The New Right may be about our age, but its roots go much further back: its older than Babylon and as evil as hell. Its started when property replaced blue blood as the sign of the Chosen, and commerce and trade overwhelmed the landed aristocracy as the source of all wealth. The overthrow of the nobility began as a bourgeois revolution. In England, the Roundheads (the original Gentlemen of Property) defeated the Cavaliers, Parliament snatched the Crown (And King Charles’ head along with it). In America, the wealthy landowners were commoners, and they wanted no part of King George taxing their plantations and slaves. In France, the rising middle class and the second and third sons of the nobles smashed the state, but they made sure that their Declaration of the Rights of Man had a clause sanctifying property rights. In Russia, it was the intellectuals and bureaucrats who destroyed the aristocrats.

The executive one percent control everything, but the Babbitts, the administrative, professional and managerial class, believe they’re entitled to join them. They’re scared. The Bunkers figured they had a chance, at least to move up a notch, or their kids might grow up to do so. They’re even more scared. And the Bubbas are the same white trash Johnny Rebs who fought like demons for the freedom to own slaves even though they didn’t have a rat’s ass chance in hell of ever doing so. They are terrified. It looks like the only thing trickling down in the new economy is social class. Everybody is getting jacked down a notch so the one percenters can last just a little bit longer.

At close to your age I too find the longer patterns becoming visible, and suggesting how the future will probably unfold. I agree that America is probably past the tipping point.

As you know, part of the emerging tapestry for me is understanding “the conservative mind”, which is the quest for understanding how we got into this mess. Looking into the history of the Right as a political movement, I’ve come to realize that it’s barely older than me, and was always there as a backdrop to my life. With some of that perspective now, I have to define “rightwinger” this way: Somebody successfully terrorized by Osama bin Laden.

I can’t imagine the evil bastard understood America well enough to know where to strike to produce the maximum fracturing, but nevertheless, the intended psychological effects of the attacks of 9/11 fell on fertile soil. Soil plowed and fertilized for several decades by a rightwing infrastructure designed for the sole purpose of frightening and alienating a vulnerable part of the population to turn them into a pliant electoral weapon for wealthy interests.

I don’t think that the Koch Bros and their ilk set out to destroy America; they wouldn’t want to kill the goose that laid such golden eggs for them. But in their blind greed and ideological fanaticism, they handed bin Laden a powerful weapon to use against America. And now we’re reaping the whirlwind.

Maybe I shouldn’t say that there’s no hope for America; maybe it’s more accurate to say that a large part of the population is lost, and trying to drag the rest of America down with them.

Part of the landscape we see is that the Confederacy still lives, if not in name, certainly in spirit. There are Tea Party cells across the country, but one of their defining common features is that they’re all reactionary white Southerners in spirit.

So maybe the only way out for America is to recognize that the Civil War didn’t end, there’s just been a truce for a century and a half, and maybe it’s time to let the South go. Let them have their Confederacy with antebellum vision of a white aristocracy living the good life on the backs of invisible peasants.

I don’t mean that fighting the Civil War was a bad idea. Slavery had to be ended, and the Union had to be preserved because logically, how could the US end slavery in a South no longer under its jurisdiction? But we never won their hearts and minds. Today I’d favor a new Confederacy as a sink to drain off the poison in American society. Let all the tea baggers and racists and general reactionaries move there.

I’d want conditions on the new Confederacy, because among other things, I sure as hell wouldn’t condone setting up a situation which allowed them bring back slavery. Their Constitution should, in part, be a contract with the US guaranteeing their adherence to principles such as no slavery and free emigration. And I certainly would think twice about arming those barbarians with advanced military hardware. It’s hardly a utopian vision, but maybe cutting out the cancer this way is the only option we have left.

I should remember I’m basically proposing to dump all those people on you, down there near the tip of America’s…never mind, we all know what the map looks like. Anyway, I know it’d be asking a lot of you, but don’t you think you could take one for America?

There is one great exception to that, of course, the Civil War, and in a way we are still fighting that conflict, for pretty much the same reasons. This idea that the other guy is not just mistaken, but a traitor, or at best, a useful idiot subverted by traitors, will destroy this nation just like the the issues of the Civil War almost succeeded in destroying us. It is the old conflict of the nation-state vs the feudal aristocracy cast in modern dress. Except now, instead of a king we have divided, representative government, and instead of a landed aristocracy, we have a commercial oligarchy and a financial plutocracy.

I know I’ve beat this analogy to death in other posts, but bear with me just once more. I’ll be 67 this month, I’ve seen a lot of history roll by, and at my age I can see its glacial flow over time in stark relief, the way a maturely dissected landscape best reveals its folds and dips in the light of a setting sun. The patterns are starting to become visible, just the way the lengthening shadows help accent the relief. I’ve lived all over this country, but I was born and raised in the deep south, and with the perspective of an immigrant from another culture, I do believe I can sense trends and conflicts which may not be obvious to those who do not have the advantage of that point of view. I was a senior in high school the year the Beatles came out, JFK was shot, The Civil Rights act was passed, and Barry Goldwater ran for President.

This nation is tearing itself apart, and it is so sad because there is so much good here, so much worth saving, so much of value. I love this country, but its like being in love with a crazy woman. I’ve been there too; it can really break your heart, and you never really get over it.

