Can you hear it? From everywhere we are being told that if conservative Republicans stay home this election because of discontent with their party, DISASTER will occur.
Not only will Nancy Pelosi become Speaker of the House (although that is by no means a given), those soft on defense Dems will be in charge, and they will also tax and spend us into the poorhouse. So, even though you on the Right have many, many problems with the current administration, and the way things are going, you must still support Team R.
Let’s analyze this line of reasoning.
The leadership of Team R admits that the current administration and Congress is spending like crazy, has done zero about illegal immigration, is botching the Iraq situation, has made a mockery of the way it has handled the Foley affair, and, in short, doesn’t stand for anything at all. Yet, it is preferable to Team D, and therefore must be be retained. As such, Team R is saying that they can never be held accountable for their failures, since to stay home and possibly facilitate a Team D takeover is too horrific a fate.
Thus, Team R believes that it has created the perfect paradigm: All you have to do is scare the voters into believing that the alternative is unthinkable, and you can transcend any accountability, now and forever. Helping them along the way, of course, are the sycophantic talk show hosts, including Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, and Michael Medved.
Frankly, you’d think that this group of overrated broadcasters would be embarrassed by now with the “Do you want Nancy Pelosi?” refrain, and figure that for all the money they are making, they could do better than recite Republican National Committee talking points. What a concept! They should actually come up with some original material for a change!
Then again, as long as people keep listening to this drivel, why should the hosts care? True, ratings of most of these guys are down, but are still more than high enough to keep them in the style to which they have become accustomed.
And, that’s what’s so ironic about all this. Once you get to the income level of the sycophants, it is of no consequence how bad Team R is—or how bad any government is, for that matter. This is nothing more than a variation on the theme of false populism, that has been a stock-in-trade of dishonest American politicians ever since Thomas Jefferson supposedly championed the cause of the noble American farmer, all the while living the sybaritic existence either in France, or with his slaves in Virginia.
It’s just as easy for these guys to be faux conservatives, “feeling” for the average Joe, as it is for wealthy liberals like Ted Kennedy, Ned Lamont, Al Gore, or Nancy Pelosi to drop their line of bull on the unwashed masses.
As to voting when all alternatives are bad, iconoclast par excellence Thomas Di Lorenzo wrote an article entitled “Be Patriotic: Don’t Vote.” DiLorenzo holds that being patriotic in American means being devoted to the Constitution, if not the natural rights philosophy that motivated much of it. Since virtually the entire elected membership of both parties cares nothing about enforcing the constitutional limitations of the state, they are all traitors to the Constitution.
Thus, supporting any of these traitors means that you also are acting as a traitor. He asks you to consider what a patriotic thrill it would be if in the next major election, a mere 10 percent turned out, thus delegitimizing the status quo. Wouldn’t that be a more effective way of sending a message than to keep voting for Team R, as if nothing were wrong?
It’s hard to disagree with DiLorenzo.