The most revealing glimpse last week's Arizona nightmare afforded was not another account of the American character which continues to fetishize the very guns destroying it, but a chance to view the elemental composition of the Right WIng in bold, blinding relief.
It takes no effort for horrid events to bring people together, nor to articulate the pain of a tragedy's effects; nor is it unexpected for those events to devolve into blame as a byproduct of the sudden rage spurred by such a seemingly random shock.
But as the Right feverishly scrambled to distance itself from their culpability in fomenting an atmosphere fertile for potential (and actualized) violence, a crucial element was revealed to be missing from its makeup, the inclusion of which would be essential to the implementation of a successful Democratic society:
Compassion.
The "compassionate conservatism" of Ronald Reagan's day always seemed a token gesture at best, seeing as the tide of thoughtful conservative discourse had already begun to turn in the direction its bluntly fundamentalist religious masters were steering it. And fueled by the more sub-rosa Neo-Con agenda which lay beneath its pious, platitude-spouting exterior, the idea of genuine compassion seemed jokey from the start, a crumb thrown the Left's way. Such cynical jockeying for position reached its apotheosis in the choice of Michael Steele as the RNC's chairman to counter the Left's (and the voting public's) selection of Obama. "See?" they seemed to say. "We can do that, too!"
The Right's strengths always lay in its ability to first tenderize then galvanize an audience and reduce complex circumstances to easily digestible slogans in the service of facilitating its own aims. Unfortunately, those aims never seem to take the concerns of those doing the heavy lifting -- the People themselves -- into practical consideration. Right leaning ideologies from Neo-Conservatism to Ayn Rand-soaked libertarianism seem to function beautifully on paper but shoddily in practice. To me, the key to that failure seems to be those philosophies' built-in disdain for characteristics which they deem to be weakening but which are inescapably human and therefore a necessary part of any ideological endeavor.
So it was -- and is -- with Compassion. It (along with its fellow agenda-gutting ingredient Empathy) was conspicuously absent from the Right last week in its protesting-too-much as it has been for the last ten years or so. In the same way arts funding has been systematically cut from school programs as being unnecessary (or proper armor for our soldiers at war) so Compassion is equally dispensed with as being a hindrance to victory.
Because what would really serve the Right in their frequent, flinty, fear-mongering moments is an acknowledgement of their own humanity or, as improbable as such soul-searching may sound, the more than occasional lack thereof; the striving to create a "conservative" society in which every individual is accountable and self-regulatory and where government should exist minimally if at all is either a pipe dream or a shell game or both.
There are some who might get the idea that such brutal events like those in Arizona would also peripherally aid the Right's agenda which its policies could not accomplish through reasonable governance alone, but such an idea would be too depressing to contemplate let alone validate. Even to the winning-is-everything Right Wing mind, such a scenario would seem unacceptable.
But after all, Compassion requires thought, feeling and introspection, elements disdained by the Right and its recent spate of cold, impersonal policies, features of humanity that would stand in the way of the total ideological victory the Right clearly---sadly---seeks.
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@TheStevenWeber
Was their 'compassion' showing when they decided to use the incident as an opportunity to damage their political foes with baseless allegations?
And even with your own article, Steven, now that we have plenty of evidence of his insansity, and even testimonial evidence from friends of this perpetrator that he wasn't inspired by 'the right', you choose demagogue the right in what you disguise as your call for 'compassion'.
Was their 'compassion' showing when they decided to use the incident as an opportunity to damage their political foes with baseless allegations?
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As demonstrated by your ill-framed question, members of the right are expert at projecting their own lack of compassion and baseless allegations. If anything, we should have been sounding the alarm about right-wing media inspired violence years ago:
http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/onward_christian_soldiers_desperate_measures
- Tom
Mr, Weber. In all your cerebraltude, did you ever stop to realize that labeling Michael Steele an Uncle Tom is racist?
I am conservative and am all for helping people. I believe that rich people have a duty to help others, but how do liberals expect to take care of everyone? How can we provide? We could go and rob Bill Gates of everything he has and that wouldn't have paid for the 2011 unemployment extensions completely. The author says that a world of limited government with everyone mostly taking care of themselves is a pipe dream. Perhaps it is, but I think it is no less idealistic to suggest that we will be able to do social security, medicare, medicaid, health care, etc. The debt is already $14 trillion. That is $45600 per person in this country in debt, AFTER tax collection.
I will stand behind any initiative proposed that can help people and keep our country financially stable, but we can't keep pretending that we can tax the wealthy to solve our problems.
It's as if the "elite" have sworn off feeling and caring for others; sworn off human feeling altogether. "I Robot" must be what they are seeking to emulate.
Thing is; if they were more honest with themselves about who it is they really want to punish (and to help) we could probably make real progress on such things as health care, bank regulation, tax reform, education reform and preventing unwanted pregnancy. But they hide their true motivation(s) behind all kinds of excuses to make selfishness, materialism, sexism and homophobia seem socially acceptable.
Sadly, right wing corporations have been able to create and present a narrative to the American people where govt is bad, limited govt, etc. Meanwhile these same right wing corporations got both hands stuck far up into govt coffers.
Economic groups both middle and low classes don't stand a chance against the corporatist titans media propaganda of lies, and even this last economic crisis have not shown the American people where their bread is buttered.
Live and let live is a good idea in theory, but it fails to account for the fact that some of us are just shabby human beings, and will exploit others given the freedom to do so.