Charles Pierce: The Republican Party Is a Party of Subversives

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/29037-focus-the-republican-party-is-a-party-of-subversives

The modern Republican party has become an authentic mechanism for political subversion, and it's not just unknown crazy people from Texas who are driving the train. A rookie meathead submarines the president's foreign policy. Rick Perry is currently running for president on a platform more suited to a campaign conducted under the Articles of Confederation. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the United States Senate, has suggested that governors out in the several states ignore the Environmental Protection Agency. At every conservative gathering, from CPAC on down, there at least is one panel touting the benefits of nullification and old-school states rights politics. Yes, a lot of it is about how states rights got whipped over civil rights in the 1960's, but it's not all about race. It's about a deliberate, calculated attempt by one of the only two political parties we allow ourselves to dismantle the federal union. They want the country to come apart so they can sell off the pieces to the people who run their campaigns. They are free to prove to me that I'm wrong.

That is not only subversion, but history tells us that it always has been the most fundamental heresy against the constitutional order, from the Articles to the tariff crises under Andrew Jackson, all the way through the Civil War and Reconstruction, right up to the day that John Lewis got his head busted by the side of an Alabama road. (And, yes, even the morally laudable efforts of abolitionists to "nullify" the Fugitive Slave Act subverted the constitutional order of the time. It's hard to look at the Civil War and think otherwise.) This heresy, which should have died at Gettysburg, is part and parcel of the modern conservative movement, which was born out of the flotsam left behind by the (partial) fall of American apartheid. For years, Republican politicians have accepted the money, and the support, and the cheers of nullification subversives from the League of the South and the Council of Conservative Citizens to the Wise Use people and the militia people out west, to the claque of subversives who set up camp at the Bundy Ranch. Without the support of people engaged in polite -- and, occasionally, not very polite -- sedition, the Republican party would be a bunch of rich old white guys pissing themselves in the grill room of a restricted country club.

[FSogol]

1. K & R. Charles Pierce is a national treasure. n/t

[malaise]

2. K & R - MUST READ n/t

[BlueCaliDem]

3. It is HIGH TIME that we refer to Republicans as Neo-Confederates - because they are.

Every move they make, every act they commit, from their White privilege delusions to States rights, they are no different than the Confederates of the past. They have used our elections and the Republican Party, infiltrated the Republican Party, and are dismantling it from the inside out as they slowly turn it into the Neo-Confederate Party.

Unless and until we recognize that the Republican Party is being destroyed and a Neo-Confederate Party is taking its place, we'll always be a day late and a dollar short with these pre-Civil War fanatics.

It's time to call a spade a spade.

[PADemD]

4. Ever read the book, Generations: The History of America's Future?

[flobee1]

5. completely agree

They can borrow a flag, call themselves something that has nothing to do with their cause, and preach America first all day long, but their playbook is In lockstep with the confederates of 1860. it just may not be as easy to recognize as the confederates of the past. There is no longer a mason dixon line, no more blue vs gray, but the fight has resumed again after 155 years.

[mountain grammy]

6. K & R

[ananda]

7. And don't forget the continual subversion of Roe v. Wade.

..

[samsingh]

8. well put

[matt819]

9. It's about time

We've all been discussing this for the better part of the almost 15 years DU has been around, but we are beginning to see more of these types of comments in the MSM. Good.

Surely among republicans in the house, and maybe a couple in the senate, there have to be some courageous enough to step forward and say, no more. Return the GOP to its role as a "normal" political party and force the extremists, the subversives, out and have them form their own parties.

[fleabiscuit]

10. They certainly put the T(ea) in reason. n/t

[yardwork]

11. Very good. Thanks for posting.

[asiliveandbreathe]

12. And rightly so -

From Charles Pierce -

"Yes, a lot of it is about how states rights got whipped over civil rights in the 1960's"....

And may the force be with us - to prevent -

"It's about a deliberate, calculated attempt by one of the only two political parties we allow ourselves to dismantle the federal union. They want the country to come apart so they can sell off the pieces to the people who run their campaigns"

Only WE THE PEOPLE can prevent this from happening....get out the vote...

