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Cancelling the Grand Old Party (GOP) was the mission of last week’s “Hard Truth” podcast, undertaken by your columnist, her partner, David Vance, and guest Jack Kerwick (introduced here). And on good grounds. The Republican Party has never stood up for you, will never stand up for you and is not going to do what it takes. Past is prologue.
As Dr. Boyd Cathey has observed, the “party which never conserves anything” had been exposed as such as far back as 1875. “The great Southern author, Robert Lewis Dabney, writing a decade after the end of the War Between the States … expressed presciently this tendency of dominant, post-war Northern conservatism”:
The history of the Republican Party is “that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is to-day one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will to-morrow be forced upon its timidity, and will be succeeded by some third revolution, to be denounced and then adopted in its turn.”
A point of philosophy arises. From the progressive perspective, society—civil and state—are what shape the human being and account for his conduct. To the extent our world is filled with perverts, grifters, and deviants—they were propelled into misbehavior by societal forces often beyond their control. Or, so goes progressive-style social determinism.
Libertarians, for their part, also often err on the side of a structurally similar social determinism. The State, their reasoning goes, accounts, for the most, for deviance in society. Remove the State and you remove the incentives for people to behave badly.
This Hebrew takes the biblical view tested by time. It is that, as stated in Genesis 8:21 (with thanks to my editors), the instinct of man is evil from his youth. (Or, wackily mistranslated: “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”)
What we observe in the political landscape is a function and a reflection of human nature, acting in aggregate. Over and above the idea that we get the government that we deserve is the devastating reality that this government doesn’t stand apart from us. It is us.
Stated by a reader on American Greatness, “We are culturally rotten…as a country and a people…sick to the core. Without shame, without humility, without prudence or common sense.”
In the aggregate, this is probably true. We evince deep, all-engulfing systemic rot, manifested in public and personal life.
Some questions, however, lingered. Were we and our guest, Dr. Kerwick, being theoretical purists, rejecting or refusing to engage with the political reality as it is? Perhaps conservatives should just put up and shut up about the Only Game in Town? Succinctly put by an Unz Review reader:
“Yup! The Republicans suck. But the Democrats want to kill me.”
To that, David provided the perfectly plain answer, as is his wont. WATCH. So did the late Andrew Breitbart of blessed memory. WATCH AND SUBSCRIBE.
David and ilana also get down to some “Monkey Business.” Look, the disease du jour, “Monkey Pox,” is not a concern, although The Powers are itching to make it a lockdown affair. All you have to do is avoid biblically prohibited copulation.
(Oh, last week, ilana went with a woke aesthetic, as viewers of the “Hard Truth” podcast told her bluntly. So, no more unwashed hair on this May 26, 2022 “Hard Truth” episode. Ilana cleaned up “good,” as they’d say in the South.)
Also on Odysee and BitChute if those platforms float your boat.
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Ilana Mercer has been writing a weekly, paleolibertarian think piece since 1999. She’s the author of Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa (2011) & The Trump Revolution: The Donald’s Creative Destruction Deconstructed” (June, 2016). She’s on Twitter, Gab, Gettr YouTube & LinkedIn; banned by Facebook, and has a new video-podcast.
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The Republican Party started as a big war, big government, corporation controlled progressive party under the tyrant Lincoln, his German communist supporters and the Puritan abolitionists . Why anyone would think they are any different today is beyond me.
The Republicans are just as eager to replace Traditional Americans with “muh legal immigrants”.
Written by G. K. Chesterton more than 100 years ago. Basically the same thing that Dabney wrote, just a little more pointed and sarcastic.
I am in agreement with this. Far too many “conservatives” refuse to admit that they might be part of the problem and believe that if they could only elect the “right” person to office, their problems would be solved. It never works that way. Instead, the “lesser of the two evils” is always voted for. Sometimes the “greater” evil is elected. Regardless, the situation always degrades.
Each of us should take a good, hard look into the mirror of our own souls, determining what ought to be corrected, and then making that adjustment. This has to be a lifelong practice. It is something which has to be a personal endeavor. It cannot be done by fiat or legislation and it is only when enough people change for the better that politics and society will improve. As long as we expect that government will correct the ills within society, we will be disappointed.
All my life I thought nothing could be worse than the Republicans, the along came the Democrats and proved me wrong. The present group of Dem’s is like being ruled by 13 year old rich girls with absentee parents. even Donny Boy looks like the sane guy in that room. I hope they all get their stuff together soon because it will be civil war soon if it’s not fixed.
The Core, Fundamental Nature of ALL Governments:
There can be no progress for humanity in general in this world until enough people ( Including MS Mercer, apparently 😎) come to understand that the core, fundamental nature of ALL governments, past, present or future, is wholly criminal , and that therefore the world can only become a better place when governments are (1) either completely eliminated worldwide, ( my own utopian preference), or, (2) at the very least, severely downsized worldwide and somehow prevented from further growth/expansion.
If neither of those events occur ( yes, I admit both are extremely unlikely, given the prevailing ” mo’ gubmint” psychology of most people in the world today ), then no meaningful change can occur.
This ” just” in:
“Because they are all ultimately funded via both direct and indirect theft [taxes], and counterfeiting [central bank monopolies], all governments are essentially, at their very cores, 100% corrupt criminal scams which cannot be “reformed”or “improved”,simply because of their innate criminal nature.” onebornfree
“War is the health of the state” Randolph Bourne
https://mises.org/library/bourne-war
“Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class.” Albert J. Nock
https://mises.org/library/our-enemy-state-0
“The State is, and always has been, the great single enemy of the human race, its liberty, happiness, and progress.” Murray Rothbard
Regards, onebornfree
The Deep State/Power Elite have come too far to give up now…so figure on civil war.
