Geesh what a piss poor, revisionist sense of history, and yet there are Americans that swallow this bullshit up hook, line and sinker.
On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 9:32 AM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dec 11, 2015 > > *The Conservative Meltdown, Courtesy of Trump *By Jeffrey Tucker > > For 60 years, the conservative establishment has worked to overcome the > biggest leftist lie of them all: that non-leftists are really Nazis in > disguise. To wreck that view, conservatism reinvented itself after World > War II. > > William Buckley, editor of National Review, led the way. He purged the > hard racists, dedicated segregationists, the Falangists, the anti-semites, > the crypto-Nazis, the theocrats and ecclesiocrats, and the wildly paranoid > conspiracy mongers. > > Buckley was the one to do it too, because he was erudite and educated, > with a subtle sense of things. It was a massive effort in social and > political control, and it mostly worked. The culminating victory came with > the election of Ronald Reagan. > > So sensitive was Buckley to the charge of Nazi sympathies that he lost his > composure completely, on live television, when in 1968 Gore Vidal charged > him with being a crypto-Nazi. It was enough to cause Buckley, again on live > television, to threaten Vidal with a punch in the face. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_nq4tfi24&feature=youtu.be > > And Buckley never stopped the purges even through the 2000s. To be in the > Buckley circle, you had to be housebroken. You had to avoid the fever > swamps. > > Many of these purges were wholly justified, but there was also collateral > damage. He also purged the libertarians and the Randians too, for different > reasons. Libertarians weren’t on board with the Cold War, so that was > enough for him. As for Rand, perhaps it was the atheism above all else, > since by this time, a firm defense of religious faith had become essential > to the package of this new thing called conservatism. > > If Buckley was so worried about the impression that the only alternative > to leftism was Nazism, he might have cooled it a bit on suggesting nuclear > war against the North Vietnamese and the Russians. If a distinguishing mark > of Nazism is the use of mass violence to serve political ends, an > ideological change would have been more effective than purges in countering > the smears against the right. He might also have shown less affection for > police-state tactics against antiwar protestors. After all, these smears > from the left have the whiff of credibility for a reason. > > And now in 2015 enters Donald Trump. He is not a marginal candidate. His > rise and persistent dominance of the Republican field has establishment > conservatives panicked, simply because it’s proof that their ideology is > not dominant among GOP voters. Every demographic analysis of his supporters > shows that they do not get their news from magazines or the internet. These > people (middle age, middle income, white) are TV watchers and mostly > haven’t been to college. What the intelligentsia says doesn’t impact their > lives at all. > > And yet their voices have a plurality in the Republican party. We haven’t > heard from them that much in recent years because they’ve not had a > standard bearer and the establishment has exercised such tight control. Now > with Trump, we have the perfect storm: a person who is the caricature of > the ugly American. He pushes patriotism to the point of nativism, energy in > the executive to the point of fascism, police power as a solution without > limits, and military strength to the point of outright worship of war as > the only suitable means. > > The latent statism of the right reaches its apotheosis in Trump, and it is > driving the conservative establishment crazy. He is the painting in the > attic, and they want it to remain hidden. > > As for populism generally, both conservatives and libertarians have > variously toyed with it in the past. Surely the people want liberty. Surely > the only real problem is the ruling class and its power. If the people get > their way, through an assertive wresting of control from the elites, the > result would be a freer America. The real problem traces to the people > controlling the party, not the voters as such. > > But look at what’s happening. The establishment is losing control, but the > result is not a movement that favors freedom but something more like the > right-wing version of the Red Guard. The Trump movement is unleashing > unguided hate: it was Mexicans, then Syrians, then all Muslims, and now he > can stand in front of audiences ridiculing free speech and elicit cheers > from the frothing masses. > > H.L. Mencken is making much more sense to me today. This is a change for > me. I’ve always appreciated Mencken’s love of freedom, his suspicion of the > state, his appreciation for high culture, his disdain for the age-old > superstitions. All that I could grasp and share. What I could not entirely > share was his dread of the common man, and his absolute loathing of the > political system that puts the hoi polloi in charge of choosing political > leadership. He found the system preposterous. > > I’ve always understood the intellectual arguments against democracy and > agreed more or less. But I could never muster Mencken’s passion concerning > the topic. I’ve never fully understood his intense conviction that > democracy is the single biggest threat to liberty. > > Trump has changed all that. Now I see it fully. The common man is gold as > a consumer, worker, family member, church goer. As a voter and political > influencer, the common man is a disaster waiting to happen. > > What effect does this have on conservative ideology? It makes the job of > seeming intelligent and responsible ever more difficult. If I were a > leftist, I would be laughing out loud at all these upheavals. Trump as the > only alternative to Sanders/Hillary is not a world I want to inhabit. > > My prediction is this. Whether or not Trump snags the nomination, his > dominance of the polls in 2015 has given the biggest boost the left has > received in half a century. It also calls on conservatives to clean up > their act: get more libertarian or prepare for the full Trumpization > <https://tucker.liberty.me/trumpism-the-ideology/>of your movement. > > > *Read more: *Trumpism: The Ideology > <https://tucker.liberty.me/trumpism-the-ideology/> > Why We Should Talk About Fascism > <https://tucker.liberty.me/why-we-should-talk-about-fascism/> > The Eff Word Goes Mainstream > <https://tucker.liberty.me/the-eff-word-goes-mainstream/> > Has Donald Trump Unleashed the Neo-Nazis? > <https://tucker.liberty.me/did-donald-trump-unleash-the-neo-nazis/> > How Carly Fiorina and a Boring Debate Took Out Trump > <https://tucker.liberty.me/how-carly-fiorina-and-a-boring-debate-took-out-trump/> > The Rand Paul Campaign: A Retrospective > <https://tucker.liberty.me/the-rand-paul-campaign-a-retrospective/> > > > > https://tucker.liberty.me/the-conservative-meltdown-courtesy-of-trump/?utm_source=Liberty.me&utm_campaign=78d50e7fb0-2015_12_16_Article_Feature_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ecad00b597-78d50e7fb0-139706489 > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "PoliticalForum" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
