For those of us not up on obscure Nazi-related insults, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels was Nazi Germany’s #2 man, and in charge of the Propaganda Ministry, which is communications used in a deceitful manner.
Today, which I will cling to as I haven’t yet gone to bed, I learned of a recent tweet by Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), a first-term member of the House of Representatives. CNN/Politics delivers the text of it:
Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a North Carolina Republican who has a history of egregious false claims, posted another one Sunday on Twitter.
Cawthorn was criticizing a new $86.9 million federal contract to house some migrant families in hotel rooms as they await legal proceedings to remove them from the US. (Other migrant families are being swiftly expelled without a court process.)
“The Biden Admin just dropped $86 Million dollars to get hotel rooms for ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS yet we have zero dollars going to our homeless veterans who are at a high risk of suicide. UNACCEPTABLE. UNAMERICAN,” Cawthorn wrote.
The CNN report goes on to fact check Cawthorn’s claim (a resounding false), a counterclaim that the tweet was actually about the single contract and not about the overall Federal response (“huh?”), etc.
But I’m considering how this fits into the overall pattern of conservative governance – or lack thereof. Among many sources, a while back the Washington Examiner reported:
Cawthorn has received criticism among fellow conservatives and liberals alike, who feel he is more focused on media appearances than the business of legislating.
Cawthorn had emailed fellow Republicans on Jan. 19, “I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation,” Time reported Jan. 27.
Cawthorn felt the quote was not properly contextualized but acknowledged, “That is what we said.”
“The problem is, being in the minority, I see little use in devoting the overwhelming majority of my staff to the legislative side, whereas I think it is much more beneficial to be serving the constituents in my district and helping them with their casework,” he said. “I have more staff in the district than most people would have in D.C.”
It sounds reasonable, but I have to wonder. The GOP, to my eye, has been exhibiting a decay of skill in governance even as it has won – and lost – control over the elective branches of government since the turn of the century. Today, the Democrats’ lock on the legislative branch is paper-thin; the removal of a single Democratic Senator would give the Senate back to the Republicans, if that Senator came from a state with a Republican governor and lacked a law calling for a Senator to be replaced by a member of their own party.
But the incompetence exhibited by the Republicans 2001-2007 and 2017-2019 in exercising fiscal discipline during the first period, or even competently writing legislation during the second, is in keeping with a party that is continuing to lean authoritarian.
Cawthorn’s putative reasoning may seem logical, but when he or his staff issue a tweet which is, at best, highly deceptive and seeded with concepts intended to stir up emotions – and if favoring illegal aliens over homeless vets doesn’t stir your emotions, you’re not paying attention – followed by a ridiculous defense, it’s clear that he’s not allocating resources on the basis of honest legislating, even within the framework of getting control of the House back.
This really seems to be about keeping a base stirred up and emotional.
And that, in turn, is not unusual for most political parties – think of the fights over the Kavanaugh and Barrett nominations to SCOTUS and some of the inflammatory rhetoric from the Democrats and beyond them on the far-left. But I find it disturbing that the cited incompetence, in combination with Members of Congress who seem to be dedicated to keeping the base stirred up, such as Senator Johnson (R-WI), Senator Lee (R-UT), Rep Cawthorn, Rep Boebert (R-CO), and Rep Greene (R-GA), suggests that good governance is no longer a priority for the Republicans, even if a number of leading GOP officials expressed apprehension concerning the latter two prior to their election.
Instead of developing skills in governance, even while in the minority, by, say, learning to compromise and working across the aisle, these members seem to be little more than weapons, propaganda vehicles.
This would be congruent with, but not dispositive of, an authoritarian governmental form in which all policy and directive comes from a small coterie at the top of the hierarchy, and everyone else is to shut up and do what they’re told. Arguments can be made that both sides do this, but Democratic activity seems to be far more collaborative and utilizes the skills and ideas of many members.
In contrast, the failed replacement for the ACA was reported to have been written by a handful of Republican senators who even failed to ask their Republican colleagues for assistance, much less the opposition. Ditto the 2017 Tax Reform bill, which passed and did not accomplish its goals. Indeed, the relative inactivity of the Senate when it was run by Senator McConnell (R-KY), outside of the judiciary confirmation work, reportedly generated complaints from his fellow GOP Senators, and suggests someone who is genuinely afraid of trying to pass legislation.
But, in hindsight, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. The toxic team politics tenet that the Republicans have pursued for so long that it’s become part of a political aphorism – Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall into line – would, to my mind, lead to a hierarchical model of governance. Add in Goldwater’s warning concerning religious zealot pastors who see compromise and adversaries as evil, and far-right fringers who have gotten a taste of power and like it, and it turns towards being a deadly poison in a country in which power should be transferred violence-free, rights protected, and wealth fairly distributed – not concentrated disastrously at the top of the food chain.
But where will this lead? I don’t know. I’d like to believe that the American electorate is getting better and better at the entire Web communications thing, that they’ll look at the hijinks of those listed above and their allies and begin to see the sleight of hand.
But I don’t know. I just don’t know. This not-shooting warfare reminds me of Professor Turchin’s theory concerning agrarian demographics, and not in a good way. The January 6th Insurrection could be interpreted as a specimen of the elite internecine warfare Turchin observes during the disintegrative phase of a secular cycle, as numerous members of Congress were reportedly in danger, regardless of what Senator Johnson has claimed.
Yeah, we’re no longer agrarian – but I don’t think human impulses towards power differ all that much between agrarian and non-agrarian societies.
