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This is my comment of 2011 posted in The American Conservative.
Thomas O. Meehan says:
My perception is that the Tea Party is
an outgrowth of a more important phenomenon. The masses of small
business people, middle class Republicans and elderly patriots who have
supported the party for many years have finally smelled the rat. That
is, the National GOP responds to inputs from big donors and big players
far more than it does to their own interests.
So while Ron Paul, the Tea Party and the populists still have a hard time getting heard, they are getting some traction. I believe that as the middle class base of the GOP is squeezed no matter who is in charge, they will listen to these messengers because everyone else they hear from is sticking it to them. They already have sent more than a few freshmen to Congress. Lets see if they keep it up with the Senate races.
There is the feeling of a real shift in the air. A feeling that things just cannot go on as usual. The difference between now and before is that the people ticked off are capable of organizing and funding primary challengers. They are setting up networks and the GOP is reluctantly listening to them. This isn’t some great jubilee but it is a ground swell.
Decrying the lack of character or wisdom within the GOP feels good but it does nothing for our agenda. For the better part of eight years, legions of so called conservatives have backed Bush and all the wars out of loyalty and a simple minded belief that questioning the war was equal to betraying “Our Side.” We need to remember that loyalty and persistence are not in themselves evil. The Tea Partiers know something has gone wrong. It won’t take all that much to get them to see that our eleven carrier battle groups and their kids unemployment have something to do with one another. Even the arm chair bombardiers will come around when their wallets are empty enough.
I went on to write this:
The crucial question is this, how do we rejigger the political rewards system to drive the congressional whores into doing our bidding. General Electric will always seek to influence government to its own survival and profitability. If Obama wanted to build pyramids instead of solar farms, only an idiot would believe that General Electrics pyramid division wouldn’t be up and running in a fortnight. A player that big in the US economy is tethered to government by a labyrinth of regulations, contracts and trade agreements. Of course they are going to be on the side of big government if their continued existence remains contingent on their government dependence. No plan of action can succeed without an overture to such large entities that guarantees their survival in the context of a low regulation, low military industrial output environment. In short, the way to cripple the “Welfare-Warfare” complex is to reduce it to the “Welfare Complex” alone. You can only get so much in campaign contributions from people dependent on the government in the first place.
Trump surely understands this. Unless we believe that it is impossible to change the economic incentives of our system toward activities and sectors that actually benefit the American population, Trump is our only option. He understands that Americans are not inclined toward philosophical altruism as motivation to action. They will move mountains to succeed and make a buck.
The essence of success then, is to open ways for them to do both in objectively good causes.
This is not a prediction. Trump is the only political actor on the scene who has both the inclination and the force of will to try this approach. He is our only hope for a break with a lethal status quo. His is defects of temperament must be weighed in this light. We must choose and hope.
So while Ron Paul, the Tea Party and the populists still have a hard time getting heard, they are getting some traction. I believe that as the middle class base of the GOP is squeezed no matter who is in charge, they will listen to these messengers because everyone else they hear from is sticking it to them. They already have sent more than a few freshmen to Congress. Lets see if they keep it up with the Senate races.
There is the feeling of a real shift in the air. A feeling that things just cannot go on as usual. The difference between now and before is that the people ticked off are capable of organizing and funding primary challengers. They are setting up networks and the GOP is reluctantly listening to them. This isn’t some great jubilee but it is a ground swell.
Decrying the lack of character or wisdom within the GOP feels good but it does nothing for our agenda. For the better part of eight years, legions of so called conservatives have backed Bush and all the wars out of loyalty and a simple minded belief that questioning the war was equal to betraying “Our Side.” We need to remember that loyalty and persistence are not in themselves evil. The Tea Partiers know something has gone wrong. It won’t take all that much to get them to see that our eleven carrier battle groups and their kids unemployment have something to do with one another. Even the arm chair bombardiers will come around when their wallets are empty enough.
I went on to write this:
The crucial question is this, how do we rejigger the political rewards system to drive the congressional whores into doing our bidding. General Electric will always seek to influence government to its own survival and profitability. If Obama wanted to build pyramids instead of solar farms, only an idiot would believe that General Electrics pyramid division wouldn’t be up and running in a fortnight. A player that big in the US economy is tethered to government by a labyrinth of regulations, contracts and trade agreements. Of course they are going to be on the side of big government if their continued existence remains contingent on their government dependence. No plan of action can succeed without an overture to such large entities that guarantees their survival in the context of a low regulation, low military industrial output environment. In short, the way to cripple the “Welfare-Warfare” complex is to reduce it to the “Welfare Complex” alone. You can only get so much in campaign contributions from people dependent on the government in the first place.
Trump surely understands this. Unless we believe that it is impossible to change the economic incentives of our system toward activities and sectors that actually benefit the American population, Trump is our only option. He understands that Americans are not inclined toward philosophical altruism as motivation to action. They will move mountains to succeed and make a buck.
The essence of success then, is to open ways for them to do both in objectively good causes.
This is not a prediction. Trump is the only political actor on the scene who has both the inclination and the force of will to try this approach. He is our only hope for a break with a lethal status quo. His is defects of temperament must be weighed in this light. We must choose and hope.
