Back when the republican party was actually the party of small government
it was possible for country club moderates (white guys and their trophy wives
who love the status quo and want to preserve the tax breaks that make it
possible), Christian conservatives (who want the bible to be the template for
the US legal system) and libertarians (who want a limited government that
exists almost solely to protect property rights and individual freedoms) to
coexist. While disagreeing on some major issues like abortion and foreign
affairs, they could unite on taxes, regulation, school choice and enough else
to hold the party together.
But gradually, the easy money flowing from the fiat currency/money center
bank nexus has corrupted the country club republicans by coaxing them into a
"governing coalition" with moderate democrats. This "political
class" is all about perpetuating its own power, and the meaningless
elections it oversees are just about the opposite of what Ronald Reagan (the
last national leader to unite the party's three main branches) had in mind
when he promised to "never speak ill of another republican."
Now the GOP is splintering, as libertarians and some fundamentalists give
up on working within the current structure -- and as a result stop
self-censoring in the interest of party unity. Michigan libertarian
congressman Justin Amash is a case in point. After being targeted by country
club republicans in the party's recent primary -- and after winning easily --
he was anything but magnanimous.
This alone -- a politician honestly expressing his feelings for his
opponents -- is interesting enough. But what's really fascinating is the
reaction from the various parts of the political spectrum. The Washington
Post, for instance, seems bemused:
Justin
Amash's absolutely amazing victory speech
Politicians who win campaigns, no matter how dirty, will almost always
kiss and make up with their political opponents in their election-night
speeches.
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), of course, is not your average politician.
After defeating a Chamber of Commerce-backed candidate in his primary by
14 percentage points on Tuesday, the Ron Paul ally set about settling a few
scores.
Former congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), who backed challenger Brian
Ellis? "You are a disgrace. And I'm glad we could hand you one more loss
before you fade into total obscurity and irrelevance." (Hoekstra lost
the state's 2012 Senate race -- and in the 2010 gubernatorial primary.)
Ellis? "You owe my family and this community an apology for your
disgusting, despicable smear campaign. You had the audacity to try and call
me today after running a campaign that was called the nastiest in the
country. I ran for office to stop people like you."
Ellis in one ad referred to a quote from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who
labeled Amash "Al Qaeda's best friend in Congress."
In a later TV interview, Amash said: "I'm an Arab-American, and he
has the audacity to say I'm al-Qaeda's best friend in Congress? That's pretty
disgusting."
Here's the video of Amash's speech, courtesy of WXMI-TV. The operative
part starts about halfway in.
Lightweight
left-wing website Salon, meanwhile, posted pretty much the same neutral
article but with a very different headline:
Tea
Party nut's telling tantrum: What Justin Amash's victory speech revealed
about GOP
At the other end of the spectrum, the libertarian news organization
Liberty Crier's headline had an "it's about time" call for more
such honesty:
Watching
Justin Amash's Amazingly Uncivil Victory Speech Might Make You Care About
Politics Again
What to make of all this?
The republican party as it existed in Reagan's day is over. Libertarians
like Amash can't abide "RINO" (republican in name only) leadership
any longer and have decided to go their own way in terms of both policy and
rhetoric. So they're finally calling the hacks and careerists by name. For
libertarians and their fans this will be, well, liberating.
But the near-term beneficiaries are obviously the democrats, who don't
have the same internal divisions: Pretty much all democrats are in favor of
social freedom and government control of the economy, so it's easy for them
to unite behind flawed-but-generally-liberal candidates. They will as a
result win a lot of national elections, and when republicans do win it will
be because democrats in power have screwed up in some obvious and
unforgivable way.
In those relatively rare shots at national power, the republicans will
have to form European-style coalition governments including the same three
groups that used to comprise the party. Because each faction will be able to
demand tangible policy concessions as the price of joining, they might feel
better respected than they do now.
This, however, is not a fix. Only when the fiat currency stops flowing
will the political class lose its current power to buy elections. But at
least the discourse from here on out will be a lot more fun.
