Some writers are noticing the rage, on both sides.
Indeed, the unanticipated appeal of Trump and Sanders to Republican and Democratic primary voters comes from the same psychological wellspring. They represent, in the words of Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist Salena Zito, “populism born of frustration.” They are angry candidates, bitching and moaning about the sorry shape of the United States and they are unabashedly protectionist. Each identifies immigrants and overseas competition as the root cause of most if not all of our problems. They both believe that if only we can wall off the country—literally in The Donald’s case and figuratively in Sanders’—we could “Make America Great Again!” (as Trump puts it in his campaign slogan).
Erick Erickson is still getting hate-mail over his mistreatment of Trump. In response, he has put on his beta cuckservative kneepads, and is begging people to be nice to him, so he can get back to telling us all how wonderful a President John Boehner will be, because he is so nice to everyone, and everyone likes nice.
These are some of the emails I have gotten this week. They are still coming, even now this morning.
We were supposed to be shocked and repulsed by the examples he gave, but I cheered at several of them. Personally, I would have gone with vulgarity. Maybe he was only quoting the more measured ones?
But folks, this is anger at an unhealthy level. It is anger that has gone beyond the righteous anger of repeated betrayals from Washington. It is an anger that has become unhinged and is potentially uncontrollable. Anger at that level is more often destructive than constructive…
That is the point, anger is an emotion designed to destroy that which is in the way of survival. Here, people are this angry because they have come to view the Republican establishment as an impediment, not just to making our nation great, but to forestalling its utter destruction.
I get the anger. I do. I am angry at the betrayal and the repeated lies from Washington Republicans who say they love children, but won’t even defund Planned Parenthood.
I get the anger of voters who sent men and women to Washington to fight Obama only to give him a blank check and keep Obamacare funded.
But I don’t get this anger.
Conservatism was worse off because of Bush I, worse off because of Dole, worse than it had ever been since Nixon because of Bush II, worse because of McCain, and worse because of Romney. Because of that, conservatives have had it with every Republican who feels insults and criticism are mean, and the way to win is to be nicer than everyone else.
The GOPe leadership has surrendered everything, to the point our government can now order us to buy products, and punish us if we don’t. Marriage, family, and quality child-rearing by heterosexual couples is out the window. The President does what he wants in spite of Congress, and on the rare occasion when he does want some approval for something, he goes to Boehner.
The people who are writing Erickson are conservatives who view him specifically as the problem, because he insists on leading despite the total failure of the entire machine for this whole time period. That his solution is to tell us we need to calm down and support more of the same doesn’t help.
What these guys don’t realize is, you can’t affect this anger’s rise with words or desires. It is like the tides, the sunrise and sunset, or the coming of the seasons. The only way you can affect the transitions between r and K is to rigorously impose a low level of K-selection to trigger productivity, stave off the onset of r-selected decay, and prevent an ensuing collapse. Since Erickson and his ilk have failed miserably at that, this rising anger is what they get, for now. Later, the collapse will come and it will get even worse, as real, uncontrolled K-selection is imposed by the forces of undeniable necessity.
What we are seeing, in real time as that K-selection approaches, is a tide shift from r to K psychologies, driven by anger, courtesy of a perception of an approaching collapse.
A committed enough leader, in a nation where he could affect the system, might be able to stave off the collapse by prematurely imposing some K-selection stimuli on the populace. The only guy doing that now is Trump, and the GOPe is out to destroy him. Sadly (or not depending on your circumstances), it appears we will need to hit rock bottom.
Apocalypse cometh™
Now lets all go write some vitriol, and send it Erickson’s way. Recalibrate? Fuck Dat.
Either his site is so badly constructed that I can’t comment or even vote on comments or I’ve been banned (he seems like the kind to silently ban any sort of disagreement), but plenty of others are carrying the flag there.
One commenter summed it up best: the Saxons are getting angry.
When black people riot, they burn their neighborhood. When the Saxons riot, we burn continents. The GOPe should remember that. The problem is, revolution is exactly like wildfire — you can start it, either intentionally or through neglect, but once it starts, it is going to decide for itself where it goes, and all you can do it wait for it to burn itself out.
I, personally, am leery of Trump, but I’d vote for him if he gets the GOP nomination because he appears to be a fighter, and that’s what I want, particularly on immigration.
I watched Boehner’s interview with David Feherty last week, and the thing that leaped right out at me during that interview was when Boehner is talking about what he first gets to the House, and he’s asked “What do you want to do?” He says, “I don’t know,” and then he says that he might as well go for the big job as Speaker. This is just the kind of thing that pisses me off more than anything else about him, because he’s indicated that he’s not there to fight for his constituency, for those who elected him. He has no compunction about anything the Democrats do or are all about. This is not a person with any firm convictions regarding politics, faith, or ideology, if even to simply agree with the opposition. Maybe he was told to say that, to be considered as politically neutral, but that’s part of the problem. He hasn’t any faith in any convictions, conservative or otherwise, that would impel him to fight against the Democrats and their king. He just loves being a Congressman. For him, that’s all that matters.
Agreed on everything.