Tea Party 2.0…
The GOP loathes both the leading Republican candidates. Republican voters, meanwhile, increasingly loathe the GOP.
28 thoughts on “They Want the Establishment Burned to the Ground”
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Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Tea Party 2.0…
The GOP loathes both the leading Republican candidates. Republican voters, meanwhile, increasingly loathe the GOP.
Comments are closed.
I agree the GOP should be embarrassed but does anyone believe President Trump would reduce the deficit? Another egomaniac after Obama? No thanks.
With the exception of Steyn, they still don’t really get it. People were not and are not “scared”. They are angry and want to fight back against terrorists and those that support them. The regime says completely idiotic things like “this has nothing to do with Islam” when it’s clear that the attacks were the work of Islamic extremists. They respond to an attack on Americans with gun control. Trump DID begin as a joke candidate. Then he gained momentum and they waited for hm to “flame out”. Never happened. Now, they’re realizing that (gasp!) portions of the Denocratic Party may prefer Trump to the other, less popular and friendly Clinton.
The past 18 months has seen FOX destroy its credibility with an audience that it built as its gone into the tank for the GOPe and on occasion, Obama. The few that “get it” like Steyn are marginalized and regarded (still) as little more than court jesters.
The real question that went unanswered was, whether the GOPe would support Trump or Cruz…
Allow me to give you a testimonial from among the crass and sweaty morlochs of your nearer Redneckistan.
Trump enjoys support because he is genuine. This is a very short walk when pitted against career politicians from the terminally useless chattering class.
Also, if desperate foolishness frauds this there a great many who are yearning to act out. I’m not speaking of your soft spoken, soft handed agreeable lesbian with an inconvenient penis (as seen on our most favorite current television offerings). The baser, genuine individuals will use their powers for less than good and their numbers, methods and ideas are Legion.
Don’t push Posey.
I agree that among that group, Mark Steyn is the only one with enough credibility and gravitas to be taken seriously, although I can appreciate Maria B from her days covering the stock market. I usually don’t watch TV news, but once in awhile turn on Lou Dobbs. And I might catch 60 Minutes here and there if I happen to leave the TV on after the football games end.
The British have an even worse problem with their ruling class. And they are closer to ground zero with “immigrants”rushing the trains going through the “Chunnel”
Every educated and intelligent person glories in the freedom of women in Western societies to exercise their talents to the full, and their freedom to walk safely in the streets of our great cities.
So what are the enlightened minds of the Left to do when news comes of revolting assaults on women in front of Cologne Cathedral, one of the jewels of European Christian culture in one of Germany’s proudest cities? And how are they to react when growing evidence suggests that at least some of the culprits are newly arrived migrants from the Muslim world?
With mumbled embarrassment and nasty jibes against those who have long opposed uncontrolled mass migration, that’s how.
The Germans are using 1500 police with water cannons against the protestors, not the Muslims.
Radical multicultural types will in the end destroy the things they claim to like, because they don’t understand that liberty and reasonable equality are features of stable, free, conservative societies based on Christian ideas, which guard their borders and are proud of their civilisation.
The people who really want to defend our enlightened society, in the end, are dinosaurs like me.
This is what is driving Trump. It doesn’t really matter if he balances the budget. That battle has been lost already. What people want is control of the borders and order. Every time he throws out some professional demonstrator, like the Muslim woman the other day, his stock goes up.
the BBC isn’t impartial and its idea of what is news is tinged with pink. It’s crammed with shameless Leftists from cellar to chimney. So if the BBC is actively helping the Tories, which it does these days, then that must mean the Tories are now the main party of the Left.
And that’s Mr Cameron’s problem. He’s an EU-loving, pro-immigration, anti-grammar-school, politically correct social and economic liberal.
His MPs are mostly the same, though they do a bit of pseudo-conservative braying at elections. But his voters and his remaining party members are patriotic real conservatives. He hoped to bandage this rupture by promising the EU referendum. But now he has actually been forced to keep this promise, it isn’t helping much.
Sound familiar ?
