Modern Republicanism Exposed

Lawrence Kudlow candidly betrayed typical Modern Republican cruelty when, regarding Japan, he said “The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that.”

That but of inhumanity didn’t cause a sir, because we all know individual Republicans are heartless. This is dog bites man stuff.

What is interesting, and frankly shocking, to me is that we are starting to see more columns like this one in the Journal Sentinel Online. Even though it state something DL readers have known for a long time, it is surprising to read about modern Republicanism’s nihilistic core philosophy in an actual newspaper.

Perhaps this is just a fluke and the reality that Republicanism is not about “balancing budgets” or even governing will continue to be covered up. But maybe not. Maybe we’ll start to see some actual journalism which notes that modern Republicanism is an inherently un-American anti-Democratic movement that couldn’t give a fuck about governing.

Welcome to Thunderdome politics
By Mordecai Lee

In the third installment of the “Mad Max” Australian movie trilogy, Mel Gibson played the good guy in a futuristic world that was chronically short of energy. Improbably, the “bad guy” (bad girl?) was played by Tina Turner. She was the dictator of a small colony, fueled by methane gas. In the spirit of the Roman “bread and circuses,” she kept her restive subjects entertained with a gladiatorial game called Thunderdome. The motto of each game is “Two men enter, one leaves.” It has no other rules. A fight to the death.

I think Wisconsin has just entered the era of Thunderdome politics. One of the most interesting aspects of the fight over collective bargaining was that it clearly will have the effect of weakening public labor unions to the point of atrophying. Setting aside the merits of the issue (i.e., is the model of industrial labor unions appropriate for the public sector?), it seems fair to examine the political effect of the new law. I suggest that the law will eliminate the huge political power of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state teachers union, has had and, in a lesser way, the power of other public-sector unions.

If I’m right, then what we’ve just witnessed is the politics of not personal destruction as practiced in Washington, D.C., but the politics of political destruction. The Republican Party has just eliminated a major pillar of the Democratic Party’s architecture. So, Thunderdome politics. Two parties enter the ring, one exits. (snip)

Where is this coming from? The answer to that, it seems to me, is the sharply increased ideological nature of Republican politics. The impact of talk radio, Newt Gingrich and the tea party has been to energize their base by promoting anger. Given that emotional appeal, compromise has morphed from a positive value to a negative one. To compromise is to show weakness. To compromise is to acknowledge validity to the opponent’s perspective.

I suggest that Walker is a child of talk radio and that his political ideology can be understood only by recognizing that his political views originate there.

The lesson of the grass-roots mobilization against President Barack Obama’s health care bill was one of political success, the astounding turnaround in voter preferences between the 2008 elections and 2010.

Now, fast-forward to the budget-repair bill. Walker was pursuing an ideological agenda of helping balance the budget with public worker financial concessions and of permanently weakening public-employee labor unions. His tepid interest in compromise is a good indication of his approach to politics. In this Thunderdome world, two entered and only one exited – Walker and the state’s Republican Legislature.

Now, for the kicker. The effect of the budget-repair bill, I predict, will be to mobilize the left’s base equal to what talk radio and the tea party have done on the right.

Now the energy of anger has shifted to the constituency of the Democratic Party. Motto: Repeal!

In the same way that this slogan helped the impressive Republican victories in the November 2010 elections, I believe that will fuel an unprecedented mobilization on the left. The focus initially will be on recalling the Republican state senators who were elected in November 2008. But in less than 10 months, the Republicans elected in November 2010 also will be eligible for recall.

Can the left sustain its energy for more than a year? If the tea party is the measuring stick, it began in the summer of 2009 and crested 15 months later in November 2010. If my analogy is in any way on target, then the energy on the left will still be there in the spring of 2011, when the rest of the Legislature is subject to recall. (Some readers may remember that I am philosophically against recalls.)

So, in this next round of Thunderdome politics, again two will enter the ring. If history is any judge, then in round two, the results will be reversed, with the left emerging victorious.

While ideology and energy are welcome in Wisconsin politics, I can’t help but think that the politics of political destruction are not. “Thunderdome” was an entertaining movie. But as the basis for future Wisconsin politics, I dread it.

It is quite shocking to me that it has taken so long for someone to realize this about Republicans.