April 9, 2014 Meet the 2016 Republican Nominee By Daren Jonescu
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." Of course the true, fundamental interest of progressive establishmentarians, all German philosophical rationalizations aside, is simply to control and stabilize the masses, i.e., to maximize their usefulness while minimizing their threat. This essential goal is as invariable as the feelings that fuel it, namely fear and greed. Thus to predict the establishment's practical moves is as simple as looking away from the increasing artificiality of electoral politics -- polls, "momentum," "electability," and well-timed scandals -- to observe the broad pattern of outcomes that remains consistent through successive campaigns.
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These are ordinary men with ordinary moral weaknesses who, having in one way or another found themselves within reach of the world's biggest cookie jar, developed an irresistible habit of dipping in -- for financial advantages, regulatory favors, careers, self-importance, and in general for the means to permanent, risk-free status as kings of their various little hills. In other words, they are men who have found, on the "honor among thieves" principle, that they have more in common with one another than with the cookie bakers they are robbing blind, and therefore a greater vested interest in covering for one another than in defending the rights of bakers.
By induction from the major public policy initiatives these men actively or passively promote, we may conclude that, surface frictions aside, the American ruling class seeks: (a) to shrink the range of unregulated human action; (b) to narrow men's moral horizons in order to foster conscienceless resignation to their parasitocracy; (c) to reduce citizenship to compliance and conformity; and (d) to promote "security," variously defined, as a primary social goal that trumps all considerations of self-determination, human dignity, and private property.
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So here he is, the 2016 GOP nominee: He supports a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants. This drops anchor for the progressive captains of the ship of state, eventually inflating the electorate with millions of people lacking education or cultural heritage related to individualism and property rights, while deflating manufacturing costs with low-skill, low-literacy workers.
His position on manmade climate change is "evolving," drifting and shifting somewhere along the continuum from "climate change may be real" (Jeb Bush, 2011) to "when you have over 90 percent of the world’s scientists who have studied this stating that climate change is occurring and that humans play a contributing role it’s time to defer to the experts" (Chris Christie, 2011).
He criticizes ObamaCare as "failed legislation" (who could call it anything else?) but finesses any concrete talk of fundamental reversion. He advocates a watered-down version of the establishment's thin gruel of "Repeal and Replace" -- something along the lines of "Tweak and Touch-up," with "free market solutions" as a euphemism for a heavily regulated pseudo-market analogous to cap-and-trade.
He is insistent that no one should impugn the motives and patriotism of the Democrat candidate -- any Democrat candidate -- and that "we all want what's best for America." When asked during a presidential debate whether his Democratic opponent would make a good president, he says "Yes, but...." He supports the Common Core agenda for nationalizing education standards, claiming that this is necessary to keep America "competitive," and to ensure that "everyone has a fair chance to learn the skills needed in today's economy." He plays to conservatives by saying the problem with education is the teachers unions and "lack of choice." Improving quality and providing choice are his euphemisms, just as in healthcare, for standardizing methods and outcomes to the point where every American child's fate will henceforth be molded by a centralized spiritual death panel -- this will be called "equal opportunity."
He supports the "vitally important" work being done by the "patriots" at the NSA, while promising "vigorous safeguards" to ensure that none of their top-secret methods of collecting every scrap of electronic communications data and other private information ever overstep the bounds of "legitimate" privacy concerns -- where no concern voiced to date meets the threshold of legitimacy.
He is absolutely silent on the question of whether the federal government has any responsibility to abide by its constitutional (i.e., legal) limits, and indeed rarely mentions the Constitution at all, and never as an essential concern.
There he is, your next GOP presidential candidate -- a man the establishment can live with.
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Whatever you do, don't assume that any candidate who espouses a few items on the Republican side of your Venn diagram is satisfactory. That section then becomes the ruling class's shiny distraction. Keep your eye on the intersection of the circles, where the two mildly competitive factions of the progressive elite follow their bliss together -- at their nation's expense.