1. a state of society without government or law. […]
4. lack of obedience to an authority; insubordination …
Does this definition remind you of the agenda of any current major political party? Certainly one party has made as its primary goal the “shutdown of the government” as Rachel Maddow reminded us last night:
After getting sworn in in January, by April they threatened to shut down the government. That was April. By July, Republicans had forced the first ever debt ceiling crisis in American history. We got our national credit rating downgraded for that one before they eventually blinked and decided they didn’t want to keep going. By September of that same year, Republicans were again threatening another government shutdown. By April of the following year, more threats from Republicans of another government shutdown. By December, by this past December, Happy New Year! Republicans were pushing us over the fiscal cliff! By January, this past January, Congressional Republicans were talking about forcing another debt ceiling crisis before again backing down. And now, Happy September 30th. We are due for that often threatened Republican shutdown before tonight is through.
This is not an accident that just keeps happening over and over again. […]
Now some may say that I’m stretching the truth here to call Republicans anarchists, or the party of anarchy, but am I?
Which party’s members have consistently opposed obeying the laws of this country to the extent that they are willing to cease funding the federal government unless their demands that those laws be repealed are met? Which party’s congressional members in the House of Representatives have previously impeached a President merely because they despised him?
Which party’s members continue to call for the impeachment of the current President because [fill in the excuse of the week here] and/or they hate him? Which party’s political leaders continued to encourage the most radical of their members in the lie that President Obama was not a US citizen and therefore not qualified to be President until that lie became a parody of itself?
Which party controlled the state legislature of Missouri, and passed legislation making it illegal to enforce all Federal gun regulation (thankfully vetoed by the Governor of Missouri)? Which party has had major elected officials, including governors, call for or support secession of their states from the United States of America?
The preamble to the US Constitution reads as follows, in case anyone forgot:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Read the rest of the Constitution. It establishes the creation of a three pronged Federal government, with an Executive branch (to carry out the operations of that government), a Legislative branch to pass laws which are supreme over the laws of all the states should they conflict, and the Judiciary branch to consider all cases and conflicts involving issues of federal law, including the Constitution itself.
In effect, the constitution is the foundation for our current Federal government that does indeed provide for the general welfare of “we the people.” Which party wants to see the Federal government in the words of one of its most famous (or infamous) leaders “drowned in a bath tub?” Which party opposed federal funding for the survivors of 9/11? Which party opposed funding for disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy?
In short which party gives a rat’s behind about the general welfare and forming a more perfect union? Which party would prefer a federal government with fewer laws and less enforcement of those laws? Which party actively engages in deliberate acts to sabotage the functioning of the Federal government for any reason or no reason?
Long ago, before we had a country, there was a group of activists/rebels who styled themselves as the “Sons of Liberty.” Their goal was to remove what they considered the oppressive control of the British Crown over the governance of the American colonies, so that they could have the same rights as other “Englishman,” i.e., a voice in the government, rights to a fair trial, the right to vote for those who passed the laws that governed them. Eventually, as you know, they became the basis for the independence movement and many of their leaders became leaders in first the Continental Congress, later as participants in the Constitutional Convention. Obviously, they were not anarchists.
There are groups of conservatives and Republicans who compare themselves to the “Son’s of Liberty” but that comparison is not just deeply flawed, it is false. The current Republican Party, from top to bottom does not support democracy, or the rights of people, nor do they give a damn about the general welfare.
What they do resemble is a fictional organization of thugs who terrorize people and use their power to extort benefits for themselves from their victims. Sadly, unlike the television show of the same name, the Republican Party is real, and today’s attempt to overturn the laws of this country through the use of extortion tactics is only one more piece of evidence that demonstrates they are the true “Sons of Anarchy.”
I normally love your stuff, but this is just clever without being remotely correct.
