A mighty Meeting of the Minds: Judis & Kirk & Lofgren

In willful disunion sanctified by TeaPublicans, can a sovereign government survive? Are there no limits to endless their rebellion against the proper role and functions of government?

Russell Kirk laid down this the 6th of his Canons of Conservatism: "...innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence."

It is doubtful that Jesus will return to Michigan anytime soon. Yet in the meanwhile, Russell Kirk, the guardian of all things conservative has spoken, he said that Christianity and Western Civilization are "unimaginable apart from one another." and that "all culture arises out of religion. When religious faith decays, culture must decline, though often seeming to flourish for a space after the religion which has nourished it has sunk into disbelief."

Quotes from Russell Kirk Conservative, Michigan's own master philosopher and laureate: 1.) The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, 2.) The Portable Conservative Reader 1982.

Kirk's Six Conservative Canons

1. A belief in a transcendent order, which Kirk described variously as based in tradition, divine revelation, or natural law;
2. An affection for the "variety and mystery" of human existence;
3. A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize "natural" distinctions;
4. A belief that property and freedom are closely linked;
5. A faith in custom, convention, and prescription, and
6. A recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence.

John Judis reflects on the total lack of "political value" ascribed to "prudence."  He writes:

"Over the last four decades, the Republican Party has transformed from a loyal opposition into an insurrectionary party that flouts the law when it is in the majority and threatens disorder when it is the minority. It is the party of Watergate and Iran-Contra, but also of the government shutdown in 1995 and the impeachment trial of 1999. If there is an earlier American precedent for today's Republican Party, it is the antebellum Southern Democrats of John Calhoun who threatened to nullify, or disregard, federal legislation they objected to and who later led the fight to secede from the union over slavery."

The TeaPublican lack of civility and "prudence", respect for historic traditions and the role of honest advice and consent has raised the question of the sincerity of their religious faith. Or as Russell Kirk proclaims: "...all culture arises out of religion. When religious faith decays, culture must decline, though often seeming to flourish for a space after the religion which has nourished it has sunk into disbelief."

What has happened in Washington is a breakdown of culture, a disrespect for religion, and a terrible "iron hatred" that seems to permeate every GOP partisan act of obfuscation.

Writes Veteran Republican Washington insider, Mike Lofgen has just left the party after near 30 years of service:

"It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant."

Here, in part, is Lofgren's analysis of the great danger- present and future - being brought on by the TeaPublican rebellion and it's anti-government putsch which has decimated the party of Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower and now threatens the sovereign success and stability of our nation. Lofgren writes that in his "Manual of Parliamentary Practice," Thomas Jefferson wrote that it is less important that every rule and custom of a legislature be absolutely justifiable in a theoretical sense, than that they should be generally acknowledged and honored by all parties. These include unwritten rules, customs and courtesies that lubricate the legislative machinery and keep governance a relatively civilized procedure. The US Senate has more complex procedural rules than any other legislative body in the world; many of these rules are contradictory, and on any given day, the Senate parliamentarian may issue a ruling that contradicts earlier rulings on analogous cases.

Lofgren:

"The only thing that can keep the Senate functioning is collegiality and good faith. During periods of political consensus, for instance, the World War II and early post-war eras, the Senate was a "high functioning" institution: filibusters were rare and the body was legislatively productive. Now, one can no more picture the current Senate producing the original Medicare "Act than the old Supreme Soviet having legislated the Bill of Rights.

Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. As Hannah Arendt observed, a disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself."

This disorder and brinkmanship in Washington has not derailed the wealth sucking multinationals from having a record, banner year in extreme profits.

What is wrong with this picture?

Ask any A.L.E.C. member why so many unfairly loaded and corporate benefiting legislative proposals (prepackaged Pro-Corporate designed legislation) are getting fast tracked in the midst of our slide into the Great Bush Depression. God forbid.

The TeaPublican dysfunction and lack of "prudence" have greatly abetted and benefited the "takers" who apparently live in a world removed from those of us who work, teach or serve our fellow community members.

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TeaPublicans: Civic Slackers Filled with Obstinacy, Obstruction, Obfuscation

"Extremists' obstructionism in pursuit of "our way or the highway" is no vice."
- Parody of Sen. Barry Goldwater

Eyes Wide Open
The general population is beginning to see the depth of the civic depravity of the TeaPublican agenda and the thrust of the American Legislative Exchange Council so much a part of the threat the Bush economic implosion thrust upon you and I, ordinary Americans. Two well-placed men from inside the GOP have helped us see the corrupt and malevolent nature of current TeaPartisanship:

1.) David Stockman has asserted that Bush and his cabal created a civic crime "Worse Than Watergate." Former Reagan Budget Director, Stockman was in the heart of the Regan regime and understood the guts of the "Cult of Reagan" far better than most. It was Stockman who enlightened the nation that Reagan cultists were willing to use the huge debt that Reagan ran up to control and defeat social spending in America.