I thought is was interesting that Steyn thinks both Trump and Cruz can win. All of them seemed aware, too, how much anger there is toward the GOP from their own base. Now here’s an interesting question. Suppose that Ryan and McConnell and others in the GOP have been compromised by the NSA, just as a way of explaining their seeming defection to Obama’s agenda. And suppose also that lever is used during the convention to ensure that neither Trump or Cruz is the nominee. Then what?
I agree with Mike K that the we are well beyond the point that Trump’s non-conservatism (on issues such as “big government,” entitlements, healthcare, social issues and Supreme Court appointments) is salient anymore. The main issue is more fundamental than anything addressed by the agenda of the conservative movement over the last 50 years. It is the first question of politics, which must be answered before any other question: Who is the “we” in “We the People.” (That’s not an original thought, but I can’t remember who said it.) According to the bipartisan establishment, ranging from George Will to the NY Times editorial board, the “we” includes anybody who gets himself over here and wants to stay. This is what we are up against. Only Trump and Cruz even say they will fight against this. Unfortunately, I doubt that either Trump or Cruz is sincere about this, but many Americans reasonably conclude that they are the only hope we have.
Far more than any previous election, this election is about Power. It’s not about doctrine, and playing the polite parlor game Who’s the Conservative? It’s about winning on the street.
Obama know the street and has played it well. An Trump knows the street speaks to it. Hew’s New Yorker and he has dealt with the the concrete business of building in NYC at all levels, and he has succeeded beyond peradventure.
is theere a more clueless and dis connected political party that the GOP Establishment? They are the original naive “go along-to-get-along” self-interested who has led us to a national cul de sac. Their faux-philosophy is antithesis of “leadership.” The GOP is a shameful sham, and needs — more than the Democrats — to be destroyed in this election. The are corrupt, and cowardly — utterly lacking in conviction and willing to submit.
After a resounding defeat by a rump faction, and without a “leadership” of Quislings, the GOP can advance the conservatism as a an intelligent political strategy that counter attacks the socialism of the Democrats, and defends the national security internally and externally.
Christendom has already fallen, and the Western values that it supported, are weaker now that since the 1930’s, because the enemy is well inside the our gates, and among our “leaders.”
There are multiple tracks afoot. I have my doubts that there will be elections in 2016. Too many events are reaching crisis stage. All of which would enable declarations of emergency under a number of Federal statutes passed long ago. These allow rule by decree for the duration of the emergency. I would expect window dressing of a “Government of National Unity” consisting of all incumbents.
But let us say that does not come to pass. And political processes continue. I will not speak of what the Democrats may do, mainly because I have no spies in the Politburo. But I am sure that the Republicans have the tools to stop Trump or Cruz.
The 2012 Convention changed Rule 40b of the Republican Party. This was done to prevent Ron Paul from being placed in nomination and destroying the appearance of a coronation of Romney. Previously, to be placed in nomination you had to have won the most delegates in each of 5 states. They changed it to having to win an absolute majority of the delegates [50%+1] in 8 states. Which is where it stands now.
We have a metric butt-load [app. 977 liters] of candidates. We have 50 states, and well over half of them have proportional representation which means they may not have an absolute majority winner. < half of 50 divided by a metric butt-load = <8. It will be almost impossible to get the 8, without the active support of the RNC. Only ¡ Jéb! or a ¡ Jéb! clone will get that.
So either he is the only person placed in nomination, or the convention is brokered in a back room by the GOPe after no one can be placed in nomination. ¡ Jéb! may well get the nomination with a distinct minority of the delegates.
That will mean the end of the Republican party, up and down the ticket, and a Democrat triumph. But the Whigs will retain control of the rump of what remains. Which is a goal that they would happily accept Hillary as president to obtain.
It will mean either a Third [really SECOND] Party and/or a real civil war. Or both.
It is not desirable, but you deal with the world you have.
The only way to avoid that would be for Trump or Cruz to get 50% + 1 of the delegates in 8 or more states. If they do, and one becomes the nominee; we can be sure that the Whigs will work to elect Hillary. Keep in mind the GOPe pundits, candidates, and donors are right now threatening a 3rd Party if either is the nominee. This after they enforced a loyalty oath on Trump. But the Whigs are really practiced at breaking their word. And they have a history of working for Democrats over their own nominees.
