Posted on 09/03/2018 4:41:21 AM PDT by relictele
So now we know what the resistance really is. Its the establishment. Its the old political order. Its that late 20th-century political set, those out-of-touch managerial elites, who still cannot believe the electorate rejected them. That is the take-home message of the bizarre political spectacle that was the burial of John McCain, where this neocon in life has been transformed into a resistance leader in death: that while the anti-Trump movement might doll itself up as rebellious, and even borrow its name from those who resisted fascism in Europe in the mid 20th-century, in truth it is primarily about restoring the apparently cool, expert-driven rule of the old elites over what is viewed as the chaos of the populist Trump / Brexit era.
The response to McCains death has bordered on the surreal. The strangest aspect has been the self-conscious rebranding of McCain as a searing rebel. In death, this key establishment figure in the Republican Party, this military officer, senator, presidential candidate and enthusiastic backer of the exercise of US military power overseas, has been reimagined as a plucky battler for all that is good against a wicked, overbearing political machine. John McCains funeral was the biggest resistance meeting yet, said a headline in the New Yorker, alongside a photo of George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and soldiers from the US Army, the most powerful military machine on Earth. This is the resistance now: the former holders of extraordinary power, the invaders of foreign nations, the Washington establishment.
The New Yorker piece, like so much of the McCain commentary, praises to the heavens the anti-Trump theme of McCains funeral. McCain famously said Trump couldnt attend his funeral. And that in itself was enough to win him the posthumous love of a liberal commentariat that now views everything through the binary moral framework of pro-Trump (evil, ill-informed, occasionally fascistic) and anti-Trump (decent, moral, on a par with the warriors against Nazism). Even better, though, was the fact that orators at the funeral, including McCains daughter Meghan and both Bush and Obama, used the church service to slam Trumpism, without explicitly mentioning it, and in the process to big-up what came before Trumpism, which of course was their rule, their politics, their establishment. The Washington political and media set might seem bitterly bipartisan, said the New Yorker writer, but it is also more united in one important sense in its hatred of Donald Trump.
Hatred of Trump has become the moral glue of the bruised elites who have been either pushed aside or at least dramatically called into question by the populist surge taking hold in the West. And so motored are these people by the shallow moralism of Anti-Trumpism that they are happy to marshal even a life as complex and interesting and flawed as McCains to the service of hurting Trump. A former Al Gore adviser, Carter Eskew, wrote in the Washington Post: In death, John McCain is about to exact revenge on Donald Trump. Unwittingly revealing the Old Testament streak to the new elite religion of Hating Trump, Eskew said that as McCain ascends to heaven on an updraft of praise, Trumps political hell on Earth will burn hotter. On why it suddenly started to rain when McCains coffin was brought into the Capitol, a CNN journalist said: The angels were crying. What century is this?
The religious allusions, the talk of vengeance against Trump, the misremembering of McCains life so that it becomes a moral exemplar against the alleged crimes of Trumpism, exposes the infantile moralism of the so-called resistance. Albert Burneko, assessing some of the madder McCain commentary, says there is now a condition that he calls Resistance Brain, where people display an urge to grab and cling on to anything that seems, even a little bit, like it might be the thing that Finally Defeats Donald Trump. Even if the thing theyre grabbing on to is actually a bad thing. Like a seemingly endless FBI investigation into the elected presidency. Or George W Bush, whose moral rehabilitation on the back of Anti-Trumpism has been extraordinary. Or neoconservatism: this was the scourge of liberal activists a decade ago, yet now its architects are praised because they subscribe to the religion of Anti-Trumpism. Being against Trump washes away all sins.
Some on the left have criticised the moral rehabilitation of McCain. Lets not forget that he wanted war with Iran and lots of other places too!, they cry. Yet the truth is they paved the way for his posthumous rebranding as one of the great Americans of the late 20th century. Since 2016 they have talked about Trump as a uniquely wicked president, a shocking aberration, the closest thing to Hitler since the 1930s. Their anti-Trump hyperbole, driven by their own political disorientation and increasing sense of distance from the electorate, has allowed any politician who is not Trump to mend their reputations and gloss over their own destructive behaviour. The transformation of Trump into the bête noire of all right-minded people, a pillar of unrivalled wickedness that we all have a duty to protest against in our pussy hats and orange wigs, has been a boon to the wounded pre-Trump political class keen both to whitewash its own crimes and to prepare for its return to the position of power it enjoyed before the electorate was corrupted by post-truth hysteria.
The resistance is the fightback of the establishment against the people. As it is in Britain, too, where the rich and influential people fuelling the war on Brexit the largest act of democracy in British history like to refer to themselves as insurgents. It is the height of Orwellianism for these acts of elitist reaction against democratic dissent to dress themselves up as forms of resistance. But it is not surprising. From the get-go, the so-called resistance has been more a pining for the old establishment, for Hillarys rule and for the continued domination of Britain by the EU, than it has been any kind of daring strike for a new politics. Look closely at the funereal elitism of McCains burial and you will see one of the saddest and most striking political developments of our time: how self-styled radicals preferred to throw their lot in with the old establishment under the umbrella of the resistance rather than heed ordinary people who were saying: Lets tear up the old order.
To watch the McCain attendees and the media coverage, one might assume a monarch had died and that streets, train stations and even an entire historic era were being named or renamed a la Victoria.
