Dear Jon: We need to focus on reform throughout government

This is in response to Jon's Next Right post titled Reform the Republican Political Culture.  It began as a terse little comment on a break and grew into a short novella over lunch, so I'm publishing it separately for those who wish to engage in political philosophy.

It's difficult to take The Anonymous Liberal seriously when she or he puts forth the following syllogisms summarized in Jon's column:

• Premise:  The GOP is corrupt and incompetent
• Premise:  The reason the Republican Party continues to bleed members has much more to do with the general attitude of the party's political and intellectual leaders than anything else
• Conclusion:  Until corrupt, incompetent Republicans lose the attitude of general combativeness, they will just continue to turn people off

Next:

• Premise: [The voters] watch TV and see a very intelligent, charismatic President who says a lot of "very reasonable sounding things" and "exudes competence" (quotes mine)
• Premise: They [the same voters?] see a bunch of angry conservatives and Republicans who insist the same ["reasonable-sounding" "competence-exuding"] President is some sort of evil communist who's going to destroy the country
• Conclusion: Republicans are coming across as a bunch of obnoxious, unreasonable a-holes [which invalidates any criticism or dissension because the "tone" and "source" are all wrong]

Then it's Jon's turn:

• Premise: People accurately perceive the [obnoxious, a-hole?] state of the Republican Party
• Premise:  The leaders of the Right must change and embrace reform, regardless of how Democrats behave
• Conclusion: The first priority for the Right cannot be to defeat democrats [emphases mine, based on sheer incredulity]

I disagree.   Let me start with my observation that our entire government is corrupt and incompetent - and that includes not only the GOP and DNC but also independents, that precious group of "no-flies-on-me-bro" fame. 

The first priority for the Right should be to continue its role as the vocal loyal opposition, followed by the priority of reform throughout the government.  I appreciate Jon's ideals and in fact share quite a few of them, but there are some serious flaws with all of these propositions.  Anonymous Liberal has created a straw man that basically states "until conservatives behave with appropriate contrition and cease acting as though a perfectly reasonable President is flawed, they have no credibility."  In the liberal reality tunnel, this straw man is attacked early and often.  However, conservatives on the Right, Center and even, I might add, on the Left, all share an intersection in their reality tunnels that the President does not  necessarily appear to be entirely reasonable regardless of how much confidence he exudes.  In fact, he appears to be just about as unreasonable in his own Presidency as Bush was in his.  And for those of us who sport first, second and third degree burns from the previous Bush years (in which I'd include both Bushes), we are most assuredly twice shy today.  Let me provide a very recent example of Bush-trauma-induced trepidation, courtesy of the potentially unconstitutional Chrysler controversy:

New Allegations of White House Threats Over Chrysler

Creditors to Chrysler describe negotiations with the company and the Obama administration as "a farce," saying the administration was bent on forcing their hands using hardball tactics and threats.

Conversations with administration officials left them expecting that they would be politically targeted, two participants in the negotiations said.

Although the focus has so been on allegations that the White House threatened Perella Weinberg, sources familiar with the matter say that other firms felt they were threatened as well. None of the sources would agree to speak except on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of political repercussions.

The sources, who represent creditors to Chrysler, say they were taken aback by the hardball tactics that the Obama administration employed to cajole them into acquiescing to plans to restructure Chrysler. One person described the administration as the most shocking "end justifies the means" group they have ever encountered.  Another characterized Obama was "the most dangerous smooth talker on the planet- and I knew Kissinger." Both were voters for Obama in the last election.

Chrysler Countdown:  Obama to Blame if Bankruptcy Filing Comes?

Repeatedly, the Obama administration has favored its political supporters by interfering in the marketplace and now it extends that to judicial processes with a dangerous and politically jaundiced decision. Obama's favoritism toward the union in these negotiations is a clear example of political expediency imposing grave economic costs. Specifically, Chapter 11 makes the potential deal with Fiat to provide small car designs to be built in Chrysler factories much less likely. Hence, the company that emerges from Chapter 11 will be much smaller than the one that would have emerged through the task force's mediation, because the company that emerges from bankruptcy may not have small cars to make at a time when the market wants them. More of Chrysler's car assembly plants will be permanently shuttered. This outcome was precipitated by the Obama Administration's failure to deal firmly with the union. In the end, retiree benefits may have been protected but only at the cost of greater job losses among current autoworkers.

