Not a single Democratic senator managed to demonstrate enough judgment and courage to go against his Party herd and vote “Nay” on the Hagel confirmation.
Not a single one.
About a week ago, Cassandra cited a study showing in which white “racial liberals” (as identified by a four-question survey) were asked whether or not they supported targeted killings of suspected terrorists.
Only 27% of the respondents supported such killings….BUT, if they were told before answering the question that OBAMA had conducted such killings, then the support rose to 47%.
Cass cited another political scientist, Lilliana Mason, who argues that the electorate is becoming increasingly tribal. Our party affiliation is increasingly intertwined with our personal identity, making us more prone than ever to support the policies of “our side,” regardless of their actual content.
As I noted in comments, this kind of thinking/behavior represents the outsourcing of judgment and conscience.
And I think this outsourcing has a lot to do with the Democratic unanimity on Hegal, as well as with the lockstep pro-Obama coverage of the old media.
The insertion of a new, foreign tribes will cause the rest of society to become tribal in defense.
Tribes have to stick together!
I get the impression that the new Secretary of State and the new Secretary of Defense have been selected by IQ test. Which they failed. Am I being unfair?
This goes along with what I have been saying for years. There are no “Blue Dog” Democrats. There are no “moderate” Democrats. There sure as whatever conception of infernal regions you might have no “Conservative” Democrats. At least not in national office. The current Democrat Party is not the party that existed pre-1968.
No matter what lies they tell the voters, during campaigns or while in office; EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WILL VOTE FOR WHATEVER THEY ARE TOLD TO BY THE NATIONAL PARTY WITHOUT FAIL regardless of what it does to the Constitution, the rule of law, common sense, or the wishes of constituents. The only conscience or judgment that they exercise is whether their vote will cause them to lose the next election, in which case a small percentage of them are allowed to vote against the party line or abstain; taking turns, so long as the Party wins. If the vote is important, they will be ordered to, and will, willingly commit electoral suicide.
See the concept of Democratic Centralism as expressed by Lenin. It fits.
Not saying that the Republicans are perfect, or even good. They have an entirely different set of fatal flaws that include a total lack of principles, constitutional or otherwise. And a testosterone count that is below measurable.
Anthony Codavilla’s latest essay; ” As Country Club Republicans Link Up With The Democratic Ruling Class, Millions Of Voters Are Orphaned”, is right. 2/3 of Americans have absolutely no representation of their interests or wishes in government.
Subotai Bahadur
“Our party affiliation is increasingly intertwined with our personal identity, making us more prone than ever to support the policies of “our side,” regardless of their actual content.
As I noted in comments, this kind of thinking/behavior represents the outsourcing of judgment and conscience.”
Indeed. You don’t see a massive mountain of irony here? I sure do.
I was out to dinner for my birthday Saturday night with my kids and grandkids. My oldest daughter, who is a lawyer and FBI agent was sitting across from me talking to her brother. I overheard her say, “The federal courts have much more experience trying terrorists than the military does which is why the military tribunals are a waste.” I asked her, an enthusiastic Obama voter, if she thought Khalid Sheik Mohammed should be tried in NY federal court and she replied, “Of course.”
I didn’t have the energy to debate her about security and evidence and identities of witnesses and all the rest. Like most Obama voters, she is absolutely sure she is right and no argument will pierce her self regard. PenGun is a bit like that.
Am I being unfair?
No.
It’s that non-partisan, cooperation, & compromise that has always characterized the politburo, er, Democrat party.
The Founding Fathers hadn’t the imagination to conjure senators so degraded that voting the party line is their only thought.
One effect of tribalism is that everything, everything offered as debate or disagreement is treated as proof of loyalty to a rival tribe.
Ad hominem being replaced by the group equivalent (ad gentem? I don’t know Latin declension) is one thing, but in many circles it’s gotten to the point that any argument that doesn’t follow this form is treated as un-serious or irrelevant.
For example, in press coverage of just about any issue before Congress, on those rare occasions that substantive intra-party discussion takes place within reach of a microphone, it is treated as a sign of weakness or fear. In contrast, empty Democratic and Republican posturing is treated as actual news.
You don’t see a massive mountain of irony here?
No, PenGun, I expect that most of us see the irony just fine.
Setbit…”One effect of tribalism is that everything, everything offered as debate or disagreement is treated as proof of loyalty to a rival tribe.”
Peter Drucker, when he was still living in Germany, heard a Nazi speaker giving his thoughts on economic policy to a cheering mob:
“We don’t want lower bread prices, we don’t want higher bread prices, we don’t want unchanged bread prices””we want National Socialist bread prices!”
Subotai nailed it.
It is no accident that the tea party movement is opposed by both the dems and the establishment repubs. Less money to spend and less government to spend it on is anathema to both parties.
Being part of the club is more important than any alleged principles, or campaign promises.
Hmmm. reminds me of Bill Whittle’s essay:
Tribes
His site, Eject! Eject! Eject! is long gone but, thanks to the magic of The Wayback Machine, many of the pieces are still accessible.
