Rachel and Liz, Again
But a different approach this time.
On Monday of this week, Rachel Maddow had Liz Cheney on her show to interview. (Yes, I already talked about this — but with a different topic in mind.) And in her startup screed, she explained how she’d been dreaming of this day for thirteen years — and showed footage from that time to show the moment in which she got that idea. But she made it clear that in spite of her initial reasons for wanting to do that — the extreme far apart positions they each take politically — her reason today is quite different. Without going into it all, you can boil it down to one thing.
Today, from now until the election in November of 2024, the only thing that is important is defending our democracy. There are no differences in political thinking or beliefs that outshine that need. Nothing is more important than ensuring that in the future, we CAN have those future conversations and struggles over differences in opinion, because if we lose the fight, the only opinions that will matter are those of the Rich White Men who will run our country. Yours and mine will not matter at all.
So, please stick with me here. If you’re a Progressive, a Democrat, a Moderate Republican, or a MAGAt, stick with me. I am NOT here to change your mind on basic political values. We can, as Rachel and Liz said Monday, have those conversations later, once we ensure those conversations will actually matter.
So, what am I here for?
To educate you. To teach you that what you’ve been taught for all your lives is a lie.
No! Stop, don’t go away yet. I’m talking to ALL OF YOU. Right, left, independent. I don’t care what your basic values are, you’ve been lied to in this one major area.
The Constitution. The Revolution. What is the major quote everyone is taught about that ignited and joined Americans together for that revolution against Great Britain?
“All Men Are Created Equal.”
Right? Now, when I was a kid, that included a special explanation that the term “Men” in there was the generic term that means “human”, and not the term that means “male.”
That’s the lie. In a nutshell, that’s it. But what I’m also going to talk about are the implications of that, what it means, and why it’s important in this exact period of American history. So, to start with, let’s take a look at the Constitution. No, not the amended Constitution, the original one, the one that was developed in Philadelphia that long ago summer that included no amendments.
Oh, come on, you remember that much, right? That the lack of those amendments were enough for the more liberal of the colonies to force the southern ones to agree to the amendments or it wouldn’t get ratified, remember?
So that original one had one major thing in it to remember. Who voted? Who were the people in charge? That original document allowed only male landowners to vote. No women. Essentially no minorities either, since at the time all blacks and non-whites had no status except as outsiders or slaves, so had no chance of owning land. So that left — rich white men. Let’s call them RWM for short from here on out, ‘k?
So, aside from all the internal complexities and hoopla, that initial Constitution allowed the RWM to claim the vote, thus the power to decide the direction the new government would take. I’ll also note, for the purposes of clarity for a future point, that it also contains no enforcement mechanisms, hence Trump’s ability to violate both the internal and external emolument clauses with no consequences for his entire term in office, and none of that is at issue now in the 91 indictments he’s facing today. The fact that nothing has ever until this time threatened our democracy is simple — it was merely the fact that all past political struggles for power were between RWM and nobody else that has kept things relatively peaceful. Well, of course, except for the obvious Civil War. That’s what happens when RWM disagree strongly enough with one another — they drag the rest of us in and who dies? Lots of men, but frankly, no RICH ones. Usually.
Are ya convinced yet?
No? Ok then, let’s move along.
So, let’s talk “Conservative Values”, ok? What, exactly are those values? In the light of the above, I’ll explain.
Rule Number 1.
“Rich White Men are the only humans with the intelligence and capability of running human affairs, so only RWM count in who should have the political power in any human government, regardless of the form it takes.”
Hence the two wars Americans have fought over this issue. Yes, two, remember the Revolutionary War? That wasn’t just a war for “freedom”, it was a war between RWM. Those who ruled Britain, and those who were the richest HERE, in the American colonies. They used that quote I reminded you about in the beginning. Given that in society at the time, men were, indeed, more important than the ladies, it served its purpose to ignite enough anger here to give the RWM in the colonies the army to fight with.
And, Yay! We won. Or, rather our RWM won. We just died, and in the Constitution that resulted, the RWM cemented their hold on power! But then, something odd happened. A group that was also angry over their treatment by Britain stood up and used the numbers they had to force the Conservatives (Remember Richard Burke? Go look him up) to add in the ten Amendments that protected (and still do!) the rights of the average citizen.
For our purposes in a bit — remember that! Without those ten amendments, those rights would NOT HAVE BEEN THERE. That’s important.
So, moving on. Oh, yes, Rule #2.
Rule Number 2.
“Women are second class citizens. They are ruled by the men, and minorities don’t count.”
Again, notice that in that original Constitution, women did NOT get the right to vote. That came well over a hundred years later, AFTER non-rich white men got the vote. And, by law anyway, minorities. It still took another 60+ years for them to gain more equal rights under the law, including the right to own property, manage their own money, and to manage their own medical care, i.e., abortion.
So, in a nutshell, those are the two values of Conservatism. Really! Gays? Who cares, they aren’t rich anyway, abortion? Again, we’re rich, we can do that anytime, anywhere. Not rich? We don’t care. Family values? See rule #2. Democracy? Well, it’s working ok for now… we outnumber those radical lefties. American traditional values? Sure! As long as those gather votes for us.
See, all the rest of those are cow manure to the Real Conservatives — the RWM who donate to the wealthier politicians. Notice that in historic circles, it’s always the RWM who get elected? That’s why, in the 90’s, the Republicans stopped being respectful, because of all the non-RWM getting elected on the other side! They figured that those not only didn’t matter (see rule #1), but were in opposition to the RWM’s values, so they’re fair game and deserve no respect.