And in that case we will eventually get the same results as if they had blatantly cheated Trump or Cruz out of the nomination.
No butterflies and unicorns.
Any burning done will, unfortunately, be metaphorical.
Subotai Bahadur
Trump scares a lot of people, to include myself. All signs are he is going to be an American Republic version of Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Yes, I’ve been reading my Plutarch lately).
The problem is Trump has cornered the market on hope and especially anger.
The tipping point was the Christmas Eve CNN Poll that had Trump at 39%, up 21 over Cruz at 18%.
The killer part of the poll was the internals showing Trump had an over whelming advantage over all other candidates, not just on the overall polling numbers, 39% to 18%, but, more importantly, Trump was up far more, on the ISSUES,….
What that meant for other GOP Candidates was they can no longer campaign on the Issues, without Trump rising even more.
Trump has a 4 out of 5 chance of sweeping the Republican nomination by the end or March (The only way Trump can win the nomination as a complete outsider).
The tell was the entire GOP field giving up issue attacks on Trump and going to the character assassination gutter starting at Christmas.
The political elites are setting up a “Lose Ugly” scenario for the GOP and Democratic establishment versus a pure populist Jacksonian voter uprising.
The really scare thing for the world here isn’t Trump. It is the populist American Jacksonian outsider that comes after him.
We are set to see every national politician currently of 40 years of age or older get replaced over the next 12-15 years.
Subotai Bahadur,
The following is from the National Review’ columnist Jim Geraghty and it gets to the heart of Trump’s working class appeal.
Trump has empowered and given license to entire American middle and working classes in America to tell the Media/cultural/political elites to ‘eff off.’
Once you have that heady piece of American free speech freedom returned to you.
You will not give it up.
That is what makes Trump America’s Sulla.
Trump is giving his followers war booty in the form of American freedom at the expense of the perks and powers of the Media, political and cultural elites.
See:
====================
Liberals Suddenly Realize that They’ve Demonized Ordinary Language
I said Sunday on Fox News that Trump’s first miracle was getting Ruth
Marcus of the Washington Post to write, “In the larger scheme of
things, Bill Clinton’s conduct toward women is far worse than any of
the offensive things that Trump has said.”
Trump’s second miracle is spurring this conclusion from Kevin Drum:
For someone without my advantages, I can easily see how it might feel
almost impossible to express an unpopular opinion without tying
yourself in knots. And let’s be honest: We liberals do tend to yell
racism a little more often than we should. And we do tend to suggest
that anyone who likes guns or Jesus is a rube. And the whole
“privilege” thing sure does get tiresome sometimes. And we do get a
little pedantic in our insistence that no conversation about anything
is complete unless it specifically acknowledges the special problems
of marginalized groups. It can be pretty suffocating at times.
For the most part, I don’t mind this stuff — and conservatives do
themselves no favors by harping on supposed PC idiocy like the “war on
Christmas.” But the reason I don’t mind it is that I can navigate it
reasonably well and I mostly agree with the aims of the PC police
anyway. People who have trouble with navigation obviously feel a lot
more constrained. So while I don’t really buy Nichols’ argument —
conservatives built the monster named Trump, not liberals — I do
think he has a germ of a point. Donald Trump is basically telling
ordinary people that ordinary language is okay, and since that’s the
only language they know, it means they feel like they can finally talk
again.
Trump’s third miracle will probably be that if gets the nomination,
liberals will suddenly have a newfound interest in the Constitution,
checks and balances, and limits on the powers of the presidency.
Trent Trelenko:
I would phrase it that Liberals and Whigs will suddenly have that newfound interest. The GOPe will happily and automatically join with the Democrats to elect whoever is on the Democrat ticket, even if it is Obama’s 3rd [life] term, if Trump [and to a lesser extent Cruz] becomes the nominee.
What we are facing is the total breakdown of what was our political system and a return to the pure power politics that preceded the establishment of the concept of a constitutional order. The Left, and their handmaidens in the Republican party have made the rule of law moot.
“Do da word ‘Principate” strike a familiar note?”
It is not going to be pretty, unless one has a very macabre approach to life.
I think Trump can win it and will be a protest candidate that no one really cares much how he governs.
This is a “bun down all their houses” moment and the elites are shocked that it could even happen.