But, as usual, the try-hard aspect of it all is sleight of hand. This isn't just a funeral for an individual, a senator, whatever, it's a grudging, sad farewell to a certain brand of 20th century politics and a power structure that have lingered past their expiration date. McConnell's brand of leadership is to do as little as possible ie non-leadership. Obama is stuck in a delicious catch-22: he's a motormouth who can't give interviews or stop to talk to reporters because he would be asked about Spygate and would have to lie some more on the record. The Clintons, first foisted upon a hapless nation in 1992 (!?!) continue to linger like sewer gas. GW Bush continues to prove his critics right: that he is and was a weather vane twisting in the wind.
When the inevitable day comes soon that the outfits, actions and reactions of Meghan are reviewed and discussed at when she returns to The View, they will reveal in spite of themselves that the funeral was regarded in part as a reality show.
It's been asked a thousand times but one more won't hurt: would a 'statesman' remain a senator during the long final stretch in which he was unable to properly discharge his office?
Apparently the U.S. and Great Britain are the only two places where someone who has been in Congress for almost four decades would be considered a “rebel.”
Relictele, you hit the hammer on the head! A true ‘statesman’ would have resigned his position so another could assist carrying on the work of the country. With the late Sen McCain it was all about himself. And some in his family have no clue at all about honestly serving their country; Cindy McCain being one and Meg McCain being the other.
We knew this. That’s why we must drain the swamp.
I think that by opposing Trump, McCain presented himself as exactly the old order, he was trying to pretend to oppose.
Palin was likewise a real rebel. But McCain opposed her, his own running mate. And did not even invite her to his funeral. Despite the fact she remained faithful to him, through so much, ever since she ran as VP.
Nope. McCain was exactly what the GOP needed to oppose, and move away from.
Exactly.
I call ‘em as I see ‘em...
Think inside beltway RINO Republicans (exhibit A: McPain) as Bugs Moran, think inside beltway Democrats as Al Capone Moran and Capone competed to run the rackets in 1920s Chicago. They hated each other and often were at war (bodies of their soldiers often turned up on the streets... the 1929 Valentine massacre the most memorable).
While despising and trying destroy each other in “normal” times, they were both GANGSTERS and would reluctantly unite against the threat of a third party. Eliot Ness (aka: Donald Trump) arrives on the scene and threatens both of their business. Jump to now, RINOS and Democrats both now attempt to demonize the Trump as the gangster (and a willing media is on board!). However with the net and alternative media its not as easy as it once was but that dont mean the lies and attempts to panic (and now censor) us ordinary folks will stop. When their lies don’t work... they just LIE HARDER!!!
“....I call em as I see em...”
Yep. So do I:
GOPe = RAT = UniParty = Deep State = Communist
They may be called different names, but they are ALL the same.
Quotes from The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead 1958 sound awfully familiar:
"
this was a predatory state which the Czar and a small group of noblemen and bureaucrats ruled for their own exclusive benefit...The ruling group owned all the wealth, enjoyed all the privileges and monopolized all the political power, and it did not intend to give up any of its prerogatives. It considered the peasants to be little better than animals..."
All over Russia [the peasants] were beginning to feel their power, and they were armed.
McCain was pretty much a complete azzhole politically. See ya douchebag!
GREAT post & comment. BUMP!
#We’reTheWesistance #LowTestosterone
O’Neill nails it.
funny thing is the way FakeNewsMSM likes to call their “selected” politicians “rock stars” when Donald Trump could truly be called the first Rock’N’Roll President in US history!
watching the media and progressive left defend the political orthodoxy - including the very intel agencies they once derided - is hilarious.
Hope someone with better computer skills thaI will place this most appropriate quotation below a picture of all the “elites” gathered in the National Cathedral Saturday.
Quotes from The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead 1958 sound awfully familiar:
“ this was a predatory state which the Czar and a small group of noblemen and bureaucrats ruled for their own exclusive benefit...The ruling group owned all the wealth, enjoyed all the privileges and monopolized all the political power, and it did not intend to give up any of its prerogatives. It considered the peasants to be little better than animals...” All over Russia [the peasants] were beginning to feel their power, and they were armed.
Trump is the resistance!
So now we know what the resistance really is. Its the establishment. Its the old political order. Its that late 20th-century political set, those out-of-touch managerial elites, who still cannot believe the electorate rejected them... while the anti-Trump movement might doll itself up as rebellious, and even borrow its name from those who resisted fascism in Europe in the mid 20th-century, in truth it is primarily about restoring the apparently cool, expert-driven rule of the old elites over what is viewed as the chaos of the populist Trump / Brexit era... In death, this key establishment figure in the Republican Party, this military officer, senator, presidential candidate and enthusiastic backer of the exercise of US military power overseas, has been reimagined as a plucky battler for all that is good against a wicked, overbearing political machine... Hatred of Trump has become the moral glue of the bruised elites who have been either pushed aside or at least dramatically called into question by the populist surge taking hold in the West.
Thanks relictele.
The New World Order that they have dreamed of since Reagan left office was within their grasp.
Trump gave US the opportunity to stave off the loss of our country.
We MUST make Bush League Republicans extinct before the Republic is.
LOL! Good job!
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