Abortion? Notice that in 1973, when Roe vs. Wade was announced, nobody really cared. No protesters marched outside the SCOTUS, nobody waved signs. The far right wing fundies and Evangelical literally yawned! Why? Because Pro-Choicers are right — the Bible really doesn’t preach against abortion, and it clearly says life begins at First Breath! And the fundies knew that. So, how did that blow up on us?
Simple. The Conservatives figured out that demographics were against them, and within decades, they were going to start losing elections, due to the social changes going on in the 60’s. So, they got with the fundies and made a devil’s deal with them. If they’d agree to change their teachings over abortion to give conservatives a “popular” ideal to fight over, the Conservatives would act to advance the political ambitions of the fundies to bring their beliefs more into law.
And so, the abortion issue was born.
Oh, there’s more, but you get the drift. Again, the Conservatives care nothing about abortion itself, but the issue moves women into the area that figures under Rule #2. If they cannot get their own abortions, they are left to either die (aw, shucks), or have that baby and do their “duty”, have babies and care for them (staying out of politics.)
What a choice, right? And, I might add, Alito, in making the ruling that destroyed Roe, totally ignored the 9th Amendment, and took advantage of the fact that the Constitution has no imbedded enforcement mechanism. See how important Real Conservatives see those first ten amendments as being?
Are you getting it now? The Real Conservatives, the RWM, care nothing about you if you aren’t Rich, White, or a Man. (See rule #2.) It matters not if you’ve voted for them religiously (heh) for the last 75 years, they only care about your vote. Not YOU. They will not mourn if you die, or go broke, or your kids gets arrested, none of that.
And if they can’t get enough votes through the use of democracy, the history of the last 7 years tells us that they’ll toss THAT under the bus, too. Vigorously at that.
All that truly matters is Rule #1. Not you, not me, not American values, traditional or not. In fact, they’ll gladly (apparently) toss that lovely Constitution under that bus if necessary.
Jan 6, 2021 tells us that.
So, please, understand that I’m not trying to expunge your values if you’re a traditional Republican voter. I’m not. As I said, and as Liz and Rachel noted Monday, we can always have those fights later. I’ll happily sit down with you and have those discussions, and a beer at the same time if you’d like. I’ll even pay for ‘em.
But for now, we MUST do one thing — destroy the ability of the Real Conservatives, the RWM, to win next year. And we do that by destroying the Republican Party.
WAIT! Again, hear me out.
You know what the Overton Window is, right? An illustration of the parts of the political spectrum, right to left, that is ok and acceptable, to operate within for any particular political entity, or country. What the population as a whole will agree is “ok.” Well in Eisenhower’s day, the “right” side of that window was pretty much what the Republican Party had as a platform. That, today, is what the DEMOCRATIC Party has as its platform!! The right side is FAR to the right, in an area that exemplified what we’d fought against in WWII back in Eisenhower’s day! (More on that later.)
That’s how far the political landscape in the US has been dragged to the right. So far that Authoritarianism is acceptable to a lot of Americans.
We need to drag it back leftwards. We need to let go of the lies the GOP has told us in the last 70 years. An example follows.
Take, for instance, that quote made famous by Ronald Reagan.
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” August, 1986.
This is one of the most blatant lies the Real Conservatives have ever uttered to Americans. It totally and completely ignores that very most basic thing conservative voters think is important — the fact that their vote matters, and that the People control the government. Isn’t that one of the most basic facts that we were taught in Civics in school? That our government is a representative one in which we control the people who go to Congress, and they are supposed to vote according to our wishes.
But, in reality — the reality that Real Conservatives (RWM) live in — THEY control the votes, right? So to get you to vote in lockstep with them, they have to lie to get you to think they’ve got your welfare in mind, but the government doesn’t!
When, in the very Preamble to the Constitution, that THEY wrote, remember, it said the government is put there, by US, to provide for that very thing. Yet, here they are, telling you the exact opposite! If that’s not an out and out lie, then I don’t know what a lie is.
Because the Republican Party has marched in lockstep with Trump and his fascist playlist, the only way to move forward is to destroy it as a realistic political party — to force that Overton Window back to the left where it used to be.
So, again, that’s my point. The Real Conservatives, the RWM, care nothing about you, me, or anything or anyone except Rules # 1 & 2. If you think they do, then go back and read this again, then sit down, and look at history, look at what you were taught in school, and try to see my point here.
One more thing.
In December, 1942, the United States was attacked by Japan, and within a month, Germany and their Fascist government, declared war on the US. At that point, all Americans, regardless of political opinions, started to fight for our country and democracy on a worldwide basis. Our casualties were not only high, but they included Americans in every walk of life, rich, poor, whatever. Think about your ancestors, people, especially the ones who died fighting Fascism and Authoritarianism.
If you are one of those supporting Trump and his so called “Freedom Caucus,” what do you think the ancestors of yours who died fighting against those very ideals would do if they could see you now? What would they say, or would they shake their heads and walk away?
Please, rethink the importance of democracy. The RWM may be trying to make you THINK they’re for the same things you are, but go back and reread my words above. Are they really?
Or are they just another set of lying bastards, trying to cheat you like the rich folks do now, every day? Think about that as you have that next beer contemplating your paycheck.
