A veneration of hierarchy and order

Earlier a Department of Justice special counsel issued its report on Biden (not the nasty guy) holding on to classified documents from his time as Vice President. The good news is the conclusion – there are no charges against Biden because a jury would unlikely convict. The bad news is the report throws in a gratuitous dig, saying Biden wouldn’t be convicted because he would be seen as an old man with poor memory. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Daily Kos, quoted several people commenting on that dig. First is Dan Pfeiffer, writing “The Message Box” on Substack, with this point: Biden meets with dozens of people daily – “staffers, members of Congress, CEOs, labor officials, foreign leaders, and military and intelligence officials.” Some of them are Republicans. There are few secrets in Washington because important people love to call reporters and dish. If Biden has a memory problem it would be in the press. Even Kevin McCarthy had commented on how sharp and substantive Biden was. Dworkin added: “The main thing to keep in mind is that it’s more hit job than real problem.” I ask: Not a real problem in what sense? It sure looks like a political problem. Greg Sargent of the New Republic says this will fuel another “But her emails” nightmare. Democrats didn’t handle that well in 2016. Will they this time? Dan Froomkin of Press Watch listed a few condemning headlines about the problem, one assuming the failing memory is a given. Then Froomkin wrote:

Has there ever been a screaming front-page headline about Trump’s abundant mental deficiencies? His repeated displays of memory loss and confusion are actually among the least concerning of his mental problems, which include paranoia, fantasy proneness, narcissism, and sociopathy. There are way more important questions the political press corps should be obsessing over than how Biden presents himself, namely: How is Biden governing? How would Trump govern? And which man is more dangerous?

Dworkin included a tweet from Rex Huppke:

ANALYSIS: The people who like President Joe Biden still like him and the people who hate President Joe Biden still hate him and all the other people were probably tuned out and living their lives today and will decide who to vote for a month or so before the election. The End.

In the comments are a couple appropriate cartoons. One by Clay Bennett shows a cop with a club and a “DOJ” badge standing over Biden who has missing teeth and a black eye. The cop says, “Good News President Biden – I’m releasing you without charges.” Dave Whamond posted a cartoon with the media crowding Biden and saying “Look! Biden has a memory problem!” Behind them the nasty guy says nonsense. The caption says, “The Media’s Memory Problem.” John Patrick Leahy, in an article for Economic Hardship Reporting Project posted on Kos, discussed the meaning of “conservative.” That’s an appropriate discussion with all the talk of a “true conservative” that goes along with RINO (Republican in Name Only).

The evergreen questions raised by the label “conservative” are: conserving what and from whom?

Yup, that’s the heart of the definition. I think that the question should be asked more often. We can dispense with the popular answer, which has become a slogan, is that conservatives want a “small government” and are protecting “individual liberties” of big government. Many conservatives have sponsored big government solutions, such as War on Drugs, massive police funding, eliminating abortion rights, “Don’t Say Gay” laws, and school book bans. Few people ask why “small government” and “individual liberties” are a goal. See the question above. “Small government” is a goal because it can’t help the poor people that the rich people don’t want helped. They want “individual liberties” so no one will interfere with their making money without regard to how it affects the poor and the environment. The word “conserve” as applied to politics was first used in 1818 by the groups that wanted to restore the French Monarchy after the Revolution. Not many conservatives say want a king (yeah, many act like they do). So what is to be conserved? Tradition? Duty? Culture? But these things change over time, and in a thriving culture they should change. Economist Friedrich Hayek noted conservatism has a basic problem. It cannot offer an alternative to the general direction. It is against other political ideas, without offering a positive direction of its own. What I see as the core of conservatism:

Political scientist Corey Robin has recently argued that conservatism’s most consistent traits are 1) a veneration of hierarchy and order and 2) a fear of the lower orders. “Though it is often claimed that the left stands for equality while the right stands for freedom,” wrote Robin in his 2011 book “The Reactionary Mind,” “this notion misstates the actual disagreement between right and left. Historically, the conservative has favored liberty for the higher orders and constraint for the lower orders.” And, he goes on, it has historically defined itself against the movements it opposes.

