Posted under Conservatism & NeoCons
I must confess my endless amusement at the gnashing of teeth from what I call the “grass roots” left and right. Those are the principled, idealistic activists of both camps, as opposed to the power brokers who profit from the sweat of their respective foot soldiers.
Those poor soldiers are a little shell-shocked these days. And they feel betrayed.
For instance, many loyal troops from the left, who imagined they were trudging door to door, working phone banks, and stuffing envelopes to elect a “peace” candidate, are horrified at Obama’s warmongering, which smells, tastes, and feels just like the warmongering of his predecessor. As dutifully (and cheerfully) noted by the American Conservative:
Smack in a middle of his latest FOX News torture apologia, ex-Veep Cheney says President Obama would be “hard put to find anyone better than Stan McChrystal” to lead the forces in Afghanistan.
Oh, and for good measure, Max Boot and Charles Krauthammer approve, too.
Here’s The Progressive weighing in on Obama’s latest Bushian maneuver:
Obama has just made a terrible choice in his new commander for Afghanistan.
By choosing Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Obama shows how indifferent he is to the serious allegations that have swirled around McChrystal, a darling of the Bush-Cheney regime. …
And, according to Seymour Hersh, McChrystal was the guy who was running Cheney’s assassination squads. From 2003-2008, McChrystal headed the Joint Special Operations Command, which Hersh called “an executive assassination wing” that reported directly to Cheney’s office.
Death squads are supposed to be confined to ultra-right juntas, yet here’s the US doing the same thing — and one of its enablers is being rewarded under a liberal Democratic administration! Why are the despised Neocons applauding? What happened?
Then there are the ongoing revelations about Nancy Pelosi, that San Francisco liberal, giving tacit support to the Bush-Cheney torture program. As liberal Robert Scheer wonders in an article entitled “Pelosi the Enabler”"
Why did she not speak up, or if it were a matter of a lack of reliable information, demand an accounting from the executive branch, as befits a leader of the loyal opposition in Congress? …
By acquiescing to the cover-up of unpleasant truths in the treatment of prisoners, Pelosi contributed to the betrayal of the ideal of public accountability that is the bedrock of our system of governance, which Congress is charged with protecting.
Then there are those poor, deluded souls in the right-sided trenches of the grass roots who can’t figure out why their Neocon allies are distancing themselves from the social and economic conservative goals that once defined middle-class activism. The answer, of course, is because those goals were only the bait for the real Neocon agenda. So when David Horowitz advises his readers to “cool it” in their criticism of Obama, it’s because Obama is championing the only project that really mattered, which is keeping the military-industrial complex humming along. As I commented at the time, what’s a little socialism among war supporters?
Even more pathetic is the noisy split between the grass roots conservatives and Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. Once united behind Bush’s wars, these former comrades-in-armchairs have gone their separate ways, with Johnson condemning those who disagree with him on immigration reform, religion (he’s apparantly an agnostic), and the preservation of Western culture.
All of this is no surprise to small-government paleos and Southern conservatives. Unlike the post-Trotskyite ideologues who call themselves “Neocons,” we reject highfaluting theories and instead see the continuation of a beloved tradition, our inherited culture, as the focus of our loyalty. We knew Obama (or McCain, for that matter) offered nothing but the continuation of the same Big-Government agenda Bush and his Neocon enablers had crammed down our throats for the past eight years. It’s not that we’re psychic; we just know how empires work, and that the bureaucracy in DC is an imperial control mechanism. And we knew that Obama was just the newest hired hand of the DC empire.
One of the tests of a theory is its predictive value, and I’d say current events have validated the predictive value of Southern conservatism.
roho on 15 May 2009 at 12:19 am #
HB2……Good Article!…….If it wasn’t so sad, it would be comical!…Now the stupid liberals get to learn how life works when a “Shadow Government” runs things? (As well as learn that the Congress is about as useless as tits on a boar hog!)…..Just as conservatives tried to figure out how the GOP could control everything for 6 years, and couldn’t even find a conservative to cut the whitehouse lawn?(Most likely an illegal allien?)
And, nothing changes in empire as you pointed out? Pelosi and Company have found out that seizing control is nothing more than the GOP saying, “Would you feed my pet while I’m away for the next 4 years?”…..But the pet turns out to actually be a 700 pound AIPAC tiger, that never leaves, and has dual citizenship! (Good luck to Nancy at feeding time?)
