DL Open Thread Sunday February 13 2022
Last week I asked what actual policy goals centrist like Coons are trying to enact. The answer is that there are no goals other than to cool the passions of the left and ensure that all political outcomes are far right of center thereby further enriching the rich and keeping existing class structures in place. And at that, they’ve been very successful.
I also sometimes wonder – what are the actual policy goals of the right? I’ve been all over the place on that question. Any given day I will say that the policy goals of the right are simply to keep the grift going and fleece their moronic followers for all they are worth. Trump, for example, doesn’t;t appear to have a cogent ideology beyond stuffing money in his pockets.
Other days, and more often lately, it seems clear to me that the Republican goals are to replace the American Republic with a Christian Fascist state. Certainly recent Supreme Court appointments are pursuing that goal.
On this question, Steve Newton steered me to this by Aaron Ross Powell, a Libertarian who is convinced that the goal the American right win is to completely overturn the liberal consensus that has held sway in America since the end of WWII.
Roughly, the idea is that the radical self-authorship that markets and liberalism’s individualistic ethos enable and encourage have led our society away from not just the common good, but also meaningful, personal happiness. We’ve become hedonistic, atheistic, and unmoored from the traditions that give us meaning. We choose to abandon traditional faiths, explore non-binary genders and non-traditional gender roles,
Given the world view, the Republicans have policy goals that are very simple:
- ban porn
- ban positivism
- Sabbath laws
- Corporatism
- stewardship over nature
- Etc, etc.
Sound nuts. Some fringe lunatic, right? Well, no. that’s Adrian Vermule. A Harvard law professor, Catholic integralist, piner for theocracy, and a leading intellectual of the post-liberal conservative movement.
You want inhumane? I’ll GIVE you inhumane:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/13/new-zealand-authorities-deploy-barry-manilow-against-covid-protesters
I would counter that any religiosity is a veil to keep the relatively small fraction of the true religious right content. Domestically, the ultimate goal is to restore the kind white cultural hegemony that existed up through the 1960s. In that sense, you may see more overt religious displays in areas that were previously secularized, but its more of a reminder about the cultural identify of the nation. A lot of this is disguised by the “Fuck Your Feelings” politics which seems to go nowhere.
Internationally, the policy is fragmented. There is a general sense that the US should be the sole global superpower for the 21st century, but the old-guard corporate globalists keep sabotaging the effort with their international business ventures that disadvantage the American worker that they claim to put ahead of all else.
The right’s big problem is that there is no God, and their entire epistemology is based on the absurd fiction that there is one.
As for Professor Vermule, do what the right would do — shoot the motherfucker and move on. He’ll get to see his God quicker that way.
I like it. The direct approach.