Monday, January 16, 2006
The Weekly Standard and the Right
In its defense of the indefensible, no publication equals The Weekly Standard, as I have written before. I read this publication often, however, to hear the arguments of my opponents: Stephen Hayes’ allegations of perpetually-classified intelligence that really exonerates the administration are published in regular installments in The Standard. David Tell cements his roll as a far-right hatchet man with every article he writes, defending torture and warrantless wiretapping while attacking publications that dispute this such James Risen’s State of War. Adam Wolfson argues in his piece “Survival of the Evolution Debate” about how evolution doesn’t explain everything and ID might be a good idea. William Kristol supplements Hayes’ work by also arguing for the release of the alleged intelligence that vindicates the administration. Peter Berkowitz whitewashes Sharon’s legacy in his tendentious historical piece “Ariel Sharon’ s Legacy.” Vance Serchuk shits all over NATO and Europe in general in his work “Dutch Retreat?” It is always stunning to me how the collected writers in The Weekly Standard seemingly invariably come down on the worst side of every political issue.
Harvey Mansfield writes an amazing defense of the warrantless wiretapping in the current issue. He argues that the president has “extra-legal” powers that are “not confined to executing the laws.” To further lay the bricks on the road to Hell, Mansfield of course quotes Machiavelli, arguing that “ordinary power needs to be supplemented or corrected by the extraordinary power of a prince.”
If fascism gets plainer than this I would like to know where. The Weekly Standard has been, for too long, a putrid den of liars, Christian extremists, Israeli apologists, arrogant imperialists, and monarchists with only the thinnest veneer of journalistic integrity and manners. In any decent democracy this publication’s circulation would be limited to the militia members and corporate plutocrats who comprise its true audience. Instead, this propaganda is piped into the American mainstream of political thought like a broken New Orleans drainage duct spouting raw sewage into the streets of our city, forcing otherwise distinguished commentators to actually have to refute its ridiculous arguments with detailed analysis. Even then the delusional political cannon fodder of the right gulp this saucy shit like mother’s milk, regurgitating it without hesitation or skepticism onto the comments sections of Little Green Footballs or in the Letters to the Editor section of newspapers around the country.
Meanwhile, the reality-based community in this country and around the world look on in horror as this diseased band of marauders hijack the government of the most powerful nation on earth and use its military and political clout to lay waste to the world.
While, in a sane world, I and others would not even bother to repudiate the laughable assertions of these propagandists, The Weekly Standard is relevant. It’s relevant because its brazen arguments are, point for point, the arguments of the Bush Administration. Dick Cheney still asserts Al Qaeda-Iraq links, citing Hayes like some demented muse as the journalist who encapsulates the intelligence on those links publicly. The Bush Administration argues, like Kristol and Hayes, that torture is necessary to gather intelligence. Bush has publicly endorsed the teaching of ID in schools. The Administration lauds Sharon and his legacy as deceptively as Peter Berkowitz. The administration takes every opportunity to make plain its contempt for the international community as feverishly as Vance Serchuk. The Administration and its attorneys have cleaved to the concept of an imperial presidency as eagerly as Harvey Mansfield.
Not even Reagan and his favorite publication, The American Spectator, would go this far down the path of imperialism and hubris, though they come close. In the words of one historian, “This administration is unique in its failures.”
The uniqueness of this administration is not what bothers me the most. The nail that sticks out will be hammered down, as Confucious said. What bothers me the most is how this administration is an organic outgrowth of the rabid, nationalist junta that seized control of the Republican Party with the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan to the presidency. This cancer in our democracy has actually spread in the intervening years, as Rush Limbaugh and an army of rightist propagandists took over the airwaves in the late eighties and early nineties, FOX News opened shop a few years later, and far-right think tanks continued to grow and spread. Republicans seized the House in the mid-nineties. George W. Bush, the most unqualified man ever to capture the republican nomination for president (as I said in 2000), actually got elected that same year. A year later, republicans also seized the senate.
Although the incessant scandals of this presidency and this congress are beginning to destroy the hegemony they have enjoyed for four years, it will take a similar amount of time to pry their hands from the controls of government, if that ever even happens. Even if the House falls to democrats the senate and, thus, the presidency look secure for three more years. FOX News is profitable and is not going away anytime soon. The network of conservative corporate backers and think tanks shows no sign of weakening.
The only thing that will threaten the structure of this oligarchic machine is comprehensive campaign reform that results in private donations being eliminated completely from presidential and congressional races. I strongly doubt this will happen. The inertia of vested interests and beaurocracy in Washington is incredibly powerful. Even after the Electoral College delivered an improbable victory to Bush in 2000 and many called for its abolition, this 17th century anachronism remains in place to this day.
Of course, the similarities are not complete: campaign finance will not require a constitutional amendment, and the Abramoff scandal looks like the ugliest congressional scandal in a generation. Nevertheless, little was done to amend campaign finance before, even when it was plain that campaign financers were writing legislation. No congressperson even made an attempt to amend the Electoral College after 2000, or before, for that matter, when other candidates lost the popular vote but won the college vote.
I expect some legislation to amend campaign finance, judging from the truckloads of angry letters from across the political spectrum pouring into newspapers nowadays. This reform will fail for two reasons: one, it will not be a complete abolishment of private funding for politicians; two, any campaign finance reform will leave untouched the vast web of corporate think tanks and news outlets, like FOX, who support and nurture violently reactionary politicians who seek to crush truth and liberal enemies underneath the jackboot of conservativism.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 9:40 AM 
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"The only thing that will threaten the structure of this oligarchic machine is comprehensive campaign reform that results in private donations being eliminated completely from presidential and congressional races. I strongly doubt this will happen. The inertia of vested interests and beaurocracy in Washington is incredibly powerful. Even after the Electoral College delivered an improbable victory to Bush in 2000 and many called for its abolition, this 17th century anachronism remains in place to this day."
I don't know HOW many times I have written to my Senators and Representative about dumping the EC AND PRIVATE CAMPAIGN FINANCE. They are usually responsive, but all I get back on these is a lot of QUACK QUACK QUACK. I hope I am doing better with my calls for impeachment.
Nice to see ya got Driftglass in your sidebar there! Brilliant stuff.
I don't know HOW many times I have written to my Senators and Representative about dumping the EC AND PRIVATE CAMPAIGN FINANCE. They are usually responsive, but all I get back on these is a lot of QUACK QUACK QUACK. I hope I am doing better with my calls for impeachment.
Nice to see ya got Driftglass in your sidebar there! Brilliant stuff.
Thanks. I also get a lot of QUACK when I write my congressperson. Politicians are only influenced by voter feedback when they get flooded with mail. Too few voters are paying attention to campaign finance.
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