As a “Southern Brother”, I thought you might enjoy this?
http://www.southernstudies.org/2005/08/institute-report-southerners-most.html
It rips my heart out!
Captainchaos on 15 May 2009 at 4:39 am #
I wonder if any of this, the beginning of the economic collapse, along with the increasingly visible signs of the dissolution of our race, will alleviate any of the Puritanical spirit of hyper-moralism that saw what was very likely the last, best chance for our race to live in the form of those filthy “Krauts” destroyed (well burned and well starved, and well neutered, as their due comeuppance for daring to expel the Holiest of all Parasites).
Amen.
Tell “Frank” (who knows a good find in the “Samson Option” when I feed it to him, though he scolds me for it) and “The Monitor” (who drops by to stone us with popcorn at Majority Rights sometimes) I said “Hi.”
A “gentleman theologian” who tells us a moral code from a fictive source is more important than the flesh-and-blood life of our people; that’s so rich it’s got to be bad for the arteries. Onward Christian Soldiers, already one foot in the grave with only the other to go.
Captainchaos on 15 May 2009 at 5:16 am #
Btw, is that the same “Frank” who used to bust my hump over at Taki Mag – and who authored a few forgettable comments at Chronicles (Barnacles) – for advocating the survival of my race directly? The very same who criticises me for posting “anonymously” whilst he DUPLICATES his own? LOL! Good luck transcending all that is “bourgeois” (acquisition of trinkets and hypocritical “respectability”) my friend, I just don’t know that you have it in you.
‘Onward Christian Soldiers, already one foot in the grave with only the other to go.’
Captainchaos on 15 May 2009 at 5:10 pm #
Alrighty then, it seems Scallon sees fit to post fodder on the “flaccid right.” Cough, cough, ahem, ahem.
Here is some news the “right” can use:
We must begin with First Principles.
1. Life’s only purpose is the transmission of itself through time.
2. Man is of Nature, and his Nature is tribal.
3. It is part of our Nature to, when given to believe what is life giving, understand that not only is their a natural aristocracy amongst men, but also amongst peoples.
4. The ineffable majesty of the achievements of European Man could not have been wrought but for is unique genetic endowments. Western Civilization is only, ever, the extended phenotype of him.
5. If his blood is destroyed so too will be his civilization.
6. For him to live, he must have the necessary conditions to sustain his collective life, and to project it into the future, in perpetuity.
7. He must have the indispensable guarantor of his continued life: territory; a literally life affirming philosophy that sanctions his thoughts and actions as liberalism in all its incarnations does now; elites that are of his own people that occupy the positions of power that determine his collective life; to cease to be self-estranged to his true interests – which is to forever be.
8. European Man enjoys a life that is his own, exclusive and inviolate. His civilization, his homelands, his people are his own, exist in and for their own right, and not merely as fodder to serve the ethnic interests of others.
9. All peoples have ethnic (genetic) interests, and all of what they do, vis a vis us and them, comes down to that in the end.
10. Those of the Third World that have been brought amongst us must be repatriated. It is a necessary condition for the continued life of our people. If was Power that brought them here, it will be Power that sees them leave. We cannot shed too many tears for the disaccommodated, their people will not perish as a result of it, but for it, ours will. The interests of individuals, cannot ultimately trump those of peoples, for the interests of peoples in being is greater.
Things we can build upon, from the first.
Gottfried, Spencer, oh yee of the masterful minds, where are you?
The best thing Taki Mag ever did for itself was to dispense with commenting – even as Spencer said oft times the comments were more interesting than the articles – so as to rid their towering intellects of the blight of poor little me. LOL!
fellist on 20 May 2009 at 8:45 am #
Gotta agree with roho, really good article. One of my preoccupations lately is the ability of tptb to channel the people into left and right factions more easily to be controlled and misdirected. I think you’re correct that many on both sides feel betrayed, but I don’t see too much evidence yet that their anger is finding much focus.
[I also agree with CC, however. Perhaps alongside defence of culture and tradition you could find a way to express loyalty to a particular people? Culture and tradition are pretty much people-specific and the former don't stand much chance without their own originating people to carry them forward.]
fellist on 22 May 2009 at 8:29 am #
Michael Mullen just told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that a US troop build-up in Afghanistan could push the Taliban deeper into Pakistan, further destabilising it. OK, we know that’s gonna happen next then…