Whittle, for anyone unfamiliar with him, is the best damned political long-form essayist I’ve ever read. He’s since switched to doing video for PJM, which probably gets a wider audience, but doesn’t really NAIL the points quite the same way.
Needless to say, “highly recommended”.
}}} Indeed. You don’t see a massive mountain of irony here? I sure do.
LOL, I suspect your skull to be a powerful lodestone.
Is that what you’re referring to?
}}} The Founding Fathers hadn’t the imagination to conjure senators so degraded that voting the party line is their only thought.
Actually, I believe some of them feared this would occur far sooner than it has. They originally were commonly against the idea, but the formation of the Federalists pretty much forced the creation of the opposition Democratic-Republicans, and party politics became the norm.
But many definitely spoke out against the party concept early on.
While I don’t disagree with your observations on tribalism, I think there is a real philosophical chasm between the two parties, which has been described brilliantly by Thomas Sowell in a couple of his books.
Or am I just repeating the obvious, and missing your point?
There’s a good discussion of tribes and clans in Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Gray Falcon, her history and observation of Yugoslavia in 1936. She points out that the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the Serbs until 1912, had no established order or law except for certain customs that aggravated the uncertainty among the residents. In those circumstances, the family or clan becomes the unit for security as the government cannot be relied upon for even-handedness or even security.
This country, with its tradition of self defense and a weak government until Roosevelt, never found the need to form clans although national groups, like the Italians and Irish often played a role. What government we had was trusted on the local level, for the most part. Organized corruption was limited to big cities, like New York and Chicago. In rural settings, where 2/3 of the population lived, many delivered their own justice. My great grandfather once believed he had been cheated on a sale of pigs in town. He could not read or write but he did know how to figure, and after a time on the way home, he unhitched a horse from the wagon team, told the boys to drive the wagon home, and rode the horse back to town to horsewhip the man who bought the pigs. He has been a town constable in Peru-Lasalle before he went back to New York to marry my great grandmother. They returned to the Peru area several years later with one child. There they had eleven more.
He didn’t feel the need to call the cops.
That feeling of self sufficiency may be fading away.
Hegal is a Republican who has seen war and does not like it. Anyone who has had to fight ends up with a more realistic view of the efficacy of war.
As he is no fan of war he is pretty well perfect for Defense Secretary. As the Republican party these days is a pile of stupid and fail, mostly from the Tea Party’s influence and the lingering effects of Neocon madness the hue and cry after Hagel is to be expected.
Any half way sane Democrat will have no trouble with the choice of Hagel and why you are surprised at unanimity, often a Republican trait, really does escape me.
PenGun once again shows us an open mind. Open to the wind and rain, that is.
“PenGun once again shows us an open mind. Open to the wind and rain, that is.”
Actually I have started to wear a hat this year for the first time. My daughter bought me a nice one for my birthday and it makes quite a difference up here in the great wet Northwest.
They are well educated and all right thinking people think that this is right thinking.
Of course they’re not educated, they’re TRAINED.
To an extent the US Army does not train after initial Basic Training. We do not seek drones, they’d get slaughtered at war. Rather like Prog Drone’s ideas do not survive contact with reality.
Our education system is geared towards Stimulus/Response/Reward for giving teacher the politically compliant answer. So all right thinking people will give the right answer.
We should of course realize our Congress and indeed the Presidency do not have REAL POWER, that is held by the permanent government. Congress’s chief powers are within their own chambers, that is the greasy pole the Repubs climb for instance. Don’t judge Boehner too harshly for instance, Speakership is all the Power he can have..
The Repubs are an utterly captive token opposition party. It speaks to the incompetence and further madness of the Dems that they want to openly destroy them – even with an actual dangerous replacement already manifest.
Again one might kneel before Zod. A man does not kneel before Gatsby.
What we need is a Second democracy, the American people deserve their chance. Not all peoples, but ours…I go against the tide of reaction, but reaction has no power.
The people – now awake as yet without Tribunes – deserve a Second Chance at rule. Now they vote but do not govern..now the American people awake are ..ahem…POWER. As yet without Tribunes, that will change.
Power lying fallow is not it’s natural state.
If a Tribune is listening, the dispossesed plebes await you…
“Hagel…is no fan of war he is pretty well perfect for Defense Secretary. As the Republican party these days is a pile of stupid and fail, mostly from the Tea Party’s influence and the lingering effects of Neocon madness the hue and cry after Hagel is to be expected.”
Let me state the painfully obvious for PenGun, since nobody today – neither here nor in our national discourse is saying it:
***If there was no ‘Bush war’ in Iraq, no deposing of Saddam Hussein and occupation of Iraq, then there would be no “Arab Spring.”***
This is obvious to anyone who’s studied middle East/Islamic history: Muslim’s are incapably of learning from successful Infidel’s like the Israel and their open politics and adaptive economics. Muslims are only capable of imitating others almost homogenously the same.
This Truth and its denial by Hagel make make him a dangerously dumb officer to be Secretary of State.