Public discourse in the public square is dead and sensible deliberation in our institutions is gone. Increasingly our thoughts and speech are hyperbolic. Dramatic audio-visuals in the form of net-connected material such as podcasts and the full range of social media have replaced quiet contemplation and scholarship. Since the schools are mostly absent at the switch, people have little to rely on to mediate what they’re seeing and hearing. And when a extremist ideology comes to dominate one of our major parties, we have all the makings for a catastrophic rift.
See below.
Cultural antecedents are at the root. These antecedents differ by geography. Tradition has a higher survival rate outside the big cities, corporate boardrooms, big media centers, and the classroom. Inside those nuclei, it’s a worldview wedded to hedonistic collectivism. It’s not that metropolitan elites, and those who aspire to be, are hedonists. Their life pattern is typically traditional in marriage and family formation; but it’s what’s in their heads that makes all the difference: hedonistic collectivism. They near-homogenously vote that way. Meaning, they vote left.
The Democratic Party has become the epicenter of this urban belief system. As such, the Party has moved radically left and is essentially an urban phenomena. The belief system is baked in the cake of urban politics, and, by the way, is disseminated to the kids everywhere, but particularly to those in the inter-connected, cell phone world of exurbia-to-core. What we have is an isolated Party that has moved so far left that an uber-liberal like Pelosi is now mainstream. This is not a Party conducive to Truman or JFK any longer.
The Republican Party is essentially where it was since Calvin Coolidge, with only slight deviations. This is expected of a Party more compatible with our philosophical legacy. Key is the understanding of fixed standards going back to the ancient nexus of Jerusalem-Athens.
Therefore, the current political battle lines are Jerusalem-Athens vs. hedonistic collectivism. In Constitution-speak, it’s the real Constitution vs. a “living” one. In the hands of the Left, the rule of law becomes the rule of men but sold as the rule of law.
So, the rift isn’t due to a movement of both parties from each other. It’s a product of the big shift of the Democratic Party to the left, which means a fuller embrace of hedonistic collectivism. Combined with their political throw weight in densely packed urban areas, they can, if they marshal their critical masses, outvote everywhere else. Thus, their worldview has the potential to be imposed throughout the land. 2020 offers their best chance ever.
Is the rest of the country ready for the central planning of The Green New Deal (even if modified), centralized and massive gun registration and confiscation, invasions into the pulpit to force alignment with the left’s ethos, carte-blanche to abortion, toothless law enforcement, promiscuous nationwide lockdowns, forced acceptance of transgenderism in all manner of social interaction, the ongoing seeding of leftist ideology in the schools, and the radical restructuring of our Constitutional order to permanently empower the cities and their political machines? I don’t know, but we might be getting ready to have a taste.
My guess is that the rest of the country won’t sit idly by. They won’t wait for the next Congressional bi-elections to right the ship. Anyway, Congress has allowed itself to be turned into a glorified debating society as executive powers have filled the void. Obama proved that you don’t need legislation when you’ve got your phone and pen. An urban-dominated federal government will have tradition-minded areas up against a wall with no escape. The only recourse for those traditionally minded will be extensive civil disobedience and resistance – sadly, some of it will be armed. When you back a person into a corner, things go badly and quickly.
As a teacher in the public schools, I’ve seen this many times. Buckle up for a wild ride. It won’t matter if a new Biden administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress appear to modify their rough edges and compromise. You have to remember that it’s a compromise from the position of the radical left, democrat-socialists in power. In the end, the system still moves left, just at a slightly slower pace – especially after they rigged the system of government through court-packing, defanging the minority after the loss of the filibuster, made the Electoral College an irrelevancy, and cowed the Supreme Court with vicious attacks.
Sanctuary cities point the way in showing that a resistance can thumb their noses at a clear federal authority and get away with it. Likewise, traditionally-minded areas could just as easily follow the same script. Only in this case, these people are more likely to believe in the private ownership of firearms and the real purpose of the 2nd Amendment as a hedge against tyrannical government.
I’m not endorsing this possible outcome. I’m forecasting it. I hope, I hope that I’m wrong.
RogerG
** Also on my Facebook page.