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“Secession by another means” Bill Moyers

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In his recent essay, “On the Sabotage of Democracy” Bill Moyers, who I often think of as the conscience of America, calls out the forces who are trying to demolish democracy, and likens this shut-down to the time this nation was torn asunder by the Civil War.

Like the die-hards of the racist South a century and a half ago, who would destroy the union before giving up their slaves, so would these people burn down the place, sink the ship.

He is blunt in conclusion.

At least let’s name this for what it is, sabotage of the democratic process. Secession by another means. And let’s be clear about where such reckless ambition leads. As surely as night must follow day, the alternative to democracy is worse.

In the essay he calls out the lies told by Rep. Steve King, Fox and Friends, Rush Limbaugh, and hones in on Newt Gingrich, reminding us:

It was Newt Gingrich who twenty years ago spearheaded the right-wing’s virulent crusade against the norms of democratic government. As Speaker of the House he twice brought about shutdowns of the federal government once, believe it or not, because he felt snubbed after riding on Air Force One with President Clinton and had to leave by the backdoor.

It was also Newt Gingrich, speaker Gingrich, who was caught lying to congressional investigators looking into charges of his ethical wrongdoing. His colleagues voted overwhelmingly, 395 to 28, to reprimand him. Pressure from his own party then prompted him to resign.

Yet even after his flame out, even after his recent bizarre race for the presidency bankrolled with money from admiring oligarchs, even after new allegations about his secret fundraising for right-wing candidates, Gingrich remains the darling of a fawning amnesic media.

Thank you Bill Moyers.

And to those Teapublicans who do not remember history, perhaps you should think long and hard about who won that war, and the cost of it to us all.

Cross-posted to Daily Kos


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/ 13 Comments

13 comments

  2. JanF

    I don’t expect a full armed revolt, although I know that there are those who are stockpiling weaponry in the hopes that happens. Their numbers are pretty small even if their arsenals are enormous.

    But the ideology is similar.

    John C. Calhoun laid the groundwork in the 1830s and 1840s:

    Calhoun built his reputation as a political theorist by his redefinition of republicanism to include approval of slavery and minority rights-with the Southern States the minority in question. To protect minority rights against majority rule, he called for a “concurrent majority” whereby the minority could sometimes block offensive proposals that a State felt infringed on their sovereign power. [H]is concept of concurrent majority, whereby a minority has the right to object to or even veto hostile legislation directed against it, has been cited by other advocates of the rights of minorities. Calhoun asserted that Southern whites, outnumbered in the United States by voters of the more densely populated Northern states, were one such minority deserving special protection in the legislature.

    You start by asserting the right to use the minority to block, you find a willing tool like John Boehner, a coward who is so afraid of the losing his job that he won’t do his job, and then you shut down the government and threaten to crash the financial systems.

    The sad part is that at this point all it takes is a few real patriots (not the kind who carry stupid signs) to push back. The president is absolutely right to hold firm on this. I don’t doubt that he has the courage but his compassion may drive him to question whether he can continue. People are hurting … a lot.

  3. Peter Jukes

    Thanks to the dominance of simplistic libertarian thinking, that all forms of democratic legislation is some kind of Stalinist incursion of the ‘state’, the T-Party fanatics actually promote a theory of anarchy that can only benefit the enemies of democracy.  

  4. rfahey22

    Defeat in the Civil War gave rise to belief in the Lost Cause, allowing the Confederates and their descendants to continue to deny that they were in the wrong.  I doubt that this event will cause any serious self-reflection by the true believers.  I do think a lot of the Tea Partiers see themselves as rugged individualists who would be perfectly fine if the federal government was totally destroyed, and that only the “moochers” in the Democratic Party would suffer.  They perceive democracy to be useful to them only to the extent that the “right” people participate in the democracy and exercise all of the power.

  5. Strummerson

    gay marriage communism.  

    I think it isn’t to extreme to view them as enemies of the Republic.  As such, manufacturing DC dysfunction serves their cause.  “Through the bums out” is a conservative slogan.  Those who blame legislators of “both parties” are less likely to vote.  Anti-government becomes anti-governance, and anti-governance stokes anti-government attitudes in a vicious chiasmus.  It’s a negative politics of catastrophe with no plan for rebuilding.  Bachmann thinks we’re in the end times.  And the rest think a modern nation state and economy will function better as an overly simplified Jeffersonian anti-urban amalgam of small holders and businesses.  And TJ’s vision was already untenable in the 19th century.

    A friend messaged me from Jerusalem on facebook yesterday with the grim “Greetings from a functioning democracy.”

  6. JanF

    Maybe the tide is turning?

    GOP Rep. Rigell Denounces Klayman’s Call To Wage An Uprising

    Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) shot back on Monday at conservative activist Larry Klayman, who this weekend called for a nonviolent uprising to unseat President Barack Obama.

    “I repudiate it,” Rigell said in an interview with CNN. “It doesn’t reflect my own personal values.”

    Rigell went on to say Klayman’s comments were harmful to the country.

    “And that type of language is harmful to our country and it’s what’s puling us apart,” Rigell continued. “Look, civility is not weakness. I refer to the President as the President in my home, in my office, and in my district. And I think this needs to be done all across America. It’s not about an individual. It’s about the office and this is the fabric that holds us together as Americans.”

    We need more of them pushing back. There is nothing wrong with the two party system as long as both of parties have respect for elections and the constitution.

    Klayman, by the way, was at a rally with Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin:

    Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, a conservative political advocacy group, said the country is “ruled by a president who bows down to Allah,” and “is not a president of ‘we the people.'” “I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this President leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up.”

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