"Obnoxious conservative a-holes" being watched on teevee may, in fact, have every right to be angry, and to express that anger in an appropriate manner such as the right to assemble and present their opinions in other venues.  It's Jon's highlight of an affront to these people that I wish to address, and certainly not his critique of the mutually agreed robust failure of Republican leadership. 

When we take the time to speak with average conservative Americans, we discover that a great many of us are actually very repentant about having stood by and abetted the politically dangerous and in some cases unconstitutional Bush overreaches which have beautifully set the table for the Obama administration to cook up a veritable feast of progressivism and potentially totalitarian corporatism.  Jon supports Anonymous Liberal by marginalizing the concerns that American conservatives have over a repeat of history here:  AL writes: "When you've just been voted out of power for manifest incompetence and your opponents are led by a very popular and reasonable-sounding person, you don't have the luxury of acting smug and uncompromising all the time. You have to acknowledge error and show some humility."

Even Anonymous Liberal doesn't make any firm commitments to Obama's competency - he (or she) continually alludes to style traits such as "confidence",  "popularity" and being "reasonable-sounding".  Anonymous Liberal omits substance while focusing on appearance, image, and "perception".  Robert Anton Wilson stated that the past 2500 years of philosophy from Plato and Confucious to present have combined to illustrate that the notion of perception beiing reality constitutes Naive Realism.  In other words, the whole "perception is reality" meme is patent bull crap.  There are as many realities as there are observers.  The perception challenge is to have the awareness, energy and/or skepticism to rise above the magic of good marketing, which includes repeating a lie so often that everyone believes it.

If conservatives are so wrong about the President, then fine - let's bring Anonymous Liberal over to The Next Right to participate in an educational presentation and/or debate highlighting this President's achievements while citing specific examples of Republican peccadillos other than  the conclusion that conservatives are obtuse, flawed, rude and have no appreciation of  the young, popular President's hip style.  I would argue that the style-over-substance presentation is brilliantly designed to place observers into a mass trance that distracts them from noticing disturbing events which are occurring in Washington and the State capitals.   Perhaps conservatives simply aren't subject to it because of a different set of internal beliefs.  Rather than honoring and respecting conservative beliefs as a diverse and different point of view in an open dialogue, they're consistently minimized, marginalized and perhaps may ultimately be shut down because they don't align with the beliefs of the central power structure. 

We've seen Jon's outrage and passion against idiocy on the Right, now where is his outrage and passion at the behavior of this administration and the intolerance on the Left?  Even the moderate center/right columnist Michael Barone refers to the current regime as the  "Gangster Government". The Chrysler senior creditors are literally in fear of their lives, of being outed as were the AIG executives, of having the daylights scared out of their families by drive-by protesters accompanied by the propaganda arm of the media, while Jon and Anonymous Liberal render images of retrograde "teabaggers" appearing out of touch and inappropriately vexed because they exhibit a pathological fear of a [legitimate historically cyclic] encroachment of government totalitarianism and are trying to sound an alarm over it.  Hmmm...

Even though I completely agree with Jon about the sorry state of Republican leadership, I urge him to become - and remain - equally exercised about the fact that civility and reform are greatly needed on both sides of the aisle.  Both parties are in need of a complete overhaul, but it's our Constitution and economy which is in the process of being overhauled while Jon urges inward reflection by a group of men and women in GOP leadership roles who have absolutely no intention of complying with such advice, no matter how sage - and we both know it. 

I'll leave you with a few more RAW quotes: "the greatest conspiracy theory in the world is the conspiracy of stupidity."  "Stupidity has a place in the universe, and we should appreciate it."  Over time, stupidity will create the level of failure required to actually prompt a rebuild - and there's Jon's recipe for actual, painful reform - on both sides of the aisle - in a nutshell.