Conserve, improve

There was a hideous car accident on the Big Island in Pahala that killed five people.  This sends our death rate on the highway to seven already, and it was zero last year at this time. 

Good news: The whales are back! Our neighbors say there are a lot of them this year, and they are very active.

And there is a lot of whining going on on the right about what conservatives regard as Democrats' trickery (Beyonce's lip-syncing), double-dealing (furthering the Democratic  agenda against their opposition)  and downright aggressiveness (Hillary!!!)  I think they are doing a pretty good job of self-destruction and  need no help with the job.

But they could rescue their situation if they just stepped back and thought things out. I know thinking is bad and hurts one's head.  Remember those pictures of Dubya trying to think? He looked so distressed.  It must be bewildering to  Republicans to realize that money can't buy everything. It's their faith, after all.

Republicans lived by the bottom line,  stripping the middle class of assets  and driving the poor into greater poverty. They poured resources into unnecessary wars and military expansion, because they thought that was the way to keep the economy revved up.  They indulged themselves in patriotic propaganda and encouraged overt and covert racism among their followers and then were astonished that they lost the support of the electorate. They were stupid, in a word.

How can they recoup? Melissa Harris-Perry has said repeatedly on her program that we need a two party system for democracy to function. Obama has outsmarted the Republicans at every turn, and they are reacting like maddened bull elephants on stampede. But there are solutions, things they could do that would be of benefit to everyone.

First they need to redefine what they stand for.  Traditionally, they have stood for  family stability and continuity, upholding cultural values,  widespread property ownership,   small businesses,  professionalism, social responsibility, public safety, just laws, and in general a civilized way of life.  These are good things. Not exciting, to be sure, but necessary. Of course Democrats stand for these things, too and have been better of late in actually furthering these essential matters.

Unfortunately, today's Republican party has stopped caring about what happens to ordinary Americans. They have continued to think of themselves as the best people but have not been willing to broaden their class outlook and explain to the public what was good about their values. Instead, they welcomed in the goon squad in order to win elections but became hopelessly contaminated by association  with their ideas. It was all over for them when they ran  Sarah Palin with McCain. They tried again with that horse's neck Romney and his sidekick Ryan, but the public didn't buy it.  So now the GOP lies in fragments.

If they stressed the  aspects of good governance they were once known for they could win people back. Instead they alienate people with their attacks on unions,  accessible health care, women's reproductive rights,  gun control, and so on.  Everything they seem to favor now pushes in the direction of instability instead of the stability they were once said to favor.

A similar process is at work in Great Britain, and there is some intelligent commentary that suggests solutions. A  review article by Colin Kidd in the London Review of Books,  The Darth Vader Option, discusses the fate of the Conservative Party and how it could redeem itself. (It is available only to subscribers, unfortunately.) I was struck by this passage:

 

William Waldegrave's The Binding of Leviathan (1978) is one of the neglected classics of Conservative political thought. Waldegrave later served as a minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, but in the 1970's he recognised--as humanity as a whole will soon enough--the limits to growth and a future of scarcity. While Waldegrave defended private property, "as the best source of independent strength agaisnt the overexpansion of the state, and the surest source of stability in a community," he opted for co-operation over competition, and argued that "financial gain is the sole motivator of few in a sound society." Conservatives[ Waldegreve argues ] should evaluate policy by a far from Thatcherite criterion: "Does this policy tend to advance the chance of the citizen to live, work and play in the kind of communities which are necessry to civilised life?" Unlike the proponents of the turbo-capitalist perversion of Conservatism, Waldegrave displayed an acute psychological understanding of the basic loyalites necessary for social cohesion.

 

 I haven't heard anything like that from Republicans for a long tme. Instead they have exploited all the worst  aspects of  American life: racism, militarism, patriotic chauvanism, religiousity, material greed, demonizing the poor: all the things that tear a society apart.

And here Kidd  makes a really interesting point: "The environment was--or should be--the Conservative Party's 'natural territory.'"  Couldn't  conservatives get behind matters like population control, renewable energy, preservation of green spaces,etc.  and make these their flagship issues?  Redefining "conservative" to represent values of stability and continuity could do everyone a lot of good. Conserve, improve.   I could get behind a program like that.

Comments

[taradharma]

It is staggering how far the Republican Party has strayed over the last 30 years. They are now the party of nutcases and everybody can see it. I wonder what it's going to take for them to wake up and smell the coffee?

Love the passage you posted. "Does this policy tend to advance the chance of the citizen to live, work and play in the kind of communities which are necessry to civilised life?" If only all politicians would put this question to themselves daily.

[Henry Hank Chapin]

Hattie--This is a fantastically good essay and is refrigerator-worthy (referring to the children's art museum with magnets on the fridge when they're growing up). [Big deal, you're probably thinking.]I only hope no Republicans read it, because I'm enjoying victory at last after a long time in the BUSHY wilderness. If they follow these ideas, they could get back in the game, and I'm not ready for that because we still have Hillary Clinton for me to look forward to.

I might add one thing--it is also the PARTY OF LINCOLN. I come from a mixed marriage--ha! Mother was a Democrat, Dad a Republican. But his mother, my sainted grandmother, explained to me when I was young that the Republicans were the party of the great Abraham Lincoln who ended slavery and saved the Union. Of course that legacy has been lost to current Republican memory, but it accounts for some of the older Republicans who don't seem so bad as people.

[Hattie]

Needs a little light editing which I'll do later. Thanks for the praise.

[Tabor]

I have several good, honest, intelligent conservative friends that buy into this devisive and inaccurate philosphy. I will not work. There is fear of blacks, immigrants, atheists, gays, poor people, handicapped. They fear these aspects of society will drag them down. If we could just silence Faux News for a year!!

[Hattie]

Tabor: Do they buy into that Ayn Rand stuff?

[Rain Trueax]

I was so disgusted by the tea party types who asked Hillary questions intended only to posture themselves. She showed herself intelligent, well informed, and with a sense of priorities that are missing from today's GOP.

I just wish I felt better about Reid caving on the filibuster reform. Daily Kos says it wsn't as bad as it looks but it was very disappointing. If the Democrats won't stand up for doing what is right, who's left?

[barbara]

I feel that Republicans as a party have gone to far down the rabbit's hole and cannot find their way out. It would be nice to have Republican moderates split from the ultra-right perhaps then the ultra-right could drown in its own nasty rhetoric -- barbara

[Maria]

Yes, I agree, Hattie. In a right world, we should be able to rely on the opposition party to rescue us from our own excesses; to speak up for the other side of the argument. The Republicans now are so far out to lunch, believe such reprehensible things, that we can't do anything but be repulsed by them.

[Joy]

Great post Hattie. Honestly, the Republican Party is so far out there with their ridiculous rhetoric, I'm totally disgusted by the whole mess. As it's going now, I wonder if there's any coming back from their outrageous posturing.

[Hattie]

Thanks, everyone. I wish there were a genuine conservatism. I myself am conservative in a lot of ways, but nothing in the current Republican ideology appeals to me.

[marja-leena]

Excellent, Hattie! You may interested in this related essay:

http://slowreads.com/2013/01/24/obamas-whiggish-inaugural/