The end of the American Republic | Hit Coffee
Or his election will be one more step in legitimizing a “church and king” faction that perhaps has always been latent in American political politics.
Legitimization is not a yes or no proposition. It happens by degrees and in stages. A formal nomination by a major party can legitimize this faction even if the nominee will never win. I’m not the first to make the comparison, but while here was no way Jean-Marie LePen was going to win the French presidency in 2002, getting to the runoff gave him and his constituency a big boost. If that analogy holds for Trump, then his presumptive nomination is a bad thing indeed.
But maybe t the Republic has already fallen. This “church and king” faction–well, maybe it’s not a faction, maybe it’s a “style” of politics–certainly had its antecedents. Maybe the deal was sealed at some point. Maybe Wickard v. Filburn. Maybe Korematsu. Maybe the Cold War national security state and military industrial complex. Maybe the Espionage, Sedition, and PATRIOT Acts (or maybe the Alien and Sedition Acts). Maybe the milling factionalism in our politics and the thousand pinpricks into civil society and individual privacy and democratic governance that might very well be the inevitable consequence of what some call “modernity.”
“it’s one step of a process that depends on decisions we have already made and on decisions we will make in the future.”
Indeed. There’s usually time to stop before running over the cliff. The key is recognizing you’re approaching a cliff. Regardless, though, I am not optimistic.Report
Me neither, although I should say I’m more bemused than optimistic (or pessimistic).Report
Michael Cain asked a good question at Hitcoffee about what I mean by “American Republic.” I gave him an answer, but in retrospect, I’m wondering if I’m off-base and making an idol of this thing I call the “American Republic.”
Maybe “it” isn’t worth preserving so much as are peace, prosperity and securing others’ rights. Of course, we’ll haggle endlessly over what those things mean and over when, by what means, and for whom we’ll have obtained them.Report
…and securing others’ rights.
Of course, the interesting questions all involve scope, scale, and willingness-to-pay (which rights, for how many people, and at what cost). I’m admittedly out on the lunatic fringe, but think it’s reasonable to consider the possibility that the day will come — perhaps sooner than anyone expects — when the urban corridors of the Northeast and Pacific Coast decide that they aren’t willing to pay the bill to secure the same set of rights for poor rural Mississippians that they grant to their own residents.Report
Sad, but plausible.Report
George Orwell, England Your EnglandReport
Well put.Report