The Republican Narrative

by Jackson Dave

You may be on the receiving end of a seemingly endless stream of emails passed around by right-ringers, espousing Republican “values,” endlessly castigating Democrats, liberals and the evils of welfare. Many are filled with hatred for President Obama, socialism, communism.

One of the fascinating aspects of this commerce is that it’s so difficult to get the sending parties to remove you from their mailing list---even though you may consider this person a friend.

We have one friend who’s been particularly persistent, on a five-year run. My neighbor and I pass notes occasionally, sharing our frustration, over the intrusion of his ideas, biases, hatred into our world. When pressed about particularly obnoxious mailings, he denies endorsement, but we know better.

Here are excerpts from the correspondence with my neighbor; the names have been changed to protect the innocent. The issue precipitating this exchange was Jack’s assertion that in scrutinizing political information, he had come to realize that he can’t trust what he hears from ABC or NBC. (The major networks have journalistic standards. One of the most distinguished journalists in history, Dan Rather lost his job at CBS in 2004 after reporting that George W. Bush had a poor service record in the Air National Guard. He was fired, not because the story was incorrect, but because the source was “unreliable.” Hate-filled e-mailers, concocting fanciful reports from their imagination and totally incredible sources have no journalistic standards.)

Yes, Frank, this is very troubling. Jack certainly seems like a good guy. He is fun to be with, generally. He is an exceptionally good conversationalist, witty and charming.

But he’s a little older than we, and perhaps he’s pulling baggage that he cannot---and does not want to---let go of. It seems clear enough that he’s part of the large movement that opposes the president because of his race. He endorses the writings of his right-wing correspondents because he agrees with them, but invalidates the networks because he disagrees with much of their material. He’s oblivious that mainstream media are also biased to the right, just not as far to the right as he would prefer. My God, they are all run by large corporations and Republican industrialists. There are endless examples of their rightward tilt…I have chronicled a number in my blog.

To some extent these messages are intended to distract meaningful dialog, but I think it goes beyond that. I get one or two e-notes per month from left-wingers over some political shenanigan, looking for joint laughs or countenance. Right-wingers, however, pursue a river of self-validation, I suspect, because they realize their message is so bloody inane. When people do something they know is wrong, or dumb, they tend to either hide it or actively pursue validation.

We are all compelled by our opinions; but some people hold them more tenaciously than others. I like to divide people into two groups according to whether or not they want to know if they are wrong about something. Unfortunately, it appears that the great majority fall into the latter group, and that includes many very intelligent people.

In a book called “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Can’t….” Jonathan Haidt studies our political divide. Republican “leaders” have institutionalized ignorance. By repeatedly lying about almost everything over and over, year after year, they have brought us to the point where a large number of us find ignorance a virtue and “facts” to be inconvenient and suspicious “truthiness.” According to Mr. Haidt, a person hearing a contradictory argument is able to discard this unwelcome information if only one person who claims to be knowledgeable steps forward to gainsay it. We can have 1000 experts, verses one “informed source,” and that’s adequate. This arrogance is then supported by the vast array of partisans who rush in to support the ignorant opinion.

The interesting thing about Jack, in regard to his persistence, is that he’s unwilling to engage in these matters directly. If you approach him face-to-face, he will regurgitate Republican boilerplate. You cannot get a conversation out of him. Never included in the endless mailings that he sends out is something that he has written or researched---something that he must answer to. He hides behind the writing of others. I have offered a number of times to “discuss” anything he likes. I once asked him why he sends us all this crap after being asked to desist. He became agitated, noticeably angry: “None of your business!” Well, actually it is.

After this latest mailing, about the usual crap: “we can’t give poor people welfare,” I returned an adult comment to his address list, which he carelessly included. He actually returned a quick apology, with the promise to never send me anything again.  Fine.  So I returned a simple, direct request to explain his priorities in this matter---something that he would have to consider and write down. Well, you can probably guess: no reply.

Right-wing “populists,” given voice by the Republican Party, have a narrative---a story that is intertwined within the myth of The American Dream. This story focuses on scapegoats and moves away from real issues of power and privilege. It’s a very compelling story and pulls at the unwary’s notion of “patriotism,” (see Patriots All).

The important factor here is that the Republican message goes straight to the heart; it has an emotional tag, and that’s what makes it so compelling. Democrats are inclined to counter this manipulation with facts and logic…heady stuff---boring, and for a less-than-intellectual, it goes right on by. We love to be told that we are victims. Liberals can’t seem to put together the catchy slogans that offer bromides to salve this open sore.

Beyond the allusion of “patriotism,” however, this all becomes very contradictory. There’s a “conservative,” religious sanction that has turned the Republican Party into a Church of Capitalism…in the name of Jesus. This is odd, considering that he was executed in part for overturning the money-changers tables in the temple. Those were the contemporary expression of capitalism, and the religious hierarchy extracted their cut from the commerce within their domain. Does this not cast Republicans in the role of the Jewish establishment that served Jesus up to the Romans?

Jackson Dave is a Robbinsense staff writer