I've been agonizing for some time over how as a country we've catapulted so far beyond George Orwell's 1984, which taught us that rhetoric could be constructed to match a reality exactly opposite of the slogans uttered. We're now to the point that up is truly down, at least in political "discourse," if you could call it that. Into my mailbox comes the tome below, from a thoughtful public servant who has worked for the greater good for going on 30 years. Here's what he has to say about the Principles Of Republicanism:
What Republicans are not.--Republicans generally describe themselves as "conservatives," but they haven't been truly conservative for decades. Republicans want to conserve some things they like and don't want to conserve other things they don't like. So the term "conservative" - which suggests a general predisposition to conserve things as they are - doesn't fit. It doesn't explain what they want to conserve and what they don't. Look at their record: Republicans don't want to conserve the environment - they want to allow corporations to consume (the opposite of conserve) natural resources to enhance short-term corporate profits. They want to dismantle - not conserve - the social contract that has bound Americans together for the past 70 years in the form of Social Security, public education, publicly built highways, unemployment insurance, sound regulation of the financial system, and the economic safety net for poor Americans. They don't want to conserve the balanced, progressive tax system that has made possible the American Dream for middle-class Americans and distinguished us from third-world countries run by economic elites. Most significantly, they favor a radical restructuring of the relationship between the rights of corporations and the rights of actual human beings, that would astonish the founding fathers, who viewed corporations as a narrow legal construct designed to raise capital for building canals, not an out-of-control leviathan spending multi-millions to buy elections.
Nor are Republicans defined by any devotion to the abstract principles of liberty or freedom, despite the prominence of these concepts in Republican rhetoric. If Ron Paul had been nominated by the Republicans for President in 2008, then it might have been plausible to argue that Republicans were devoted to liberty, but, of course, he was not. For one brief shining moment, in 1964, the Republican Party was arguably characterized by a devotion to liberty, but they of course lost badly that year. In their desire to win, the Republicans absorbed the racist southern right, which had no devotion to liberty. Ever since, the Republican Party has allowed other priorities to displace liberty as a guiding principle. A classic example of the Orwellian relationship between Republicans and liberty is the "Liberty Counsel," which is devoted to denying gays and lesbians the liberty to marry. The Republican Party's embrace of the religious right has made opposition to abortion a defining principle, and of course denying women the freedom to choose whether to be reproduce or not is antithetical to liberty. Similarly, Republicans since the first George Bush have treated membership in the American Civil LIBERTIES Union as akin to membership in the Communist Party. How can a party that claims to be devoted to liberty be the enemy of civil liberties? Finally, Republicans almost uniformly oppose the liberty of citizens of the District of Columbia to elect voting representatives in Congress. So liberty is clearly not a defining principle of the Republican Party.
What, then, are the true principles of modern Republicanism? The true principles of Republicanism are Selfishness, Tribalism, Violence, and Ignorance.
Seflishness.--The first principle of modern Republicanism is Selfishness. This is primarily reflected in Republican policy towards taxes, which is to cut taxes whenever possible, regardless of the effects on other policy priorities. While Republicans claim to support the military, for example, they do not support it if it conflicts with cutting taxes. When the Republican Party initiated the War in Iraq, they simultaneously cut taxes, thus denying the military the resources it needed to have a chance of victory in Iraq. The Republican unwillingness to raise taxes even to increase resources for the military, or to balance the budget (two other asserted principles of the Party), shows that cutting taxes is really their pre-eminent principle. The motivation for cutting taxes, of course, is Selfishness. Republicans claim to want to cut taxes to stimulate the economy, but they want to cut taxes regardless of whether the economy is growing or shrinking. They say they want to cut taxes because they believe in "limited government," but Republicans don't believe in limited government when it comes to fighting terrorism, violating civil rights, or outlawing abortion, so that cannot account for their obsession with tax-cutting. In fact, the simplest answer is the truest answer - Republicans want to cut taxes because they want more for themselves, regardless of the effect on the military, on the middle class, on America's standing in the world, or on any other government priority they claim to support. So Selfishness - invariably wanting more for yourself, regardless of its effect on any other goal - is the true principle that guides Republican tax policy and that dominates any other policy consideration.