[The CCC]

15. And rightly so

I agree. However last election over 1 million more voters voted for the democrats than the republiCONS. Yet due to Gerrymandering republiCONS gained seats.

[asiliveandbreathe]

16. Okay - these stats are in the history books

WE THE PEOPLE need to pay attention to state level shenanigans - get involved - I know I don't need to tell DUers that....

retired here in AZ from the most liberal county in Massachusetts....this states political climate is disgusting...but I have not turned a blind eye to the state house....we have an Independent council, voted by the PEOPLE, for redistricting..that of course, the rethugs are fighting at the SCOTUS..the states atty is laughable.. - and yes I digress...

Be well..and don't throw down your vote.....

[Wounded Bear]

19. I don't think you're 'digressing'...

Quite the contrary. You're discussing one of their main strategic weapons, destroying non-partisan groups that stand in their way.

Your comments against the attempt to remove such independent residtricting councils are vital to communicate and disseminate.

[Paka]

13. K&R...n/t

[lutefisk]

14. Scott Walker is all about "dismantling the federal union"

Walker was asked this question a few days ago:

George W. Bush had Republican Majorities in the Senate and House for much of his presidency. Yet during that time we saw the federal government grow, not shrink. What would you do if elected, with GOP majorities to secure liberty and freedom for the people?

Here's part of Walker's response:

...I say we should come in and talk about fundamentally moving power from the federal government to the states, and education, and transportation, and Medicaid and social service and other agencies. When people say that is pretty tremendously aggressive and vicious reform out there I say: been there, done that. We’ve done that. We have to do it early.

LINK to DU post about Walker's interview

[flobee1]

17. I've talked to several rational republicans

They view the confederates as a republican vehicle to the whitehouse. They don't understand that this vehicle is already beyond their control. They already have Boehner asking how high when they say jump.

[TheKentuckian]

18. Don't sound too rational to me.

[flobee1]

20. rational as in

"Willing to compromise to strike a deal" republicans. And rational compared to the confederate party. They think they have the monster under control. unfortunatley, their delusion is going to end up destroying the country.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. The rational Republican is a matter for the crypozoologists I think....

They have never actually existed. No historical evidence of them can be presented. They were always liars, warmongers and bigots as long as I have been alive and during the life of my father before me.

[hifiguy]

25. The last one died or became a Democrat about 10-20 years ago.

The species is utterly extinct. Dead as the dodo or the Great Auk.

[TheKentuckian]

30. Clearly, willing to make a deal but only with the devil to reach their own wicked ends.

If they were as willing to make deals as they lead you to believe they'd actually do so sometimes rather than riding the tiger.

[seafan]

21. Thank you, Charlie Pierce.

It's difficult to find a journalist who cuts to the chase as cleanly as Mr. Pierce.


More from his March 12, 2015 piece, The Republican Party Is a Party of Subversives:

..... I believe they mean it. I believe they want to carry us back not just to the Gilded Age, but to the golden era in the 1780's when you needed a passport to go from Connecticut to New Jersey. I believe that is the basis for the efforts of people like Perry and Governor Bat Boy down in Florida to poach industries from other states and to hell with the national interest. I believe that is what animates ALEC in its campaign to create little hell-states individually across the map and its larger campaign to keep the federal government from doing anything about it. I don't think the modern Republican party believes in anything called "the national interest."

The Republican party is a mechanism for the subversion of the federal republic. It doesn't matter if the party's stars are doing it to please The Base, or because they don't know any better, or because they think it's the right thing to do. They are actively working to undermine the American union. This should be the first question asked of any Republican leader, of any Republican candidate, and certainly of obvious anagram Reince Preibus, the emptiest suit in American politics. They should be asked, every day, in every forum, if they believe in the Supremacy Clause, the Reconstruction amendments, and the federal union. These are yes-or-no questions. I hope we can get the answers before Molly White gets elected to the House of Representatives. But one thing I'm not doing any more is laughing.

