Ryan is no Sarah Palin. He may prove more a deficit than a benefit to the Romney campaign, but he knows you can't see Russia from Alaska. No doubt hand-picked and destined for his present role as high priest of the "starve the beast" school by virtue of his undeniable intelligence, quickness and fundamental conservatism, Ryan got his education at the feet of Jack Kemp and the National Review cabal. He bears some remarkable similarities to the late William F. Buckley, even possessing some of Buckley's sometimes alarming physical quirks--the leering smile in the face of evil, the eyes shining with the one true faith, the barely restrained mean-spiritedness, everything but that serpentine tongue-lolling that, in Buckley, signified that he could pick up the scent of evil with the tip of his tongue, rather like a rattler in the presence of rodent prey. Like Buckley, Ryan is Roman Catholic. This, in itself, gives rise to some interesting aspects of both the present ethos as well as the dynamics of the upcoming election. With a Mormon and a Catholic the Republican nominees, this will be the first time in American history that neither candidate for these high offices will be Protestant.
The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite that still runs this country has apparently decided, during these dark times, to retreat to their country clubs, foreign villas and pieds-a-terre with just occasional excursions to Bilderberg conferences to keep an eye on things. Five of the Supreme Court justices are Catholic. Once about as popular with elite WASPs as they were with the KKK, Catholics and Jews are now everywhere in the corridors of government. Both groups are perfectly suited to the role of gatekeepers in society where the mob (You know, like those Europeans who take to the street at the drop of a hat) may rise up with its pitchforks or, in this country, where it is perfectly acceptable to own such weapons, AR-15s and Ak-47s. Though not universally held ideas within Judaism and Catholicism, there are major strains within both faiths or cultures that portray the average person as child-like, not fully developed, in need of restraining influences. For Jews, the vulgar expression of this sensibility is summed up in the expression a goyische kup, strictly translated, a gentile or Christian head, and therefore, well...frankly, not too bright. For Catholics, the vulgar expression is actually also the dominant one. Their spiritual mentors are called "Father" for good reason. Born with original sin, they tend to keep on sinning, confessing, sinning again, infant baptism having only the briefest cleansing effect. They need to be controlled, for, given the least opportunity, they descend into all sorts of chaotic behavior, particularly of the sexual variety. Thus the church's stand not merely against abortion, but also its seemingly perverse stand against contraception (which, though it provides an answer to unwanted pregnancies, also allows one to have worry-free, if not guilt-free, sex).
The danger exists that the Republican handlers will do their best to keep the real Ryan under wraps, that is to keep the American people from seeing a fanatic acolyte of Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand and Friedrich Hayek, until the election is over, and it is too late. But, to those who can decipher his barely disguised code, Ryan seems unlikely to be able to stop himself. One of his earliest pronouncements is that “America is more than just a place…it's an idea. It's the only country founded on an idea. Our rights come from nature and God, not government." One has to wonder even in this case if a handler persuaded him to put "nature" first, giving God second billing. Embedded in the statement is the ongoing struggle of the right to convert the founding fathers to good, orthodox Christians, rather than the children of Rousseau and the Enlightenment, deists and pantheists that they actually were. Thus the sidelong reference to nature, effectively preserving Ryan's intellectual credentials while counting on the right wing base to slough over the nature bit and only hear mention of the godhead. Good, old-fashioned, sterling silver demagoguery. Or, at the risk of seeming to grind an anti-Catholic axe, such delicate conceits are reminiscent of nothing so much as the tactics of that sect within the faith that once led proper Protestants to coin the term "bejesuited" as a term of opprobrium.
Most of the corporate media is already well under way to "cover" the issues in the upcoming election--cover, that is, in its primary sense of conceal, rather than expose. We have immediately been made the victims of a flood of stories on the supposed meaning of Ryan's candidacy only to find that attention is paid to his influence on blue states and red states rather than to his extremist ideology. Let us look forward to the debates. Joe Biden, perhaps the last Roosevelt Democrat holding any office, treated Sarah Palin gently, being the gentleman that he is, but, hopefully, we will have a Joseph N. Welch vs. Joe McCarthy moment in which the old war horse will expose Paul Ryan for the fanatic he really is. If we are going to regress to a medieval, feudalistic society, at least let us make clear to those tempted to vote for Ryan and Romney what it is they will actually be voting for.
The solution to debt, deficits and entitlement programs gone out of control is no more mysterious or unattainable that a formula for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. As we hear time and time again, every sane person knows what the final package should look like. This isn't about money. There is endless talk about money, nevertheless, and most of what comes out of Republican mouths are shameless lies (lies in the defense of liberty being no vice apparently). It remains to be seen whether or not there will just one moment in the next two months when we will hear a bald expression of what all this smoke is really about.
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