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Just Who Is the ‘Establishment?’
Townhall.com ^ | July 22, 2016 | Ken Blackwell

Posted on 07/23/2016 4:22:51 AM PDT by Kaslin

We all claim to hate the “establishment.” And why not? Look at the mess around us. It’s obvious that the folks in charge haven’t done a very good job.

But who is the establishment? The term gets tossed around a lot as an insult these days – even by some people who sure appear to be part of it.

There’s a lot that can go into being a member. Education, job, philosophy, position, mindset. All matter. But attitude trumps experience.

Some of those campaigning against the establishment assume that anyone holding office is a member. That’s a big mistake. Many of the most courageous warriors for liberty were elected to something. After all, if the government is the problem, then you’ve got to get into it to fix it.

Consider Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. The first was a U.S. senator. The second was a two-term governor—of California! Yet Goldwater helped spawn the conservative movement that made Reagan president. For these two political giants, getting elected was part of the solution.

And that remains the case. There are many good men and women of principle who serve in Congress and state office across America. One of the ways they prove their worth every day is by working against their colleagues to fight for a free society, traditional values, the rule of law, limited government, and so much more that is in such short supply in Washington. Just try to imagine how much worse it would be if we didn’t have these folks battling behind enemy lines.

Some grassroots activists also exhibit a reverse snobbery about education. If you went to an elite school, you must be part of the establishment. Certainly many people who go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the like are part of a well-connected moneyed and intellectual elite. But normal folks of extraordinary ability also attend those schools. Indeed, that kind of mobility has characterized America from its beginning.

The issue isn’t lineage either. Sometimes a family epitomizes establishment. The Kennedys and Bushes, for instance. But there’s often a member who breaks the mold. Imagine Winthrop Rockefeller becoming governor of Arkansas and Jay Rockefeller being elected senator from West Virginia! Maybe they still counted as the establishment, but most of us imagine the Rockefellers ruling over New York State, Wall Street, big banks, oil conglomerates, and the like.

Having money certainly doesn’t make one part of the establishment. We often think of “old money” in that way. But the rich aren’t united over much of anything. Stewart Mott and Peter Thiel, to name just two, broke with ideological orthodoxy and pushed idiosyncratic ideas. Pete du Pont, scion of the family that owns the world’s best known chemical manufacturer, champions conservative ideals, including Main Street economics. They don’t fit what most people think of as “the establishment.” What matters most is mindset, beliefs and worldview.

First, do the candidates for establishment status believe they have been chosen to govern? It doesn’t really matter who does the choosing. Do they imagine that their position is ordained by something higher—God, evolution, nature, civilization, government, progressive values, or whatever?

Second, do the establishmentarians believe the people must be saved from themselves? While most of us occasionally roll our eyes at public opinion, we don’t believe that beneficent social engineers will make things better. But, members of the establishment do.

Third is the common belief that those out of step with history, meaning the advance of liberal opinion, must be forced into line with their more perceptive neighbors. There is no room for live and let live. Political differences are seen as fundamental moral failings that must be remedied. While government cannot reach into us—well, at least, not yet—to reprogram our beliefs, it should, in the view of establishment members, insist that we live as progressives.

Fourth, uncomfortable with the will of the people, members of the establishment see government, particularly the federal government, as the most important mechanism of social change. It knows best and its ability to coerce makes it a tool of righteousness: it can force the greedy, myopic, prejudiced, ignorant and foolish to do what’s right – according to progressive doctrine. Error is simply the small price we pay for a more just society.

Finally, in the eyes of the establishment, the only legitimate role for the “loyal opposition” is to debate the manner and speed with which liberal values should be imposed. Democrats are supposed to set the agenda—increase spending, redistribute wealth, socialize health care, and the like. Republicans, in the view of establishment members of both parties, are supposed to debate and arrange the details.

People who believe in and act on these tenets can properly be called members of the establishment. Anyone who believes that “rulers and ruled” are “we and them” fairly belongs in that group. These people – the ones with a vested interest in government – are the ones the public should hasten into retirement.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016election; gop; republicanparty
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1 posted on 07/23/2016 4:22:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Wikileaks releases 19252 DNC documents and Google now listing it as a dangerous site

http://investmentwatchblog.com/wikileaks-releases-19252-dnc-documents-and-google-now-listing-it-as-a-dangerous-site/


2 posted on 07/23/2016 4:32:44 AM PDT by Jamesmm
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To: Kaslin

In a competitive marketplace, no one is ever “established”. There is always someone who wants to eat your lunch. Ask the tech companies. Ask the car companies. Ask the steel companies. You always need to be proving yourself, because you are never on solid ground.

But if the system is rigged, then you have something like a sure thing. Does it matter if the Democrats or Republicans are in charge? McCain, Bush, Pelosi, Clinton, and all the rest will do just fine. They have no worries. In government or out of government, they will always be rich, powerful and influential.

That’s a problem.

And Big Business can only be REALLY big if the government helps them — tax laws, regulations, trade agreements, subsidies, bailouts (if the company is “too big to fail”). Again, it’s a rigged system for people with connections.

Big Business / Big Government. That’s the establishment.

With LIMITED government, there is no rigging, the system is (thankfully) fluid, and there is no real Establishment.


3 posted on 07/23/2016 4:38:39 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: Kaslin

According to those rules, there is probably only one or two members of Congress who are NOT members of the establishment. Dave Brat comes to mind. Hard pressed to find another. Cruz and Lee “established” themselves with their behavior at the Convention.


