The Right Wing Rationale IX: Election Day

Well, it looks like we are going to find out by the time the polls close tonight whether the right wing gravitation to more and more fascist tinged policies will be deflected a bit even if it is too late to entirely reverse the curve. It has been a frightening ride up until now as more and more power has been invested in corporations, and the oligarchs, in an effort to consolidate that power, demonstrated a complete lack of inhibition about unleashing the dogs of war and some of the uglier elements in our society. As is always the case with the patrons who make policy for “the greater good,” who proceed as if “the end justifies the means (there is more than a little fondness for Stalinesque leadership among this type),” the lesser evil(s) can be formidable indeed. This is particularly true when one rules via a coalition of thugs in suits, Elmer Gantry style demagogues and the vast spectrum of zealots who have always been part of the U.S. landscape and are often difficult to distinguish from outright bigots. Gone since the Reagan era, perhaps even since Goldwater’s infamous “extremism in the defense of liberty” speech in 1964, are the so-called moderate Republicans. The Northeastern Establishment may still rule, but it rules from behind the wizard’s screen, and that is always dangerous. Like New Testament Pontius Pilates, their hands are clean. Unlike Pontius Pilate, they will remain for all time anonymous entities to all but a handful of Americans. Southern good ol’ boys, Western cowboys, the prim and the pious will do the dirty work. As recent events have vividly illustrated, this coalition, like the crowd on the Mississippi river boat in Melville’s The Confidence Man, will occasionally harbor an honest individual. More likely, however, these children of less than patrician roots will succumb all too easily to corruption—financial as well as sexual. Or, more correctly, be less facile when it comes to keeping their misdeeds a secret. So, now that the contract with America seems to have developed some serious flaws, the other party will return—unless, of course, Americans are a lot less committed to democratic government than they so loudly proclaim…or we see some egregious ballot box tampering.