The Morning Rant

WE'RE ALL ROMANS NOW

Is there anyone from the Bush administration who is not now a Democrat, other than Condoleeza Rice and Ari Fleischer?

What got me thinking was that so few counterexamples could be found. Dana Perino is probably the most prominent one. I wanted to suggest Tony Snow, but he unfortunately lacks the technical qualification of being alive. He was a good man and I'm sorry that he passed.

But the more I thought about this, the more I found myself agreeing with the idea put forth by other commentators that what's going in America right now is not a prelude to the outbreak of a red/blue civil war, but rather the American republic, like the original Roman republic centuries ago, is degenerating into an empire run by dictators. So instead of a country of responsible, self-governing sovereign citizens, we basically are evolving into two classes, the Rulers and the Ruled. Therefore, what we're seeing right now is the scramble of a number of people to ensconce themselves into the Ruling class, and it's a bit of a struggle, because the Ruling Class does not have open membership. A lot of it depends on where you live and who you know and what schools you go to, etc.

But, getting back to Bush: unlike his father, he ran specifically as a conservative on a conservative platform and promised to do conservative things.

So, what happened? Why did W. staff his administration with people who turned out to be liberals? As I see it, there are three possibilities. The people Bush surrounded himself with

(a) were lying their asses off about being conservative.
(b) had a different view of what 'conservative' meant.
(c) changed.

Now, depending on who you're talking about, any of of these are possible. But I would guess the most common reason is (c). Whatever their background is, whenever they get to Washington DC, they slowly morph into liberals. We've seen this with judges, with representatives, and senators, over and over and over again. Here's one particularly infuriating example: I'm old enough to remember when John Thune was held up as the fiery conservative answer to "Snarlin'" Arlen Specter, and when we finally got him elected, what happened? He pretty much morphed into the squishiest squish in RINOville.

Time and time again, we send conservatives to Washington DC, and time and time again, they sell us out.

I believe what's happening is that, either consciously or unconsciously, they're transforming into members of the Ruling Class, what we call the UniParty, where membership does not depend on what beliefs you hold or what policies you want to implement, except for anything that brings more power and wealth and prestige to Washington DC, that's what you're going to be in favor of. The 4 or 5 wealthiest counties in the United States are the ones grouped around Washington DC. It's like District 1 of the post-American country of Panem from The Hunger Games and this description sounds distressingly familiar:

For presumably the majority of its existence, Panem's central government operated as a totalitarian dictatorship and police state with society, particularly in the Capitol, modeled heavily on ancient Rome. The outlying Districts were subservient to the Capitol, expected to provide significant economic and material services in exchange for protection provided by the Capitol's armies of Peacekeepers, largely at the heavy expense and detriment to the districts' populace.

It has been noted that pretty much all of the federal elected officials and bureaucrats all live in the same few zip codes, send their kids to the same (private) schools and the same (private) colleges, attend the same social events and entertainments, etc. I'm not telling anyone on this blog anything new here, but this constant fellowship and camaraderie will eventually produce a common set of beliefs and assumptions about what constitutes good government and a well-run country, and I doubt it involves smaller, de-centralized government and local control. A conservative legislator will feel pressure to shed his principles, the ones he was elected on, and become with the Ruling UniParty. Some are able to resist, but most, I fear, do not. The perquisites and privileges of the Ruling Class are too great a temptation.

So, with this in mind, what we are going to see is not a red/blue civil war, but some sort of dictatorship arising, like China, with social credit and enforced groupthink, only unlike past dictatorships, a lot of the enforcement is going to be outsourced to the private sector in the form of social media censorship of inconvenient topics, and "mandates" of various sorts. Of course, we're seeing this now. Presently, the mandates have to do with the Covid pandemic. Next year, it might be about something else entirely. But whatever it is, it will be declared an "emergency" because the bureaucrats have learned they can do anything they want in an "emergency." So get ready for one emergency after another in the years ahead.

This whole Ruling Party thing got its start, I don't know, perhaps in the aftermath of the Civil War, and then it got a boost from Woodrow Wilson, but really accelerated when the Cold War started after WWII and we became a world power.

And ultimately, it is our fault this is happened. That is, we elected them. I mean, collectively, we as Americans elected them. And when those we elected broke their promises, lied, and cheated, and enriched themselves, what did we do? We re-elected them. We told them, hey, it's okay to be a lying, corrupt crapweasel with one hand in the till and the other up some intern's skirt, we don't care, we'll make sure you always have a job. We didn't bother paying attention. We allowed ourselves to be bought off with bread and circuses and so we outsourced the governing of our country to people who should've never been allowed anywhere near elective office.

Back in 1787, delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. As they exited, Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government do we have? "A Republic," he replied, "if you can keep it." Apparently, like Rome, we're not going to be able to keep it. Because the freedoms that we are allowing to be taken away today will not be given back to us tomorrow.

The Haves and The Have-Nots:

Here, Let Me Explain:

Who Dis:

For the 'Ettes:

(Trivia question: The connection is a movie that set a Hollywood record for... what?)

Wednesday Who Dis: Most of you recognized Anne Archer and Guy Pearce as the 'who dis' celebrities, but I don't think anyone guessed the connection, which was the 2000 war drama Rules of Engagement.

Bonus Anti-DeSantis Ad That Actually Makes Him Look Even More Badass:

Thank you to all the anti-vaxxer trolls who shared this ad today thinking they were attacking us while we hold Ron DeSantis accountable. We are at 1.6 million views in 24 hours and your stupidity helped get our message out. pic.twitter.com/AyaHQ77fqs

— Remove Ron (@RemoveRon) October 1, 2021

Today's Edition Of The Morning Rant Is Brought To You By Deep-Fried Ice Cream Balls:

Who wants deep fried ice cream balls?! 🤷🏽‍♂️🍦🔥☄️

How good does this look??? 🤤🤤🤤

With @foodyfetish #food #foodporn pic.twitter.com/sfe6j8HOVT

— Foodporn (@food_porn) September 22, 2021

posted by OregonMuse at 11:15 AM

| Access Comments