Where's the progress?

If you've been reading this blog for a while, and you're still reading it, you've probably got some sympathy for the notion that the republicans have done a better job of recruiting and retaining self-reinforcing groups as their base. Well, that's a long sentence, so lets parse it out a little to make sense of it, and what the implications are.

The modern republican is based on a constituency of fundamentalists. These fundamentalists take many forms:

• Christian fundamentalists
• Tax reduction fundamentalists
• Gun nut fundamentalists
• Anti-abortion fundamentalists
• Economic Neo-Con fundamentalists
• Foreign Policy Neo-Con fundamentalists

These groupings of people often overlap. For example, CF's (Christian fundamentalists) and A-AF's (Anti-abortion fundamentalists). Or, GN's and FPN-C's. Most of these groups don't overlap with Democrats, liberals, or liberal groups.

The fundamentalist groups share three key similarities:

• Lack of belief in objective reality
• Socially derived ego gratification
• Have an agenda for the larger society

These are important factors. The members of these groups generally cannot be swayed by facts and logic. Rather, they have faith in their beliefs that overrides any facts or logic presented to them.

The members of these groups find their ego gratification from their groups, they find their friends and mentors from within these groups. So, asking group members to change their thinking is akin to asking them to reject their friends and family. Moreover, it is to ask them to admit to being not merely wrong, but duped.

Clearly the republican leadership is mostly about other things. To the degree they share common beliefs with these constituent groups, the leaders beliefs are tempered (at a minimum) with a sense of political pragmatism.

The republican leadership is about waging class warfare on behalf of the economic top 1% of this country, the top 1% wanna-be's within the leadership itself. Some will accuse this of being a cynical view. But, one has only to look at what the Washington has accomplished over the last 6+ years. It's done two things: 1) Shift wealth up the ladder; 2) Used the federal government, and the military industrial complex in particular, to provide shortcuts to wealth for key players. Talk is all great, but the proof is in the pudding - its not to be argued with.

So, we have a leadership nursing fundamentalist agendas, and offering them a series of breadcrumbs (albeit breadcrumbs with huge social impacts). In return for which, its been allowed to enrich itself. Now that, my friends, is an act of cynicism.

Some people were surprised when Shrub won the first time. A number of folks were surprised when he won the second time. But, really no one should have been surprised. The Democratic party isn't supported by any movements.

Mind you, I don't think Democrats are universally smart, right, or moral. But, they are, taken as a whole, more concerned about finding the right solution that works (or should work) for everyone. As a consequence, they have been able to enforce the party discipline, much less the daily party message, that the modern republican party has done. Dissent is allowed, and even (up to a point) considered a very good thing. This, by the way, is an idea near and dear to the founding fathers.

The republicans have demonstrated that they do not believe in such plurality of opinion. No one who doesn't toe the line, right or wrong, is allowed to maintain a position or power within the republican party. It wasn't always so, but clearly it is today. Any one who doubts this need only read a newspaper regularly. Show me the open dissent and the open process for resolving dissent. There is no dissent and no process to resolve it. Yet, there are way to many republicans, even in the leadership, for this to be a credible reality. The only possible alternative is that dissent is silenced, one way or another.

And this, in fact, is the sort of behavior one finds in any organization that goes awry. What happened at Enron? What happened in Hitler's Germany? What's happened in Chicago City government?

Interestingly enough, the combination of fundamentalist groups supporting the republican party has been enough to maintain its hold on power in the face of objective reality. At some point Hitler ruled only through fear and power. At some point the Heads of Enron were ratted on. At some point, a smart district attorney is bringing Chicago government to accountability.

So what of the republican leadership of the US? Well, the various groups are realizing that the leadership hasn't given all that its promised. And, given these groups agendas, this isn't really an improvement over rational government. However, starting with fundamentalist Christians, there is the possibility that a new leadership could arise to continue the power of the republican party - even if its agenda shifts.

We should realize what we know. That is, there is a portion of the CF leadership that is fundamentally corrupt and part of the current republican gravy train. There is also a part of their leadership which may be morally pure (and factually pure too - never been exposed to any), leadership always seeks power and rewards. The CF leadership wants its share just as much as it wants to convert souls and kill abortion providers.

So one question is whether this group is large enough, either by itself, or with groups representing other forms of fundamentalism, to maintain the republican party in power and expand their own social agenda. The issue of a coalition is an interesting one. The CF leadership may not be willing to align will all of the different fundamentalist groups that the current republican leadership embraces. Can the CF leadership maintain its own sense of moral authority while embracing neo-con foreign policy, or while playing to the gun lobby? Its interesting to speculate, but I'm not comfortable predicting.

Meanwhile, what has changed on the liberal side of the spectrum. If the Democrats are merely the party of inclusion, rationality, and in support of the constitution - what do they have to fire up their constituency? The answer may be nothing. It may be that the grover snotquists and karl rogues of the world have convinced them that government can only be successful in limited ways. If this is the case, there may be nothing left to motivate liberals.

So, the question in my mind is how to convince mainstream Americans, liberals and Democrats that there is work to be done. Work that is important and doable? I don't know the answer, but I'm sure that this is the question we must address if we are to wrest the control of government from demagogue, fascists, fundamentalists, and the welfare 1%.

Its late and this needs an edit, but it will have to wait for tomorrow.