Conservatism is a con and not an ideology. Many of conservatism’s thought leaders of a few years ago were homosexuals. Conservatives and their Republican club members couldn’t even conserve the difference between boys and girls.
By the way what makes you think Republicans don’t want to kill you?
You may have missed something … it’s called the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2016. If you do not realize that Trump began a huge push toward populism in the Republican Party, you really do not understand America at all. This obviously includes Ilana, since she agrees with you. That shift is ongoing. America is upside down in a lot of ways. The Republican Party is becoming the party of the working class. The other major shift is toward isolationism. Trump started there, and it is a big reason he was elected. He was rolled on that, but MAGA, whatever you want to call it, is still going in that direction. 100% of the skeptics on Ukraine are Republicans (yes, some are just opposed to Biden, but not all).
Two party pox???
Gee whiz, it “appears” that trump will run in 2024 from one side of the uniparty and it could be either biden or harris from the other side. What is not to like? (sarc)
America will continue its slide into the corruption toilet until and unless it allows effective third parties to get on the ballet without legal restrictions and outright blocks, legal or otherwise.
My God, Steve, have you been paying any attention to today’s GOP? If there a has been a “major shift toward isolationism” wouldn’t a majority of the elected elephants have voted against sending $40 billions of our increasingly worthless tax dollars to prop up the criminal Zelensky regime? Instead, only 57 congressmen and 11 senators voted against this monstrosity. Is that what you call America-First isolationism?
Suppose that the R’s take back Congress in November and the Russians hadn’t yet disposed of Zelensky and all of his Nazi henchmen. What will the R’s do then? They’ve already told us. No matter how much Rand Paul will object, they promise to fight the war with even more ferocity and intelligence than the D’s. Just ask Lindsay Graham – the man who promises there’s no “off ramp” and that he won’t rest until Putin is assassinated. And old man Mitch thinks that the most pressing matter in the country is arming Ukrainians. Those two speak for the majority of their party or they wouldn’t be in the leadership. When it comes to supporting endless wars, the R’s work hand-in-glove with the criminal democrat party and their Alzheimer-afflicted leader.
Please wake me up when McConnell (the man who cost the R’s their Senate majority) is removed from command and reduced to a back bencher. Then I might believe that the R’s are making a little progress and finally listening to the people. But I think I’ll be waiting for a long time, probably until Mitch finally passes into the great beyond.
Agreed. All this Republicans v Democrats is just bullshit.
The Deep State doesn’t care about the unimportant internecine squabbles of the two parties as long as their important issues are advanced (wealth and power). As a matter of fact, it strengthens the false perception that there is a choice when voting. In fact, we live under a plutocratic oligarchy.
The Deep State does not care what U. S. citizens want. They know that most U. S. citizens are inane fools and will believe anything. Most U. S. citizens would rather watch America’s Got Talent, Dancing With The Stars, or The Masked Singer than being informed about important issues.
The biblical view is a terrible way to see people. In Buddhism, suffering comes from attachment. I can not think of a better way to produce an open mind. Listen to all sides. We fixate on being wrong when we should be praising those that can improve through objective debate and the pursuit of truth. No one gets everything right. The world is way too complicated to be processed by one individual. When a prisoner is in isolation for too long they lose it. It is terrible to see those videos. If that is true for prisoners than why not the rest of us. Debate is healthy. There was as informal study of a debate once and over 90% of the people clung to their positions regardless of the debate and even became more convicted because they felt threatened by the opposing views. Having an open mind takes practice and is rigorous which is why I believe most people lose theirs.
Here is what I think is really going on. It is called the Gish Gallop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop
What you do is overwhelm with a ton of data on one individual, then pick them apart like vultures. It is not debate.
At the same time, it is why I enjoyed this article so much. It may seem like I am trying to come down on you, but I am actually quite glad you wrote it. Thank you.
Trump drained no swamp. Ask Assange.
Didn’t ” homersexual” Lindsey Graham demand the Capitol police use their guns on the clueless Trumptards who stormed the Capitol?
Did we not see with our own two eyes and hear with our own two ears how Trumpstein and his pansy son goaded and baited the Trump zombies to storm the Capitol. And then there was Rudy and Mo Brooks talking about “trial by combat” and ” kicking ass.” None of these clowns were nowhere near the Capitol, the poor always do the fighting while the rich suffer with bone spurs.
Pardon the horn medicine man or grandma? Trumpstein is too busy kissing Jew ass and sucking up to negro football players from the eighties.
the only real political function of the Jew-owned, neo-con’d Republiscam party is:
keep White ‘Murkans participtating in the (((system)))
while the (((system)))
exterminates them.
Fully agree
I wish third party ballot access was the answer, but no. As long as a candidate can win an election by getting the most votes even if it’s less than half, a vote for a third party candidate will rightly be seen as benefiting the greater major-party evil.
Look at the 2000 election. To the vast majority of Nader voters, Bush was certainly the greater evil. But Bush won a few states with 48 or 49 percent of the vote because enough people voted for Nader instead of Gore.
Orange Man and his Deplorables are not Republicans. Together they defeated BOTH Parties in the election of 2016 and again in 2020. They are Populists and a force to be reckoned with.
The Deplorables need leadership. Trump ain’t it. I don’t want him back. But the Republicans suck and the Democrats want to kill me.
Republicans want the illegals to work but not vote, Democrats want them to vote but not work
Title pretty much sums things up. Thanks.
Brevity remains the soul of wit–and wisdom.