The rotting amalgamation of disparate interest groups called the Democratic Party can’t preserve the tattered remnants of a liberal democratic republic. Our hopes and dreams were held hostage by craven cringers, flinchers and the inept. So many today rationalize their political malpractice as ‘it [the Democratic collapse] was just on the economy.’ And still act bewildered.
The Boy King’s shoe gazing today? Repulsive in its habitual accommodationist weakness. If they weren’t dragging us all down into the abyss with them, one would say they deserved their fate.
Dr Leo Strauss says
@Comment
MSNBC’s fantasy of being a counterpoint to Fox is a not-insignificant contributor to November’s outcome. It’s not even the junior varsity in terms of talent or broadcasting fundamentals.
Schultz’s instincts and heart are in the right place but he lacks that necessary but ineffable quality vital for TV/non-radio broadcasting. (His producer(s) are not helping). That said, the entire MSNBC evening line up is dubious.
Comment says
Just tuned into that terrible Ed Show – Along w/Olberman he is obsessed with calling women stupid on TV.
Comment says
Let us now praise famous men and the fathers that begot them
Dr Leo Strauss says
Machiavelli in his “Discourses” (the “Prince” was his knowingly unserious blog equivalent of lurid, lowest common denominator he cobbled together for a job application/rehabilitation), the English civil-war and ‘the country tradition’/city philosophical sinews, Montesquieu in part and the Framers — all pre-occupied with how to maintain a republic and at least forestall its inevitable decay and demise.
Recall we wrote about and discussed the theory and political philosophy behind it all over at STSOZ 1.0 — including yes, the Greeks (without irony given this .com’s initial Colbert pose before there was a Colbert). Now many years later, this 2.0 blog largely alludes back to it all in shorthand. Princeton’s Pocock’s masterful ‘The Machiavellian Moment’ remains probably the single best, magesterial synthesis of how Machiavelli/Discourses and English republican tradition shaped America’s birth.
Central to it all, of course, was – and remains – the notion of ‘virtue’ – not defined in today’s superficial terms of moralisms but in terms of social activity and posterity. Douglas Adair, drawing on republican theory and the English tradition above, posited that the Framer’s desire for ‘fame’ – not in today’s pornographic sense, but seeking ‘fame’ as lasting echoes in building posterity offered one view. In that sense, the Framers’ personal striving for ‘fame’ and republican ‘virtue’ overlap. Others writing of the Framers assert that Roman notions of ‘duty’ were more apropos – although at a certain remove in some ways it becomes a distinction with minor differences (we side with Adair fwiw).
The long decay and now absence of any coherent American philosophy (beyond consuming) makes today’s mean (in all senses of the word) society inevitably vulnerable to bluff and daunting by the Movement minority. The Movement has the advantage as it can draw on centuries of inchoate, conflicting but existent traditions and memes.
It’s heartbreaking to see non-Rightist audiences turn to ‘Thought Leaders’ like the plagarist Doris Kearns Goodwin who mechanistically cite factoids from American history like the 1946 election results (Dems crushed, Truman not seen as FDR-esque) as palliatives without context. Such historical flatulence is meaningless as it presumes equivalence in societies and their animating (even if in the American case subconscious) idea. Americans are nonetheless impressed as they know nothing about their own history by and large. It sells
booksproduct.This relative despondency is not based merely on the tactical politics of the moment. Obviously the Democratic consortia failed to learn anything at all 2001-2008 and deserve oblivion on objective political terms. In another context, Social Democrats indeed.
What’s clear is the hyper militarized, national security-state, meaningless notion of citizen, and consumption as the organizing basis of American ethos and idea is a universal. We know of no historical example of a republic that has reached this stage of decay (not as in the petty and routine factoid partisan bulimic analogies as marketed by the Beschlosses and Goodwins of the day) and recovered.
Anon says
The worst part is that this beating could make Obama and Dems wake up and fix things for 2012. But it won’t. They will just double down on appeasing and compromising.
cb says
Nevada wanted to cover itself with a wet blanket again, because they like the moist comfort of mildewed vanilla. And, man, who are we to question that? “Tonight, Nevadans chose hope over fear. Tonight, Nevadans chose to go forward, not backward. Tonight, Nevadans chose to ERROR 604 ERROR 604 ERROR 604 PLATITUDE BANK EMPTIED PREMATURELY. @sglover
Comment says
“The usual pundits, for all their verbiage, have missed a lot, especially since they have nobody from the cognitive and brain sciences discussing the election.”
~George Lakoff 11-3-2010
(multiple ironies unintended)
sglover says
Speaking of “habitual accommodationist weakness”, it’s very disappointing that that nobody Reid didn’t get booted.