I am not as worried about no election in 2016 because, if the elites tried to do this, there would not be enough lamp posts in DC.
There was time that I thought the fall of the USSR would fill lamp posts with KGB and nomenclature members but it didn’t happen.
Interesting times coming.
>>“Do da word ‘Principate” strike a familiar note?”
Sulla was decades before the Octavian’s Principate.
So are we.
>>I would phrase it that Liberals and Whigs will suddenly have that newfound interest. The GOPe
>>will happily and automatically join with the Democrats to elect whoever is on the Democrat ticket,
>>even if it is Obama’s 3rd [life] term, if Trump [and to a lesser extent Cruz] becomes the nominee.
Subotai Bahadur,
Don’t look now, but Bernie Sanders is up over Hillary in N.H. by double digits.
The GOPe will stay home rather than support Bernie over Trump.
As for Trump —
First, barring someone shooting Trump to death before the GOP convention, the San Bernadino Muslim immigrant terrorist attack and its immediate aftermath guaranteed the Republican nomination for his candidacy. Trump is America’s national security candidate for protecting the middle class.
Second, this election campaign isn’t about numbers. Hillary is very sick. (internet searches with “Hillary illness” and “Breitbart” as search terms will get a good article on this)
Hillary’s doctors released a report that Hillary had a massive internal head trauma from a fall. That fall seems the proximate cause of her leaving as Sec of State and there has been seen in a few photos with what looks like the outline of a medical device in her oversized pant suits.
Since then Hillary cleared the Democratic field so there is no one else as a “viable alternative,” yet Bernie Sanders still hangs on, in large part because Sander’s Democratic supporters are heartened by Trump’s success on the GOP side.
Hillary is also running a very low tempo campaign, with very few closely controlled events, and had a very noticeable break in one of the Democratic debates that is rumored to have been health related. Now Trump has been upping the tempo of his campaign in attacking both Bill for his sexual harassment/rape history problem and has labeled Hillary “lacking the stamina for the presidency.”
In large part Trump, by making his general election case against Hillary now, is helping Bernie in the Democratic primaries last longer. This isn’t accidental. Almost everything Trump does politically has to be seen as a 3D chess move executed against a well staffed plan.
NB: Trump wants to force an intense and -protracted- marathon
Presidential campaign on a sick woman to push her medical collapse
before Nov 2016. And Trump had this templated and staffed prior to his
announcement back in June 2015.
There are a lot of reasons I call Trump an American Sulla, as his taste for winning political combat quite literally includes a lust for real blood.
The voters are not terribly concerned about governing skills or styles right now. They just want to blow up the governing class. Trump and Sanders will serve. If Trump stumbles somehow, or gets shot by a crazy Doctor Carl Weiss type, Cruz will take over in much the same vein.
This is about revolution, peaceful if possible, violent if necessary.
I am resigned to it after years of following politics though the medical associations’ commissions. Politicians embody Clauswitz’ or Bismarck’s advice about law making. I forget which said it.
Trent Telenko
Trump scares a lot of people, to include myself. All signs are he is going to be an American Republic version of Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Yes, I’ve been reading my Plutarch lately)
After having recently given a presentation on the book of the month at the book club I attend, I was wondering what to read next. While I have read a little of Plutarch- enough to remember that Sulla’s autopsy was rather interesting- I have never read much of Plutarch. By contrast, Benjamin Franklin read Plutarch when he was a child. Your Plutarch comment has spurred me on to finally tackle Plutarch. I will concentrate on the final years of the Republic, from the Gracchi to Augustus. Gutenberg has more than one translation of Plutarch, and after perusing them I concluded that not all translations are equally good.[Surprise, surprise]
Mike K
Politicians embody Clauswitz’ or Bismarck’s advice about law making. I forget which said it.
If you are talking about law making and sausage, that would be Bismark.
Having Obama for President has been 2 terms of a savvy politician implementing the agenda of the crazy left wingers ensconced in tenure track positions in our universities. As those tenured idiot savants scorn those who do not populate their enclaves, so does Obama scorn those who do not worship him. Result: Trump.
Anonymous would be me.
