unofficial military e-mail lists before I mentioned it.
Jason,
There were rumors to the effect that the DC Metropolitan Cops were ordered to move military Veterans from National monuments during the Federal government shut down, and refused, for whatever reason.
See:
Why The DC Cops Stood Down During The Face Off With Our Veterans
http://www.crimefilenews.com/2013/10/obama-loyalist-cathy-lanier-washington.html
That’s a promising sign Trent.
Subotai Bahadur has it correct. We all need to come together against the institutionals. The Donks and Repubs are in it together.
Along these lines, I have had several email convefsations with Lex Green about Scott Walker running for president. He is our dream candidate, but I insist that he will be spiked by the establishment Republicans. Hard to say how that would play out. This comment is probably turning into a blog post at this point.
Argh. Conversations, of course.
Or as Angelo Codevilla had it – the Ruling Class against the Country Party. We are the Country Party, I think. I am personally boycotting any media outlet or any so-called celeb or public intellectual who has had a hand in the defamation of the Tea Party. I have just had it, up to my back teeth. We ditched cable TV earlier this year and I was totally stony-hearted about the local public radio membership drive this last week. I don’t purchase movie DVDs new – I get them used, so it saves money as well. We’ll see how all that goes, eh?
Excellent. You go hide from the rest of America which is fast growing up. Boycott all who disagree with you and go do an Ostrich.
Oh … well that is the Tea Party way anyway.
The GOP has taken a pretty big hit over the shutdown nonsense. The leaders of the party now have a massive dilemma as they have to shut down the Tea Party to save the GOP.
Very entertaining.
Jason, I have several nephews and cousins in my Wife’s family who are police in the CHicago area. Thye would not obey an order to shoot/arrest law abiding citizens. Same goes for the non-family cops I know.
Pengun, you are an entertaining idiot. I’d love to see your face when your statist dream hits the wall as it will in our lifetimes.
“Excellent. You go hide from the rest of America which is fast growing up. Boycott all who disagree with you and go do an Ostrich.”
PenGun, you are entertaining. Canada has no similar problem as it is insignificant in international matters.
I mean that with the greatest goodwill, of course.
“…not realizing that it is only a short step from ‘othering’ to declaring open season – literally.”
No, I think they do realize it. They just don’t care. They may not think about it all the time, but they do understand and they are just fine with it. Look at academia, where liberals rule, and you will see that they have no problem with criminalizing dissent. No problem at all.
pst314 Says:
October 23rd, 2013 at 8:15 pm
Agreed with everything that you said, but I would add another note. Leftists/Statists fail to apprehend a critical point. Somewhere on the continuum between “othering” and “open season” the process becomes severely reciprocal. In the absence of equal protection under the law, or conditions under “A Failure of Civility” [title of a book on point by Lawson and Garand that I recommend] conditions readily revert to a more kinetic der Politik mit anderen Mitteln. I suspect that will not be as they expected.
And that Americans’ Wendepunkt may be more hair-triggered than they expect.
Subotai Bahadur
In Roman times it was somewhat common for political leaders and their followers (“clients”) to be persecuted through prosection by their successors/enemies for “crimes” they had committed while in power. The “crimes” were often actions with which the successors merely disagreed or didn’t like if they gave status to that politician. Many believe that fear of such persecution (and prosecution, exile and even execution) led to Caesar’s decision to cross the Rubicon with his legions, and all that followed that decision. Over the past several years, I’ve reflected that our own political situation may evolve into this kind of atmosphere. There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to human behavior.
Translation of PenGun from “Liberal” BS to plain English: “Shut up, bend over, and submit.”
Another “New Tory.”
Just another note to the demonization thing – I saw this story this morning — “Soldiers attending a pre-deployment briefing at Fort Hood say they were told that evangelical Christians and members of the Tea Party were a threat to the nation and that any soldier donating to those groups would be subjected to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
Wow. Just breathtaking. Of course, it’s only alleged at this point, but it’s definitely part of a pattern. And ironic – as there were a huge number of veterans instrumental in starting local tea parties.
Just listened to the local “moderate” talk-radio guy who comes on after Rush. Apparently, Benghazi is a partisan non-issue. Mistakes were made. Morally, it’s equivalent to the Bush administration’s failure to interdict the 9/11 attacks. Time to move one.
Big lies work.
“PenGun, you are entertaining. Canada has no similar problem as it is insignificant in international matters.
I mean that with the greatest goodwill, of course.”
Umm how has this anything to do with your internal alienation? The large majority has taken to normal first world mores. This is going to be a problem for you Tea Party Freedom Fighters.
Canada has far more diversity and less internal alienation than your country.
Large majority? Probably not. Normal first world mores? That’s debatable, as to what those actual normal first world mores are.
TM,
“I think that implies that they don’t see a way to avoid war.”
I think it also implies that they’re totally pollyanas about how catastrophic a civil war would actually be. How many of these folks do you suppose actually ever read We Were Soldiers or With The Old Breed?
Sgt Mom (also Trent, TM, Subotai, and others who wish to address this):
How do you think this Ft Hood thing, if true, is going to actually play out? If you were a typical enlisted person from a typical background, the sort of person who might join Oath Keepers… wouldn’t this be a huge warning sign to you to walk carefully, speak and share circumspectly, and be on the alert that you might actually have to fulfill that Oath against domestic enemies? I would certainly get my radar on full alert if it happened to me…
Kirk Parker Says:
October 24th, 2013 at 9:44 pm
Still have one family member in, down from a bunch in the post-9/11 era. Senior NCO. I’m pretty sure that his happy camper level over this is not high. But then again, I have not contacted him since the new Pullman Porter unisex covers were announced too, so he may be off the scale.
Short form, heads down, ears up I’m pretty sure. If I were an evangelical Christian preacher or Elder of any sort [n.b.- not Christian of any flavor], I would be making wide public note of these declarations by the State against Christianity both within the congregation [emphasis on service members] and outside. Won’t convince the media or the Governing Class, but the Country Class may take note. The tamer versions of Christianity [from my observation] would be more than thrilled to agree with the State. But it might alert those who have not drunk the Kool-aid to be ready and to not assume that the Government and the Constitution are the same thing.
Keep thine codpieces buttoned.
Subotai Bahadur
Penn Gunn, A hypothetical for you. I’m curious. It’s. 1916, you’re an average Russian, meaning, at least, one is not a party member nor a member of the greater or lesser nobility. You’re forced to choose: Do you throw in with the Red or the White? Assume you know what you know now.
(just btw, blue is the new red)
Kirk, I’ve been retired from the military (not from working!) since 1998, and my daughter has been out of the Marines since 2006 – but she keeps in touch with some of her old friends still in. This whole development of Tea Partiers and evangelicals being considered in the same light as the KKK or something is just … well, bizarre. I can imagine it is going over like a lead balloon, since the military has tended to draw from the South, flyover country and rural … which happens to be a bit more traditional, in churchgoing as everything else.
All the time that I was in, I had good friends who were fairly observant in their religion; not ostentatious about it, and certainly proselytizing in your chain of command was always looked on as being in very bad taste. So people tended to be rather private in their beliefs and devotions, or at least in my experience they were. There must be a great many NCOs who are shaking their heads over this development.