I've been pouring over Corey Robin's political science book the past few days: The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin and I've decided to write a post for each section of the book. I'm going to start here with the most important ideas I've taken and connected from Robin's main argument. Liberal pundits on the liberal left tell us that the Tea Party movement is grounded in crazy visions of how the country works and how it sought to work in the future. Conversely, Robin illustrates how the modern conservative movement is rooted in centuries of intellectual defense of hierarchy and privilege. If the attack against working class Americans is to be resisted, It is crucial that we dismantle this caricatured picture of American politics and understand what is really driving the political right in the United States.
The media coverage of the recent government shutdown depicted an uncompromising Tea Party minority of the Republican Party fighting to repeal or impede the Affordable Care Act - sourly known as "Obamacare." While pundits on the liberal left have been right to place the blame on the Republican Party - rather than the failure of both parties to compromise - they are wrong to depict the shutdown as a delusional Tea Party strategy. In reality, this was the next step in a well-devised reactionary strategy to cut government programs for the public. Social security, medicaid, and government jobs have been the targets of such cuts as Republicans and spineless Democrats virtually put money in the hands of the rich through tax breaks, government contracts, and a declining tax rate on top income earners. To be honest, this is a pretty amazing accomplishment. For that reason, working Americans should look to the conservative movement and understand how it was - and continues - to be so successful in obtaining its goals. It's important to understand that offensive maneuvers - rather than the defense of static political positions - land victories for the American conservative movement. For that reason, it is imperative that working people develop their own strategies of political offense in order to avoid being dragged back into the extreme inequality of the 1890s Gilded Age.
The media coverage of the recent government shutdown depicted an uncompromising Tea Party minority of the Republican Party fighting to repeal or impede the Affordable Care Act - sourly known as "Obamacare." While pundits on the liberal left have been right to place the blame on the Republican Party - rather than the failure of both parties to compromise - they are wrong to depict the shutdown as a delusional Tea Party strategy. In reality, this was the next step in a well-devised reactionary strategy to cut government programs for the public. Social security, medicaid, and government jobs have been the targets of such cuts as Republicans and spineless Democrats virtually put money in the hands of the rich through tax breaks, government contracts, and a declining tax rate on top income earners. To be honest, this is a pretty amazing accomplishment. For that reason, working Americans should look to the conservative movement and understand how it was - and continues - to be so successful in obtaining its goals. It's important to understand that offensive maneuvers - rather than the defense of static political positions - land victories for the American conservative movement. For that reason, it is imperative that working people develop their own strategies of political offense in order to avoid being dragged back into the extreme inequality of the 1890s Gilded Age.
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