To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil. – Charles Krauthammer

George Rebane

Students of American history agree that President Lincoln was the prime instigator of federalism’s decline and the growth of Washington’s power over our land and lives.  That the times called for such a reorientation of our body politic is still being debated, but the assumption of the path to collectivism is today denied only by those most ardently at work who promote progress on that same path.

Prior to our misnamed Civil War, America was a more or less cohesive society as far as governance was concerned.  Washington affected little of what went on in the states and counties, and even in the territories – of course, transportation and communication technologies of the times had a lot to do with that.  Visitors to our land observed, spoke, and wrote of the marvelous local control of their lives that was maintained by that cohesive and copasetic population.  The only apparent fly in the ointment was slavery, but ultimately that was enough to rend the country which required the first modern continental war to stitch it back together into a form in which all the pieces have still not knit correctly.  And that itself gave rise to many people looking for Washington to keep applying more stitches in an attempt to recreate a cohesive but now compliantly conformable country.

That such a direction was for the benefit of society took strong root in Europe after the French Revolution.  By mid-19th century political philosophers (e.g. Marx, Bastiat) were in full debate over the benefits and faults of collective vs liberal governance.  And by the end of that century organized movements toward what we may call popular or democratic collectivism, anticipating a global scale, were in full swing contributing much to the angst of strong authoritarian central governments.  For the first time in history, the common man was taught and came to believe that he was due a much larger share of his nation’s wealth, and perhaps even the wealth of neighboring nations.  In the 20th century we witnessed the deaths of nearly half a billion people in the quest by sovereign nation-states to emplace and exercise collective power over individuals.

After WW2 the world shattered into more sovereign nations, which number again multiplied after Soviet communism collapsed as the last century ended with America as the world’s unquestioned leading hegemon.  But in the last twenty-five years that fragmentation has stopped and movements are afoot to again accrete territories by force so as to again create large global hegemons.  Curiously in this process America has donned the heavy Mantle of Past Sins, and is doing everything possible to rapidly become the last among equals while choosing the now obvious policy of leading from behind – which is to say, not leading at all.  And as that beat goes on, it continues to divide us into cohorts that wish America to become a compliant global citizen – a 'peer among peers' – and those who wish America to remain the exceptional sovereign nation-state and beacon of benevolent governance that it has been for the last two centuries.

However, as I have attempted to make the case here for some years now, such a future for us as a strong Westphalian state is becoming less likely with every passing year.  Ever since the late 1940s, when the American socialists folded their party in favor of the Democrats, our political center of gravity has been moving steadily leftward.  The overwhelming cause of this has been the ideological course of the progressives (cum socialists), now fully in charge of the Democratic Party, but also the contributing come-along compliance of the Republican leadership, ever willing to trade principle for propitious polling.  One can and I still do argue that the Right has not moved leftward nearly as far as has the Left in our country.  But given the astute assumption of control over public service (government and education) unions by the Left, the electorate has become appropriately gruberized (a most timely label to describe the aggregate intellect) during the span of the last two generations.  Most all of us look to Washington for some part of our daily maintenance and quality of life.  And our local political leaders are today more facile than ever in convincing us that there is no hope for halting the growth of Leviathan; all we can do is pop an occasional palliative by passing a proposition or initiative expressing our will to be overturned later by the courts.  Best to go along to get along, and get used to it.

I was talking to the wife of a prominent leader in local government last night.  She is an educated working woman like so many today who proudly announce their disdain for politics and things political.  I asked her how she informed herself in order to vote, and she answered that just before the election she reads the online editions of the nation’s popular news magazines  – “Time, Newsweek, and US News”.  In the interval, the lady manages her daily affairs which include volunteering in community organizations that all bend leftward.  And she is typical - there are so many of such good people who give no thought to how in such organizations they are constantly bathed in an ideology that not only successfully resists examination, but also does not reveal its presence, while the organizations resolutely maintain that they are apolitical.

A correspondent alerted me to a recent piece by Joel Kotkin – ‘More local decisions usurped by ideological regulators’ – that focuses on a corroborating aspect of the above commentary.  In it he writes –

Nothing is more basic to the American identity than leaving basic control of daily life to local communities and, as much as is practical, to individuals. The rising new regulatory regime seeks decisively to change that equation. To be sure, there is a need for some degree of regulation, notably for basic health and public safety, as well as maintaining and expanding schools, parks, bikeways and tree-planting, things done best when supported by local voters. … But the current regulatory wave goes well beyond traditional methodology. It reflects policies more akin to those central planners, who, as Chapman University researcher Alicia Kurimska suggests, dominated city planning in the once-massive Soviet bloc.

