Republican Implosion

There is a crucial line of reasoning that all progressives should familiarize themselves with. Unfortunately, I didn't originate it, and frankly I don't have a lot to add to it, but it's so important I thought I'd try to pull together some of the stuff on it that other people have put out there. The gist of it is that Republicans are wrong without making mistakes. Let's set this up, shall we?

Flash back as far as you like: Republicans lie their way into Iraq, which they then screw up beyond belief. Republicans embarass themselves trying to privatize Social Security. Republicans are totally unable to even moderate the horror of Hurricane Katrina. Republicans intentionally cover up a sexual predator within their ranks in order to save a seat in Congress. Surely they must have really screwed up, right? Wrong! This is actually the perfect functioning of the conservative world view, exactly as it was always intended.

It all goes back to the man I love to cite, George Lakoff. In his paradigm-setting book Moral Politics (and in a more accessible way in Don't Think of an Elephant), he outlines the deep cognitive structures that form two archetypal political worldviews. The liberal, "nurturant" view holds that the highest values are mutual responsibility to take care of each other, to grow as individuals, to be respectful and inclusive, encouragement, and so forth. The conservative, "strict" view holds that the highest values are hierarchy, moral order, obedience to authority, discipline, paternalistic protection, and so forth. I found this understanding to be quite valuable, as it helped me to see how the apparent contradictions in conservatism (think support of the death penalty and opposition to abortion) were logically consistent within their own system.

So, taking a second look at Iraq, what do we see? A moral authoritarian, at the head of the hierarchy, forces everyone to be obedient to his authority because he knows how to protect them best. How about Social Security? Well part of the strict view is that you have to push the kids out of the nest, sink or swim, do or die. You can't be making their investments for them, they need to learn to discipline themselves by facing the harshness of the real world. Hurricane Katrina? In the conservative moral order, loyalty to superiors is highly coveted and rewarded. Michael Brown was a loyal donor, so who cares that his most significant experience prior to running FEMA was heading a horse racing group? "Sink or swim" got a particularly macabre chance to prove itself in the ensuing flooding, but hey, the government doesn't hold anyone's hand and people knew the risks of living there. The Foley scandal? Same thing about loyalty - Foley, it turns out, was instrumental in pushing against the 2000 recount in Florida. Plus, since one of the most important goals is preserving the moral hierarchy (which holds Republicans above Democrats), you should do everything possible to preserve the Congressional majority.

So, as I say, the Republicans were wrong: these were all horrible things to do to the country. But they did not make mistakes: these events were all the logical conclusions of various aspects of the conservative world view, and they were not done through unfortunate accidents or simple incompetence. The good news is that people are starting to recognize it. Libertarians and Mountain West states are both traditional Republican allies (although they overlap to a significant extent). And now the CATO Institute is about to publish a piece detailing how the libertarian vote has been trending Democratic recently. The Christian Science Monitor has noted that the Mountain West region is starting to trend Democratic. People are showing their frustration with Bush's lies and Hastert's obfuscations in poll after poll. To alter a famous Jimmy Hoffa quote (and one of my all-time favorites), people may forgive some mistakes, but being wrong ain't one of them.