The “Silly-ness” of Our Politics Explained
P. Schultz
April 19, 2015
Below there
is a link to an article in today’s NY Times entitled: “At Republican Gathering,
All Talk Is of Hillary Clinton (None of It Is Good)”. In this piece, with some
subdued irony or sarcasm, attacks on Hillary by various Republican nominees and
potential nominees for president are summarized. As the Times’ article makes
clear, none of these attacks are very interesting but the overall effect is
worth thinking about.
It may be
asked, Why is all of this fire directed at Hillary? That is, other than the
obvious reason, viz., that she is likely to be the Democratic nominee for
president, what political purpose is served by such a display which holds the
danger, as the Times points out, of “getting too personal [and] carr[ying] the
political risk of appearing minor league?” Let me suggest the following.
By
directing their fire at Hillary, and treating her as if she is “the Threat,”
these Republicans are engaging in diversionary warfare, as it were. They know
that, at bottom, Hillary is not “the Threat” but they are willing to treat her
as such because in that way they divert attention from the important issues
people are actually concerned about, an increasingly unequal distribution of
wealth, a political process increasingly controlled by the wealthy, an
increasingly dysfunctional political system that rapes its citizens, especially
its older citizens, or what appears to be law enforcement organizations who are
increasingly out of control with regard to the use of deadly force.
This
diversion works in at least two ways. First, it is meant to take the steam out
of what is a “left-leaning insurgency” by directing the left’s energies toward
defending Hillary. Those engaged in the diversion could care less that their
presentation of Hillary is an illusion of the real person; in fact, better that
it be than not as that only ramps up the irritation of those on the left who
support Hillary, just as has happened with the attacks on Obama as conducted by
Giuliani, Trump, and others.
Second,
though, even while arousing the base on the right, this diversionary warfare
also distracts the right from important issues, such as the burden that is
being created by the establishment’s commitment to a foreign policy that is
immensely expensive even while accomplishing very little, other than of course
making our security less certain. Although our establishment politicians know
it, many others fail to realize that there is a potential insurgency among the
people from the right and this needs to be disarmed.
All
of this is merely a result of the fact, too often overlooked by citizens but
never overlooked by the ruling political class – which includes both what is
labeled “the right” and “the left” – that elections, and especially
presidential elections perhaps, are dangerous political phenomena and, hence,
must be controlled or managed. This is what was going on among these Republican
politicians. As is so often the case in the United States, our presidential
elections are turned into contests between particular candidates and not
contests over divergent and competing issues. So if the Republicans can turn
the election into a referendum on Hillary Clinton, they will have managed it in
a way that renders it safe or, more precisely, that renders them safe.
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