Kotkin’s essay is worth a read and reflection.

[update]  Given Trump's popularity before the debate, and his improved post-debate poll numbers now being released, I think it's important to bring up a long-held perception by local progressives (you know, the ones glued to MSNBC).  These neighbors have been denigrating our right-leaning commenters and your humble commentator for years as having fastened on to a sclerotic, closely held, and rare view of what has happened to our country and the direction on which it is currently hell bent.  In this we have gone to considerable lengths outlining our intense dissatisfaction with the direction Washington is taking us, and by imitation where Sacramento has similarly betrayed California.

Well, the Trump phenomenon has now put to rest the gross ignorance and baseless accusations that our views are those of out-of-touch angry curmudgeons stuck in some never-was past.  It turns out that there are tens of millions of our fellow Americans who share our disquieting assessments.  And so the question remains, who has been out of touch with the beliefs, attitudes, and experiences of a major cohort of Americans.  Will there be a mea culpa in the works?  Nah, not even close.  In light of how the other side thinks and reasons, none of this will impact their worldview one iota – bet on it, since their lamestream is already leading the way.

[11aug15 update]  Jo Ann and I attended Congressman Doug LaMalfa’s town hall meeting in GV City Council chambers this afternoon.  The seats were pretty much full of people deciding to spend a beautiful day listening to and talking with their MoC.  It turned out that, led by Nevada County Democratic Party Chairman Jim Firth, the hall was pretty much a get together of liberals.  In their turn they were surprised to see the congressman in Nevada County, and expressed their appreciation of the fact and their ability to talk to him in person.  That was the first hint of how out of touch those neighbors were with even local happenings.  LaMalfa is a regular presence in our county, and his visits are regularly announced in The Union and on KNCO.  Were I more focused on local issues, I would throw RR into that group, but alas, I have been remiss.

It was to be a two hour meeting – 230 to 430pm – but we were able to last until only 4pm when we quietly departed with severely bitten tongues.  It has been quite some time since I heard from so many ill-informed, and some just plain stupid, people all gathered in one room.

LaMalfa started the meeting with a review of salient points concerning the Iran deal, NorCal forest management and water issues (focusing on the proposed Bear River dam), and ‘climate change’.  That took only about 30 minutes and then he opened the floor to questions – hands sprung up like a field of weeds after an early spring rain.  The questions came from blatantly hard left neighbors, each wanting to make a speech about their heartfelt issue before a question on the topic could be pried out of them.  They all bared their worldviews and their strong indelible truths.  Could we have kept track, literally every progressive shibboleth, sound bite, and talking point was voiced.  And each person believed more firmly than the last that his recital contained God’s own truth (or the secular humanist’s moral equivalent of that).

The congressman kept his cool – no doubt having been through this kind of wringer before – and quietly, if not with some generous meandering, answered their various outrages.  Some of the more intense leftwingers reached their tolerance thresholds when they saw that they could not elicit a rise out of LaMalfa.  Individually and in small groups they began leaving the hall, some shouting that they had never heard such utter lies and propaganda before from a public official.  For them the debate was clearly over on more than just man-made global warming.

What struck me from their monologues, especially when they quoted purported facts, was how little they had read or been exposed to anything other than the emotional reports from their favorite priests.  Their voiced reasonings were twisted beyond comprehension, so much that I had to start thinking that this turnout was a biased sample that Mr Firth had somehow assembled for this afternoon.  These people could not be representative of the population of local Democrats, this had to be a particularly deprived assemblage.  But then again …

Finally, noting the absence of air sickness bags in the seat backs and still wanting to maintain decorum, we were forced to take a rather hasty leave after one poor lady launched into a tirade about the jails being filled with women arrested for killing their male partners because they were locked in abusive relationships which offered no other exit.  So this was our most recent exposure to the people who make our county politically ‘purple’.  God help us every one.

[12aug15 update]  Speaking of the looney left at yesterday's meeting, a correspondent who also attended sent me the following email – "I attended the LaMalfa townhall yesterday.  A little bit into the meeting, a person behind me started shouting at LaMalfa and calling him a propagandist etc.  The person sounded like a loon!  Screeching loudly as they left.  I did not turn around and so I did not know what the person looked like.  Now I read in the Union this morning it was Linda Campbell.  Honestly, this woman is on the school board?  She is nuts!  (she also sounded like a male voice as well)"  Ms Campbell has already left her unique mark on our community and in these pages (here).