On "Payback"

Library of Law and Liberty ^ | 11/24/2014 | Angelo M. Codevilla

[mojito]

Empowered by the elections of 2014, Republicans face the question common to all who have had revolutionary changes imposed on them: Are we to accept what was done to us so as not to further revolutionize our environment, hoping our restraint will lead our adversaries to restrain themselves whenever they return to power?

Senator Harry Reid...who, as Minority Leader pioneered the filibuster of appellate judicial nominees...and then as Majority Leader abolished the rule that allows it, had this to say in the wake of the midterms: “This is not get-even time....”

The question of retribution far transcends the rules of the Senate and goes to the central fact of our public life: that over more than a generation, a ruling class that is largely Democratic but with a substantial Republican element, backed by about a third of the public, has indulged its sense of entitlement to impose its preferred way of life upon the rest by executive action, judicial fiat, and other constitutionally suspect means. This class’s commitment to the agenda that embodies its identity—abortion, gay rights, green energy, racial politics, pervasive regulation, even the reshaping of the electorate by admission of immigrant supporters—outweighs any allegiance it might have to the laws established by a self-governing people. Consequently, more than two-thirds of Americans say that the country is “going in the wrong direction” and that, increasingly, they fear its government.

Since our sociopolitical divisions are over essential things, and our system of government is hemorrhaging legitimacy, America is liable to undergo strife, the end of which no one can foresee. Two and a half millennia of history confirm that, once such states of tensions are reached, ordinary controversies can spiral into revolutionary acts. Cycles of “payback” loose passions and generate the power to slake them.

[mojito]

To Payback or not to Payback, that is the question.

Thoughtful article.

Read the whole thing.

[Cowboy Bob]

I vote payback.

[Sherman Logan]

Consequently, more than two-thirds of Americans say that the country is “going in the wrong direction” and that, increasingly, they fear its government.

There's a problem with this statistic.

My boss and I both think the country is going in the wrong direction and fear its government.

I fear it because of the issues discussed by the author.

My boss thinks we're one step away from Christian Nazis taking over the government, executing all the gays and Jews, and re-enslaving all those of African ancestry.

I'm hyperbolizing his POV some, but not all that much.

IOW, that 2/3 think the country is going the wrong way does NOT mean 2/3 of the country agrees with the author, or with me, FTM.

[jakota]

I wouldn’t worry too much about payback. As long as Boehner and McConnell are the leaders, Harry Reid will get asked his opinion on everything.

[facedown]

As long as Boehner and McConnell are the leaders, Harry Reid will get asked his opinion his way on everything.

FIFY