Gringo,
Short term See this on what it means to be part of Jacksonian Faction culture —
The Jacksonian Tradition
by Walter Russell Mead
The National Interest Archives
Fall 1985 to Present
http://denbeste.nu/external/Mead01.html
The San Berdoo (Californian for San Bernadino) ISIS terrorist attack toggled over the Jacksonian’s this election cycle, an overwhelming majority of whom are Tea Party or Tea Party supporting.
See this John Zogby 2010 polling on the Jacksonian nature of the Tea Party, particularly the parts on how terrorism moved Sen. Scott Brown’s voters in 2010.
Boiling Tea
John Zogby
04/07/2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-zogby/boiling-tea_b_451306.html
“Contrary to the often repeated claim that Tea Partiers ‘lack agreed upon set of views,’ our data shows that terrorism and perceived unwillingness to talk about it in a straightforward manner might be another issue around which opposition to Washington will rally. Ironically, shifting their attention from health care might make Tea Partiers angrier. “
AKA Tea Party = Jacksonian, and San Berdoo is what crystalized the Tea Party around Trump.
Last night there was an interesting occurrence. No, it was not just the SOTU speech by Buraq Hussein. The key was the Republican Agreement with the SOTU. [no, not a typo].
Let us be honest.
The SOTU response is not written by whoever delivers it. It is written by the Party.
For the first time in history, a SOTU response was used to exclusively attack the frontrunner of the party making the response, and to tongue-bathe the incumbent president of the other party.
Combine it with the statements by GOPe officials, donors, and other presidential candidates that they would support Hillary Clinton if Trump wins the nomination fair and square.
Add in the Nikki Haley interviews today where she made perfectly clear that the attacks last night were on Trump, AND Cruz, and their supporters in the Republican Party.
That makes it pretty plain that if Trump or Cruz win the nomination, and manage to avoid any fatal accidents beneficial to the GOPe, that they will be running against not only the Democrats, but also against the Republicans. Both will have to be defeated, decisively. And, to be honest, there is no certainty that an electoral victory would be honored. The rule of law died here long ago.
I also note, as has been said before, that the pledge not to run 3rd party [really SECOND party] was predicated on fair treatment by the Republicans. One could make a serious argument that the SOTU response releases Trump from any such agreement.
Now toss in the line by line translation of Nikki Haley’s speech.
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/01/13/busted-republican-state-of-union-response-carried-amnesty-pledge-in-spanish-version/#more-110948
They are promising the one thing that is beyond negotiation for most of their voter base.
Add in the Nikki Haley interviews today where she made perfectly clear that the attacks last night were on Trump, AND Cruz, and their supporters in the Republican Party.
I agree about her speech and I wonder who convinced her that it was good idea. She has been a marginal governor in South Carolina and is mostly a symbol because of her ethnicity. Bobby Jindal was a far more effective governor and it is a shame that Vitter’s ego trip will cost the Louisianans the reforms Jindal put in place. Too bad he isn’t a better speaker.
I think the concerns about an election being cancelled are overblown but agree the GOPe may try to sit this out. I think they will be handed their heads if they do.
Some of them are already sniffing around Trump. They may fall in line for self preservation,
Trent, while I am aware of the Jacksonian tradition- one which I largely subscribed to after the reality of Cambodia put paid to my former Conscientious Objector beliefs- I don’t remember having previously seen the 2010 Zogby poll which showed that Tea Party supporters had a Jacksonian approach to foreign policy:
That definitely points to Tea Party support for Trump.
The Tea Party began as a domestic concern but has expanded and now has a real foreign policy concern, much of which comes from illegal immigration and Muslim immigration.
Mike K,
The Tea Party is also anti-open borders because they suffer the most illegal immigrant crime. This sets of the “Jacksonian threat response” as much as domestic terrorism.
It also points sharply to Trump thinking ahead to position himself as a Jacksonian Populist in the GOP field.
Whether this is is inate self or a calculated self will be reveiled in the fullness of time. Plus, theese are not exclusionary options, AKA this is a spectrum choice not a binary choice.
Gringo,
Here is a “Modern Jacksonian Reading List” for you to understand the current Jacksonian Populist Voter Uprising.