If there’s one thing that can be established about the right across places and time, it is that they desire an authoritarian society: bosses rule workers, whites own blacks, men dominate their wives and children. But since the Federal Government has often interfered with what the societal arrangements they prefer by using its power to empower blacks, women, worker, etc., they are opposed to it. They weren’t opposed to Reagan assaulting unions, for instance.
They are just trying to grab power that democracy has denied them. Like with the Clinton impeachment, Bush v. Gore, the last government shutdown, the Great Gerrymander of 2010, voting restrictions, etc. ad nauseum. Only now they are desperate, and will use any weapon they can grab.
But, then, the Sons of Anarchy aren’t anarchists, either.
A party that sees the only legitimate government functions as the military, law enforcement, and the enforcement of contracts is anything but anarchy.
The government didn’t shut down. Those “essential services” are essentially defined in conservative Republican terms.
Political anarchism assumes that societies can function without governments or leaders through different forms of mutual aid.
The current Republicans are to sons of Mussolini. They are asserting that they and not the majority in Congress are the law and the sole law.
Calling them anarchists is too generous a label.
Well, obamacare didn’t shut down, so on at least one important front the country moves forward even as the peleoconservatives try to drag everyone else back into the 1880’s.
That’s what I was going to say. Anarchists have had their names tarred over the course of a century, and even worse libertarians — real libertarians — have had their label stolen from the likes of Murray Rothbard.
Essential services carry on, but without pay.
Bingo! From the what I recall of the small handful of anarcho-capitalists I knew as acquaintances back in college so many years ago, I think it is safe to say that there really is no comparison between even that thread of anarchism and what the GOP is about. No. This smells like something far darker, something more akin to a potential coup. Stir chaos, create collapse, and then swoop in with whatever faction of the military would enable the quick installation of a “conservative” savior. At least I could imagine this being more along the fantasies of today’s Teaheadists.
Sorta like they tried but failed to do in the early months of FDR’s admin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMEI8bnbw1o
Seems the wackobirds are trying to find a way to recreate the conditions where that play book would be effective once again.
Yeah, don’t bemirsch anarchy, which at least in theory is all about self-rule and mutual aid. The current Teahadists are all about trying to seize power for their tribe. They want plenty of laws – for everyone else.
Don’t tax ME!!! Pave my road!
There is a phrase that was used quite often in political discussions in this country back in the day; “the common good”. Say that today and members of what party will likely call you a godless commie, a pinko, a socialist, a liberal from hell or all of the above?? Anyone…… anyone?
I’m just glad the Senate democrats didn’t allow Obama to “negotiate” with both sides as he wanted to do. They were afraid he would give away the store again so they let Harry Reid take charge.
But he may get a chance yet. The debt ceiling. If Obama gets both sides to “negotiate” that, hold on to your wallets.
When “conservatives” are in complete control of governmental machinery, they are proudly authoritarian. When they lose control of the machinery, or cannot take full control, they advocate anarchy (“free markets”) as a second best position or at the very least, chaos. The federal gub’mint is now in chaos, with no end in sight, more to come, and no means to end the manufactured chaos.
Today’s “conservatives” seek a return to the Golden White Male Society, where white strongmen assert their will over other non-whites and non-males. Thus their cherished revolution in gun “rights” and their destruction of society’s ability to control lethal weapons and the creation of a plague of firearms from sea to shining sea. Power, violence, control, submission. Or chaos. Take your pick. That’s “conservatism”!
Reads like a headline in this mornings paper.
So, it’s starting to sink in that these guys are anarchists — good.
When will it sink in that for them the government shutdown is WINNING. They have zero incentive to “open” the government back up. Destroying it has been their goal for a long time. They’ve achieved their victory. Why would they do anything to jeopardize that?
Unless the rest of the GOP is prepared to throw these guys under the bus, I’m not sure I see this ending…at all. Decades of anti-government propaganda have taught millions of Americans that the government is not only useless, but as St. Ronnie said, it IS the problem.
Who says events have reasonable or foreseeable consequences? Why couldn’t this drag on for years? Does anyone really think the American people will rise up at some point? I don’t…