Tribalism.--Tribalism is the inclination to favor the interests of those who are most closely related to you, or those with whom you most closely associate. Tribalism emerges as a principle of modern Republicanism in many ways - currently it is reflected in the Republicans' strong opposition to immigration. More generally, Tribalism is reflected in the average Republican's inability to place himself in anyone else's shoes - to empathize with the problems of others (here it overlaps strongly with the principle of Selfishness). Republicans will typically ignore the problems of others unless those problems are experienced by someone in the Republican's own family. Republicans will then embrace that problem (and that problem only) as a cause that deserves government attention. Thus, Senator Bob Dole embraced the rights of the disabled because he was disabled himself. Tribalism is also reflected in Republicans' discomfort with foreigners - Republican politicians often point with pride to the fact that they know little about foreign countries and foreign peoples. Republicans go beyond patriotism (love of country) to disparagement of other countries and cultures, to the repeated insistence that America is better than other countries in every respect, even when that is objectively not true (see Ignorance, below). This Republican infatuation with American "exceptionalism" is simply thinly veiled Tribalism. The obsessive Republican insistence on closing every speech with the phrase "God bless America" conflicts with the truly religious person's desire to have God bless all of His children, but a Tribalist only asks God to bless those who are mostly closely related to him.
Violence.--Republicans favor violent approaches to solving problems. They tend to reject diplomacy, and favor war. The war in Iraq is the obvious example, but it has become clear since the Lyndon Johnson tapes were published that the Vietnam War was largely fomented by Republicans against the better judgment of President Johnson. Republicans favored violent overthrows of democratic (but left-leaning) governments in Iran (in 1954) and Chile (in 1973). This principle overlaps with the principle of Tribalism, because diplomacy is typically multilateral, and requires cooperation with other countries. War can be unilateral, and thus satisfies the principle of Tribalism as well as the principle of Violence. Republicans favor the death penalty and long prison terms as essentially their only solution to crime. The adherence to Violence is exemplified by the Republican insistence on simplistic interpretations of the Second Amendment. Guns enable Violence, and the Republican assertion of the universal right to own guns is in effect the assertion of the right to engage in Violence. The principle of Violence has acquired a higher profile with the rise of the Tea Party movement and its threats to "water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants." The principle of Violence was exemplified in a U-Tube question that was asked at a Republican presidential debate before the 2008 New Hampshire Primary. The questioner filmed himself carrying a rifle, asked a question about the Second Amendment, and joked that he would not shoot the candidate if the candidate gave the wrong answer to the question. This was considered funny by the Republican candidates, implying that engaging in Violence against those with whom one is in political disagreement is sufficiently acceptable to be considered humorous.
Ignorance.--Republicans believe that people should learn to read and do arithmetic, but they don't seem to think anyone should actually use those skills to acquire knowledge. Those who show intellectual curiosity and use their intelligence to learn about the world around them are condemned as part of an "elite." This "elite" always refers only to an intellectual elite, never to the economic elite. This disdain for knowledge stems partly from the absorption of the religious right by the Republican Party; the religious right is suspicious of knowledge because they believe it undermines unthinking belief in biblical inerrancy. This religious suspicion of knowledge manifests itself as opposition to science, especially scientific ideas like evolution or paleontology or any findings of geology or astronomy that suggest that the world is more than a few thousand years old. But it also includes the unwillingness to accept the findings of modern climatology or macroeconomics. Republicans condemn Democrats who criticize the accumulation of wealth by the economic elite, and characterize such criticism as "class warfare." But they are perfectly comfortable with fomenting another form of "class warfare" against those who have acquired knowledge rather than wealth. They are comfortable with those who are rich in money, but attack those who are rich in knowledge.
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So there you have it. This guy is right. The true Republican principles are being played out every day - in the Debt Commission, in the halls of Congress where they promise to preserve tax cuts for the wealthiest while letting unemployment payments expire for millions, and their unwillingness to even consider legislation on immigration and the environment.
They believe that political issues should be resolved not by thinking about them, and using our intelligence to achieve the solutions with the greatest benefits to the American people, but rather by resort to dogmas based on the principles of Selfishness, Tribalism, Violence, and Ignorance.
At this rate, where will we be in 2084?