1. The Age of Jackson
Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr
http://www.amazon.com/Age-Jackson-Arthur-M-Schlesinger/dp/1568524366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452790522&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Age+of+Jackson+by+Arthur+Schlesinger
This will get you the origin of the Jacksonian Scots-Irish faction in a era specific history around Andrew Jackson.
2. Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World
Walter Russell Mead
http://www.amazon.com/Special-Providence-American-Foreign-Changed-ebook/dp/B0086N7DSU/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=
Walter Russell Mead outlines the Jacksonian Scots-irish factions beliefs with relation to foreign policy, and touches upon assimilative nature of the Scots-Irish Americans in bringing pure Irish, Italians, and East Europeans into the Jacksonian American folks ways.
3. The New Case Against Immigration: Both Legal and Illegal
Mark Krikorian
http://www.amazon.com/New-Case-Against-Immigration-Illegal/dp/1595230351/ref=la_B001JOYV5Q_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452790898&sr=1-2
Krikorian’s book in discussing immigration outlines what amounts to the Jacksonian “anti-body reaction” to open borders immigration policy. It fills in the blanks left by Walter Russell Mead on the domestic political forces driving the Tea Party and the Trump’s Populist campaign today.
Trent, to a large degree you are speaking to the choir. I read Schlesinger’s book in my undergrad years- not for a class. There was a Jacksonian blog which I occasionally perused for years. Mead’s book has been on my bookshelf for several years, just haven’t gotten to it. I accumulate books at a faster rate than I read them. Also of note that Scots-Irish is a large part of my ancestry. There came a collision between the prog narrative I grew up with and the “won’t put up with any of your shit” outlook that is apparently embedded in Scots-Irish genes.
Re Ukrainian [Telenko]: back in New England, I knew a couple of Ukrainian origin who had entered their teenage years around the time of the Holodmor. They had been requisitioned for WW2 slave labor in Germany, which enabled them to get out of the USSR. Their daughter was married to the son of the owner of a restaurant where I washed dishes- her father hung out in the restaurant kitchen on Sundays. I then worked as an aide at the hospital where the father ran the kitchen. Bit of a Ukrainian mafia there, as one of the MD hospital owners was of Ukrainian origin. Here in TX, I have a neighbor of Ukrainian origin- his parents were able to get out in the 1920s, when the borders were still fairly fluid. He told me that his uncles didn’t make it out of WW2- fought against Stalin, and paid the price.
Mike K
>>>>”Mike K
Politicians embody Clauswitz’ or Bismarck’s advice about law making. I forget which said it.”<<<<
Actually I think it was both. Gringo noted the Bismark comment about lawmaking and the making of sausages. But Clausewitz had a comment that fits the current situation also.
Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln.
“War is merely a continuation of Politics by other means.” The two are inextricably intertwined.
And in the non-Prussian sense it is still true. In Anglo-Saxon to American context we go back to Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan” where predating the establishment of the Social Contract, politics was the “State of Nature, red of tooth and claw”. All forms of government; regardless of country, culture, or society are ways of moderating that State of Nature from arbitrary violence by the most powerful to a means of allocating power and authority in a fashion acceptable to the mass of people. Such is necessary for a society to cooperate enough to advance beyond a tribal stage. Legitimacy can be defined as what a particular society defines as acceptable means of transmitting and exercising power.
What we face here, with elitist governments under stress in Europe, and our own Unified Governing Party with its two faces and no opposition is a separation of the people from the means of governing and succession to power. Our governance is no longer legitimate in the eyes of a growing and critical mass of the population.
Trump, and the party base of what are now the Whigs, are perhaps the last chance at a transition to something akin, but not identical to the old forms that have been destroyed. And they are under attack from both parties. It is a battle to the death.
In many ways, the Nazis and the Soviets won. Their means of coercion and terminal handling of the enemies of the State were unthinkable two generations ago, and are part of the political spectrum now. Trump or Cruz may not be perfect. Hell, in many ways they are not. But you fight a war with what you have. And they may well be the last hope of holding our current political system together in some way.
The alternative, when a system collapses, is not a clean start-over. It is a reversion to the “State of Nature, red of tooth and claw”. And this in a world where both the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt and the GULAG are part of the political experience.