A Possible Agendum for Change

Watching the self-destruction of the Republican Party has been an exercise in nostalgia for those of us who were in the UK during the implosion of the Thatcher government.

Place yourselves upon a pedestal, that you might instruct the lesser elements in the way they should conduct themselves, and it is in the nature of things that your own faults (and those of your colleagues) will be found out. Moreover, your faults will seem greater in the light of your self-constructed illumination, and all the people you accused of being morally inferior will take great delight at your downfall.

It's the familiar theme of Hubris. While it is sometimes simplified to "overweening pride" or "total lack of humility" or even "daring to defy God (or The Fates)", or something of that sort, there is a far deeper element.

Hubris wasn't/isn't a simple dramatic convention, it was a crime. The Ancient and Classical Greek legal system defined hubris as shaming someone for your own gratification. Everything from rape to mocking one's political opponent to writing nasty poetry about someone to being brutal to a slave or a metic counted. An action based on hubris drew the sharpest punishment because was rooted in the despicable belief held by some that by treating others badly they demonstrate their own superiority. Sound familiar to those of you who think Hate Speech is something new?

And the hubris that inspires people to scream "You Lie!" at the President of the United States? The hubris that leads a second rate broadcast pundit to smear the names of people who actually graduated from college? The hubris that inspires people to accuse a Doctor who has been acknowledged as a leading light in the fight against the "Right to Die" people of devising "death panels" to decide which Senior Citizens will be eliminated? The hubris to disregard all evidence and claim the President of the United States is somehow not qualified for the office?

We can, of course, hope that the Ancient and Classical Greeks were right, and the unjust harm they intend rebounds upon them in multiplied strength. But that makes us no better than the "Pastor" who brags about praying daily for the painful death of the President of the United States.

But be of good cheer, citizens. All of this negative rabble-rousing may, after all, have a positive result.

No, not the possibility that Texas, Mississippi, Arizona, Alaska, and North Dakota will talk themselves into such a rhetorical corner that they will have to put secession on the ballot and (at a minimum) live for years with the knowledge they are mocked by the rest of the Republic when the Initiatives fail. Not even the slim, yet delightful chance that one or more secessionist movements will manage the job, and we will have a place for all those people who keep screaming "this is not my country any more!!" to relocate.

No, the great possibility lies in this:

The great big evil thing hiding in the political closet has been the circumstance where a third party becomes a viable option. There are, after all, Republicans who would rather watch "Jeopardy" than consider joining the Democrats, yet do NOT want to be grouped with the kind of people who get bused in to "Town Halls" and "Tea Parties" in order to wave signs with the kind of slogans that would repulse Father Coughlin, or Westbrook Pegler, or Joe McCarthy, or even some of the more ardent members of the John Birch Society.

[Minor Pedantic Digression]To those of you who don't recognize those references, I'm going to let you go look them up on your own. Not that I wouldn't love leading a seminar on the relatively recent ancestors of the current neo-con movement, but I quit writing books some time back, and it would take about that many pages to do justice to the terrible practices and effect of that particular rogues gallery.

There are even a fair number of Ultra-Left true believers who wanted the current Administration to retain the unconstitutional power structure of the former Administration in order to do good things. The problem is, they have run up against a President who insists that the powers, limitations, and roles defined in The Constitution of The United States be restored.

Sounds like a great coalition to build a Third, or even a Fourth Party!!!!! Sound the trumpets, flourish the hautboys, and let the offstage be filled with diverse alarums and diversions!!!!!

At last, the Electoral College will get back to the purpose for which it was established!

This could be a lot of fun.