Author John Judis writes this confirming Stockman's "worse than Watergate" assertion:
"Over the last four decades, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS TRANSFORMED FROM A LOYAL OPPOSITION INTO AN INSURRECTIONARY PARTY THAT FLOUTS THE LAW WHEN IT IS IN THE MAJORITY AND THREATENS DISORDER WHEN IT IS THE MINORITY. It is the party of Watergate and Iran-Contra, but also of the government shutdown in 1995 and the impeachment trial of 1999. If there is an earlier American precedent for today's Republican Party, it is the antebellum Southern Democrats of John Calhoun who threatened to nullify, or disregard, federal legislation they objected to and who later led the fight to secede from the union over slavery." "Emphasis added"

2.)  Now comes Mike Lofgren. Lofgren ended his career as a Congressional staffer after years as a respected professional staffer for Washington Republicans in both the U.S. House and the Senate and having served on the GOP Senate Budget Committees. From Mike Lofgren' s essay "Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult" on September 3, 2011:

Lofgren:

"It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, THEY WOULD USE THAT FISCAL CRISIS TO GET WHAT THEY WANTED, BY LITERALLY HOLDING THE US AND GLOBAL ECONOMIES AS HOSTAGES."

"...the attitude of many freshman Republicans to national default was 'bring it on!'"

Lofgren:

"It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS BECOMING LESS AND LESS LIKE A TRADITIONAL POLITICAL PARTY IN A REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY AND BECOMING MORE LIKE AN APOCALYPTIC CULT, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant."

The cultish TeaPublicans around the country have made every attempt to rally the civic slackers, those

Lofgren:

"The only thing that can keep the Senate functioning is collegiality and good faith. During periods of political consensus, for instance, the World War II and early post-war eras, the Senate was a "high functioning" institution: filibusters were rare and the body was legislatively productive. NOW, ONE CAN NO MORE PICTURE THE CURRENT SENATE PRODUCING THE ORIGINAL MEDICARE ACT THAN THE OLD SUPREME SOVIET HAVING LEGISLATED THE BILL OF RIGHTS.

"Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. AS HANNAH ARENDT OBSERVED, A DISCIPLINED MINORITY OF TOTALITARIANS CAN USE THE INSTRUMENTS OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT TO undermine DEMOCRACY ITSELF."

Lofgren:

"A couple of years ago, A REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE STAFF DIRECTOR TOLD ME CANDIDLY (AND PROUDLY) WHAT THE METHOD WAS TO ALL THIS OBSTRUCTION AND DISRUPTION. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.

"A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. THESE VOTERS' CONFUSION OVER WHO DID WHAT ALLOWS THEM TO FORM THE CONCLUSION THAT 'THEY ARE ALL CROOKS,' AND THAT 'GOVERNMENT IS NO GOOD,' FURTHER LEADING THEM TO THINK, "A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES" AND 'THE PARTIES ARE LIKE TWO KIDS IN A SCHOOL YARD.' This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s - a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn ('Government is the problem,' declared Ronald Reagan in 1980)."

Lofgren:

"THIS TACTIC OF INDUCING PUBLIC DISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT IS NOT ONLY CYNICAL, IT IS SCHIZOPHRENIC. For people who profess to revere the Constitution, it is strange that they so caustically denigrate the very federal government that is the material expression of the principles embodied in that document. This is not to say that there is not some theoretical limit to the size or intrusiveness of government; I would be the first to say there are such limits, both fiscal and Constitutional.

"But most Republican officeholders seem strangely uninterested in the effective repeal of Fourth Amendment protections by the Patriot Act, the weakening of habeas corpus and self-incrimination protections in the public hysteria following 9/11 or the unpalatable fact that the United States has the largest incarcerated population of any country on earth. If anything, they would probably opt for more incarcerated persons, as imprisonment is a profit center for the prison privatization industry, which is itself a growth center for political contributions to these same politicians.

" Instead, they prefer to rail against those government programs that actually help people. And when a program is too popular to attack directly, like Medicare or Social Security, THEY PREFER TO UNDERMINE IT BY FEIGNING AN AGONIZED CONCERN ABOUT THE DEFICIT. THAT CONCERN, AS WE SHALL SEE, IS LARGELY FICTITIOUS."

Lofgren:

"UNDERMINING AMERICANS' BELIEF IN THEIR OWN INSTITUTIONS OF SELF-GOVERNMENT REMAINS A PRIME GOP ELECTORAL STRATEGY. But if this technique falls short of producing Karl Rove's dream of 30 years of unchallengeable one-party rule (as all such techniques always fall short of achieving the angry and embittered true believer's New Jerusalem), there are other even less savory techniques upon which to fall back."

Lofgren:

"This legislative assault is moving in a diametrically opposed direction to 200 years of American history, when the arrow of progress pointed toward more political participation by more citizens. REPUBLICANS ARE AMONG THE MOST SHRILL IN SELF-RIGHTEOUSLY LECTURING OTHER COUNTRIES ABOUT THE WONDERS OF DEMOCRACY; EXPORTING DEMOCRACY (albeit at the barrel of a gun) to the Middle East was a signature policy of the Bush administration. But domestically, they don't want those people voting."

Lofgren:

"If Republicans have perfected a new form of politics that is successful electorally at the same time that it unleashes major policy disasters, it means twilight both for the democratic process and America's status as the world's leading power."

(Emphasis added throughout these quotes)


See Also the previsous posting "Our Guides to the Bottomless Pit: Wolfram, Von Hayek, Lewis F. Powell, & A.L.E.C.".

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