The freaking right wing disaster that holds the country hostage is no better exemplified than by this thieving charlatan crouching in the Florida Governor's office. The Bat Boy is enabled by a right wing Republican occupation of the legislature, in a choking grip on Florida that has lasted nearly 20 years.



Gov. Rick Scott headed to California to lure jobs, March 12, 2015

'Climate change' ban boosts Florida's image as the Punchline State, March 12, 2015

Fact-checking Rick Scott on environment, sea level rise claims, March 12, 2015

Ousted FDLE chief raises new allegations about meddling by Gov. Rick Scott, aides, January 17, 2015



(Tampa Bay Times) FL Governor Rick Scott

[CrispyQ]

23. This:

They want the country to come apart so they can sell off the pieces to the people who run their campaigns.

[hifiguy]

24. Charlie Pierce has a batting average of 1.000

The man's pen is pure gold.

[chillfactor]

26. K & R....

true, true, true..every word of it! Thank you for posting...

[democrank]

27. This....

"They want the country to come apart so they can sell off the pieces to the people who run their campaigns."

[Blue_Tires]

28. Brilliant...

[rurallib]

29. I would respectfully add that they are also a party of subservient toads

only concerned about the number of zeros on that check from the Kochs.
Kochs say"sign" they say where?

And please spell my name right on the check

[Thespian2]

31. K&R

I am continually amazed that Neo-Confederate Republicans think that they are human.

[jaysunb]

32. Comment from the article:

+49 # Larry 2015-03-12 15:12
It seems to me that aside from the hardcore anti-government nut cases, today's GOP is an unholy collaboration between the wealthy, who care about nothing but themselves and their money on the one hand, and the workers they exploit on the other. To obtain the loyalty and support of the workers, the wealthy, most of whom could not care less about social issues, offer them a platform and bullhorn to promote such cherished fundamental beliefs as racism, homophobia, religious bigotry, gun worship, hatred of immigrants, abortion-as-mur der, etc. Apparently stupefied by their obsession to impose this fetid agenda on the rest of the country and encode it into law, these wrong-headed marginal-middle -class workers obediently vote for candidates and support policies that skew economic tax laws and other benefits to the 1% and undermine the very unions that could be helping them. Instead, what "trickles down" to what is left of the middle class from the "job creators" are stagnant wages, full-time jobs that deliver nothing but subsistence, part-time jobs that deliver noting but poverty, and a congress that is determined to destroy the only opportunity to buy affordable health insurance that many people will ever have.

But the GOP rank and file yearn for the day that once again, they can legally refuse to hire, or sell their property, or serve anyone who is not just like them, and the wealthy are only too happy to keep that dream alive.

Their dream; our nightmare

This says it all...there are NO other explanations or excuses.

[Hekate]

33. Kick

[blkmusclmachine]

34. The Republican Party Is a Party of Christian dominionists/Christian reconstructionists.

[Todays_Illusion]

35. I have come to view the Republican Party as our largest organized crime outfit.

But I was wrong. That title belongs to all the junk, like, propaganda and manipulation, called news, and MSM.

Because there is no 4th Estate in the U.S.A. it was obliterated and compromised on November 22, 1963.

[DeSwiss]

36. And if they get the WH......

...all hell would break loose!

- Well, Senator Lindsey wouldn't tolerate you rabble. He knows how to handle you types.....

[center]

''As president I would deploy the military against Congress!''[/center]

K&R

[Major Hogwash]

37. 50 shades of grey matter!!

The problem has always been the uninformed hayseeds who couldn't care less if their elected officials were all crooks.
Just as long as the minorities that lived in their same county didn't get ahead of them financially!

The mainstream media isn't going to tell them that the very same guy that they voted for, simply because he said he was against raising taxes, is a freakin' crook with his hand constantly reaching in to the cookie jar.
But, he ain't sharing them cookies with his electorate.
Nosireebob, he ain't.

"Promise them the moon, and they will come to believe that you are the one that is responsible for giving them their moonshine."

[Cha]

38. Kick for Charlie Pierce!

[JDPriestly]

39. K&R.

[midnight]

40. kick.