A “veneration of hierarchy” with, of course, themselves high within it. And the only “fear” I think they have of the lower orders is that they won’t stay in their place in the hierarchy and need those higher up to apply pressure. The emphasis on conservatives to conserve means constant debates on what is conservative and what isn’t. It also means constantly seeking new enemies to define themselves against, enemies such as wokeness, critical race theory, and the “gay agenda.” An Associated Press article posted on Kos told the story of Ramona (last name withheld). At the start of the pandemic she and her boyfriend Don moved in together. He believed the conspiracy theories of the pandemic and theories of other things as well. Ramona began to believe the theories filled in the blanks. She felt she understood and that she had found her people online. Don began stockpiling supplies and running drills to get their truck packed and on the road, to be ready when the Storm came, the big moment the theories talked about. Ramona began to be more anxious. She felt if she did enough research she could have power over her fears. The power went out. Don was convinced this was part of the Storm. They packed the car and headed out. But it turned out to be a truck that hit a transformer. They returned home. Don responded with more drills. Then Ramona began to see the predictions and prophesies didn’t come true. The nasty guy was not reelected. The Storm did not come. A friend suggested a social media cleanse. Ramona tried it and felt her anxiety recede. She began to argue with Don about the theories. Then she left him. When she got the COVID vaccine she called Don. He told her she would die within a year. She’s still alive two years later. Shefali Luthra and Mel Leonor Barclay, in an article for The 19th and posted on Kos, wrote about all the ways the nasty guy could curtail access to abortion across the country – even in states that have guaranteed abortion rights and even without Congress voting for a national ban. He could force the Food and Drug Administration to remove mifepristone from the market. This is one of the two most commonly used drugs for medicated abortion. He could enforce the Comstock Act of 1873. It is an anti-obscenity law written to curtail material “intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use.” Whether it can be used to ban access to abortion is controversial. He could go after contraceptives, especially the emergency type that are seen to induce an abortion before the fertilized egg can implant in the womb, though the medical community doesn’t agree with that interpretation. He could stop enforcing the law that protects access to abortion clinics, allowing demonstrators to harass patients. He could tell the DoJ and the FDA to ignore the evidence that abortion restrictions harm people. That allows legal challenges to state abortion rights.

A second Trump administration would likely represent a meaningful shift in the federal landscape for reproductive rights.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported the nasty guy is attacking the Federal Reserve, the body that sets interest rates. Higher rates over the last couple years have helped cool inflation, which is close to the ideal 2% rate. The nasty guy’s objection is the Fed is now saying they may begin to lower interest rates later this year. That news is a big reason why the stock market has been doing so well, setting new highs. But he says lowering rates would help Democrats. And it’s only a tiny step to say the Fed isn’t lowering rates because the economy is in good shape and inflation is vanquished, but because the Fed wants to help Biden and the Democrats. That is part of why the nasty guy has been rooting for an economic crash. And soon please. A few days ago, when the nasty guy prompted the resignation of Ronna McDaniel from the job of chair of the Republican National Committee I said I have more of the story. She had kept the job far longer than her performance merited because she was devoted to the nasty guy. Her position seemed secure. Eleveld reported why the nasty guy turned on her. One thing she wasn’t good at was raising money. That means there isn’t enough money for his campaign and his legal expenses. He seems uninterested whether there is money for any of the other Republican races. In a pundit roundup from the end of January – as lawmakers were talking about the nasty guy’s demand to make the border bill fail – Dworkin quoted Sargent:

This has been widely seen as evidence that Trump wants border chaos to continue to use against President Biden in the election. But this whole episode reveals something else too: What Trump and the MAGA right really fear above all is a system that might function better without resorting to the maximally cruel and extreme restrictions they see as the only acceptable “solution.”

In the comments of another pundit roundup there are some good cartoons. Pat Morrison posted one by Paul Conrad of the LA Times that fits well with the nasty guy saying he is being persecuted. With that talk there have been cartoons of him nailing himself to a cross. Conrad’s cartoon is from 50 years ago and shows Nixon nailing himself to a cross. Lisa Ericsson Murphy posted a cartoon (author not shown) that shows barbed wire across the top of Heaven’s entrance. St. Peter tells a new arrival, “We had to put up razor barb wire because of all the Trump Christians thinking they were going to get in.”