I’m tempted to say the crybabies have escaped from the playpens, but such a severe cut might undermine my ability to convince them to grow up, so I’ll refrain.

Instead I’ll limit myself to this: silly season is back. It’s once again chic to portray yourself incorrectly as the aggrieved party in a situation of clear moral imperatives, to which the present is epilogue; and to reason from moronic and completely irrelevant bases.

I’ll offer an analogy to make this clear. Let’s suppose that a man, we’ll call him “George”, asks you for ammunition so that he can shoot people. If you give him one bullet, and he kills someone, you are an accomplis [sic], even if 100 other people also give him ammunition and weapons that he uses in his shooting spree. Moreover, to continue the analogy, you should ask yourself, what kind of man would express no remorse for lending that bullet and then would go so far as to give the guy another bullet four years later.

And after all, who can deny that opposing everything about a war involves more complicity than voting to start it and repeatedly funding every request? Simplicity itself: I think it, therefore it’s true, the facts be damned. But we’re different from Rush and Drudge and Hannity…

That’s good for a laugh but not for increasing understanding. As Bertrand Russell said, if you have a good logical argument, you make it. If not, you make emotional arguments. Or silly ones. You decide to vote for a war supporter even though you’re against the war, because the last time you prostituted your vote you didn’t get what you expected. Of course, you’ve never gotten what you expected. (This time, though, you just know it’ll be different.)

As with most areas of life, Americans are screwing up because they’re innocent of knowledge with respect to how their country works. And how other countries work. And what’s happened in the past. And, frankly, everything that isn’t on television. (Even then…)

Typical of the lot, Josh Marshall, from some blog called Talking Points Memo (probably a Frank Luntz associate), titles his post “Bush’s Chief Enabler Signs On”.

These folks are no doubt well intentioned; they might even hope to fulfill the role of citizens if provided with an education. But they start with the disadvantage of being Right-Wing Authoritarians.

I begin by noting the convergence of three qualities among Nader haters. First, they’re without exception conventional; they believe the Democratic Party is the fount of all goodness, and anyone who doesn’t succumb to the party’s blandishments is either a Republican or, worse, someone who sees how wonderful the party is and refuses to help it. “Who’s the candidate, what’s the platform, what policies can we expect?” Who are you to ask? We tell you who to vote for, and you do it, or you’re an enemy. Less human than the godly Democrats. The brave Democrats.

Bravely bold Sir Robin rode forth from Camelot
He was not afraid to die, O brave Sir Robin
He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin

Second, they have an uncanny knack for surrendering their personal judgements to those of the DJ, er, I mean, DNC. Or is it DLC? The Pope? Authoritarian submission in vitro. Whoever the party — sorry, The Party — nominates is fine with me. At least it won’t be whoever The Other Party nominates.

Third, they unleash their violent demons, previously inhibited by the necessities of the life of wimpy liberals, when they perceive that Authoritah would approve. With the addition of authoritarian violence, we complete the proof. Quod erat demonstrandum.

So what do we know of the genesis of RWA personalities — what issues lead people in that direction? Well, Altemeyer’s work has shown that two factors account for the vast majority of observed behavior: fear and self-righteousness. Those who fear opposition, who are scared that they won’t be able to hold onto their world views if things change, who wonder why everyone doesn’t agree with them, who can’t stand batting their ideas around in a free forum, are likely to feel threatened every time someone disagrees. Coupled with a belief that they’re right, completely, and anyone who disagrees is handing bullets to a shooter, you have the fanatic, also known these days as the Obama supporter. (One thing you gotta say about Clinton supporters, they’re not True Believers, they’re just hoping for high-status jobs.)

As a result they’re slinging mud that would make Drudge proud, pretending a deep knowledge of politics, while acknowledging the opposite in the same sentence.

Ross Perot’s campaign also seem [sic] to accomplish little for his objectives, which I barely remember, other than to help Clinton win the Presidency.

What proof is stronger than the lack of memory? If you can’t remember Perot’s objectives, they must not have been accomplished. He must have been wrong about the Giant Sucking Sound. But then, you wouldn’t know what that was anyway; you can’t get it on an iPod. (Actually I’m sure you could, but you wouldn’t be able to pay attention long enough to follow the argument.)

How would these people argue their case against Howard Zinn?

Today, we can be sure that the Democratic Party, unless it faces a popular upsurge, will not move off center. The two leading Presidential candidates have made it clear that if elected, they will not bring an immediate end to the Iraq War, or institute a system of free health care for all.

They offer no radical change from the status quo.

They do not propose what the present desperation of people cries out for: a government guarantee of jobs to everyone who needs one, a minimum income for every household, housing relief to everyone who faces eviction or foreclosure.

They do not suggest the deep cuts in the military budget or the radical changes in the tax system that would free billions, even trillions, for social programs to transform the way we live.

None of this should surprise us. The Democratic Party has broken with its historic conservatism, its pandering to the rich, its predilection for war, only when it has encountered rebellion from below, as in the Thirties and the Sixties. We should not expect that a victory at the ballot box in November will even begin to budge the nation from its twin fundamental illnesses: capitalist greed and militarism.

Americans do care about their country. They care about their environment, and what will be left for their kids. They demand to know which channel they should watch in order to wash their hands of the problem.

Historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war. Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.

Unfortunately it appears that the sets of Democrats and concerned citizens have a decreasing intersection. Or perhaps it’s just the Will Rogers Democrat coming out: no matter who you’re for, unless they’re my choice too I’m against them. People who hate people, come together!

Or more accurately, people who believe they can only win by compelling others to act against their best judgement, against their will. Nader runs because the Democrats continue to offer Republican policies. He began exploring the minute Edwards dropped out. He offered to drop out in 2004 if the Democrats would adopt a few of his basic policies. But the Democrats were in hock to the same folks that own the Republicans.

Personally I feel a certain amount of negativity toward war enablers. That doesn’t mean people who act, speak, and vote against war. It means those who fund, vote, or speak for war. In other words, I’m no longer a Democrat, because I’m against war, while the Democrats continue to enable it. I favor peace, universal health care, controlling corporations, and trying to repair the environmental damage we’ve done; so I intend to vote for someone whose policies are in line with those goals. If you think the Democratic candidate will do that, I suggest you vote for that candidate. I don’t, so I expect I won’t.

Posted by Chuck Dupree at February 26, 2008 01:46 AM

Email this entry to:


Your email address:


Message (optional):