4 posted on 07/23/2016 4:47:07 AM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: Jamesmm
< Wikileaks releases 19252 DNC documents and Google now listing it as a dangerous site

Well of course; Google is the government's elected Director of Information Flow and Propaganda Dispersion Unit. If the educated idiots can't find it their, it doesnt exist. Remove it and watch them flounder without false facts to support their left agenda hypothesis. Google controls the horizontal, the vertical on the Internet. Something better that has not been compromised needs to take its place. BTW I wonder how much tax dollars gets funneled to Google annually to ontrol the masses?

5 posted on 07/23/2016 5:02:51 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Jamesmm

“Wikileaks releases 19252 DNC documents and Google now listing it as a dangerous site”

This just may be where the rubber meets the road.

Can the Dems SILENCE Wikileaks, in a fashion similar to the way they silence all of their other perceived enemies? Time will tell.


6 posted on 07/23/2016 5:03:16 AM PDT by BobL (If Trump is DENIED the nomination, Republican Officeholders WILL GO DOWN in flames)
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To: Jamesmm
< Wikileaks releases 19252 DNC documents and Google now listing it as a dangerous site

Well of course; Google is the government's elected Director of Information Flow and Propaganda Dispersion Unit. If the educated idiots can't find it there, it doesnt exist. Remove it and watch them flounder without false facts to support their left agenda hypothesis. Google controls the horizontal, the vertical on the Internet. Something better that has not been compromised needs to take its place. BTW I wonder how much tax dollars gets funneled to Google annually to control the masses?

7 posted on 07/23/2016 5:03:42 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Kaslin

It’s dangerous to Democrat traitors.


8 posted on 07/23/2016 5:16:08 AM PDT by DarthVader (Politicians govern out of self interest, Statesmen govern for a Vision greater than themselves)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. …

Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

Communist goals #15 and #37 respectively
In light of that, I was just reviewing the Goldwater/Bozell Jr. book The Conscience of a Conservative and its third chapter was detailing how exactly those things among the other communist goals therein outlined had already happened. It was like reading conservative headlines of today. It offered very strong criticism of Arthur Larson (an Eisenhower aide and a collectivist), who was a strong proponent of the GOP being just as left-wing as the Democrats.
9 posted on 07/23/2016 5:52:34 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Kaslin

You are the “Establishment” if you are part of the problem but not part of the solution. JMHO!


10 posted on 07/23/2016 6:11:14 AM PDT by Don Corleone (Oil the gun, eat the cannolis, take it to the mattress.)
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To: Kaslin
Just Who Is the ‘Establishment?’

All the millions of unelected, do-nothing bureaucRATs, nationwide in all levels of government, federal, state, local, AND all the legislative Uniparty lifers who support and perpetuate them.

The main job of the aforementioned bureacRATs is to work on the campaigns of democRATs...WHILE YOU PAY THEM!

11 posted on 07/23/2016 6:17:54 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Canadians can't be our President.)
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To: jsanders2001

Bing to start. Then there is Dogpile.


12 posted on 07/23/2016 6:21:13 AM PDT by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith, one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: Kaslin

Western globalism comes with an elitist, social and economic engineeering framework. It respects no nation. It respects no people outside it’s group. It respects no culture and no freedom. It respects no law. It replaces Western morals nor ethics with self service and personal fetishes under the cover of social justice. This is America’s Establishment.


13 posted on 07/23/2016 6:31:00 AM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Jamesmm

I’ve been browsing the emails and one thing continually strikes me - how functionally illiterate those people are. It is a direct reflection of how disorganized their thinking abilities are. Don’t get me wrong - as connivers go they are outstanding but as communicators they are only a step or two above Og the caveman.


14 posted on 07/23/2016 6:40:47 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: jsanders2001

Quit google, get rid of your gmail account. Use Duck, Duck, Go. They say use of their search engine assures secrecy.


15 posted on 07/23/2016 7:11:15 AM PDT by thirst4truth (America, What difference does it make?)
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To: Kaslin

The answer to “who is the establishment?” can be found by looking at the membership roster of the Council on Foreign Relations for a start.


16 posted on 07/23/2016 7:12:54 AM PDT by BatGuano (You don't think I'd go into combat with loose change in my pocket, do ya?)
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To: Kaslin
Google is the establishment and they are not afraid to use their clout and power to further their gain. They remind me so much of Microsoft back in the late eighties and early nineties.

Crushing and stealing everyone's software. I was in Seattle during that time building computers writing vertical database applications. Just about everybody we met had a software application ripped off by MS. Many of them threw in the towel on innovation due to losing everything you worked for when MS stepped in and stole it.

It happened to us and our search engine called IQ Text.

17 posted on 07/23/2016 7:18:00 AM PDT by thirst4truth (America, What difference does it make?)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

Anyone who has been in office longer than one term is establishment. Anyone who has a lifetime job in government is establishment. Any government official who has a lobbying group write their policies are establishment. Any company who has representation in Washington guaranteeing another company with similar interests are locked out are establishment. Any politician with a contact on K Street is establishment.

Ideology is irrelevant. It’s who is in the network of Cronyism which makes a politician establishment.


18 posted on 07/23/2016 7:26:21 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Cruz: The best political speech in a generation and we will only remember what he didn't say.)
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To: Olog-hai

Reviewing the Communist Goals is frightening. They have accomplished most of them.


19 posted on 07/23/2016 8:02:23 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam , Know Peace)
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To: NTHockey

Dave Brat needs company. Many more districts need to follow our example and Cantorize their weasels.


20 posted on 07/23/2016 8:03:10 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam , Know Peace)
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