How things turned out for ReaganBook should be no surprise to oldtimey Zoners. Once we could operate an open community on the Internet, and we made it work because of a reasonable expectation of a minimal level of civility and willingness to be a member of the community and act like it, compromise included. But our community fractured just as the greater dirt-world community fractured. Something like ReaganBooks can’t work today, if it ever could, because it requires a level of homogeneity that you can’t mandate on the Internet. Not in a free membership-based community. But heterogenous communities on the Internet don’t work any more. Remember that what motivated ReaganBook was dissatisfaction with all the “Others” at Facebook that harshed their vibe.

Gated communities in the real world have a powerful lever to ensure the good behavior of their residents: People throw their largest financial asset into the collectivist pot of a Home Owner’s Association, under the terms of a legally-enforceable contract. Step out of line, and it’ll cost you.

That may sound like paradise to a conservative (turning a blind eye to the irony of joining a collective), but it won’t work on the Internet. Not when membership’s free and signup is automatic. Unless the Koch Bros fund it, they won’t be able to run background checks on every applicant for membership in their exclusive club. They might try charging a $9.99/month membership fee like Sarah Palin’s “channel” (I guess that’s wingnut-speak for “web site”) or Glenn Beck’s. But so what? Lots of liberals with a keen sense of humor will spend $10 to punk rightwingers. Lord knows, I spent more than that to register “cheney-palin.com” and never used it. $10 for a one-month membership in the revived ReaganBook sounds like cheap entertainment. Besides, you just know they’ll end up offering a one-month free trial. I’ll go for it.

I can’t wait to see the new “protections” they come up to solve the “problem” of the “wrong sort of people” trying to join their little club. Here’s my prediction: Whatever they come up with, it’ll turn out the same way; the only variable will be how long things take to collapse.

The problem wasn’t their implementation, it was their basic premise.

Human beings are social animals. We need each other to survive. Those who feel they can make it alone will eventually run out of one key item which will make the rest of their hoard useless.

Survivalists forget that true independence and security only comes from the ability to make and defend everything you need. Most people are incapable of growing or gathering their own food, shelter, clothing, tools, medicines, and all the other things necessary for survival. All the stored supplies, ammunition, camping gear and fuel you may have prepared will eventually run out, or at any rate, one key item will, like novocaine or duct tape or WD-40. And in the meantime, your mobility is nonexistent because you can’t move your stash around, so you don’t have the option to make the dangerous journey to a place where things might be better. So you’re a sitting target for anyone who decides he wants to help himself to your stuff.

Survivalists fancy themselves as masters of their freeholds, islands of civilization in a vast desolation. Instead, they will quickly degenerate into roving gangs of armed cannibals (livestock, fish, game and edible plants will be the first things to disappear, firewood will be the next). You can arm yourself and defend against one or two or a few, but sooner or later they will outnumber and outgun you. Either that, or you will be forced to join them. That’s the real zombie apocalypse.

The true model for “after the fall” is not the frontier settlement or the pastoral village, or even the walled castle; its the urban street gang.

There is a site on the web with stories of British children and their experiences with bomb shelters in WWII. The government gave folks the rudiments of a small shelter, and all the neighbors would pitch in to help the family to install it. I posted the site here but got no response.

The kids talk about the sense of community while sitting with their families and/or neighbors in these things. The shared scarce food, always found space for each other, and everyone helped everyone.

Contrast that with American survivalists, who are prepared to shoot anyone who approaches their shelter, who are so worried about someone having something they don’t, who are so paranoid one must assume they are themselves the real thieves.

For instance, conservatives will fight to the death for a health system which is the most expensive in the world and ranks 37th in outcomes. That just doesn’t stand up. Another – a Conservative regime did not exercise due diligence, lied in order to start an illegal war, and sought to steal another countries resources. And then lied some more. Global warming is another. Fox News is another – in order to get such nonsense publicized they have to do it themselves. No one reputable will broadcast such bullshit.

We lost one of our more valuable people here, a staunch Conservative, because he could not handle the hypocrisy of the people he chose to believe. He’s far more comfortable where the nonsense isn’t challenged.

They need to stay with their own kind in order to survive.

They will stop at nothing to ensure their survival, and to recover their supremacy. And if they can’t do that, they are more than willing to pull us all down to ruin with them merely to justify their past legitimacy. The last few years have shown us what they are capable of, and what they are willing to do when they feel threatened.

We have our work cut out for us.

Thank you to all those who participated in the pre-release of ReaganBook.com Your participation is helping us build a more secure site. Thank you! Please be patient while we make the necessary changes to keep the site free from obscenity, pornography, and those intent on the destruction of life, liberty, and the family. We will be opening the doors again soon with additional protections in place. As Reagan taught us, trust, but verify.
–Management

Conservative to the end…the site was nowhere labelled “pre-release” when it opened. They just screwed up. Badly: Which part of “people flood the new site, grab all the fun thematic usernames, and have a jolly good time” could anybody with a three-digit IQ who’s ever used the Internet not have anticipated?

So sad. For a day I was George W. Bush, aka “dubya” (and apparently “intent on the destruction of life, liberty, and the family” therefore), and friended by Tony Blair, J. Edgar Hoover, Darth Vader, Jesus Christ, Bender the Bending Robot, Ronald Reagan, Dick Cheney, and Satan (no, I wasn’t repeating myself). We were just getting the old band back together.

Here’s to the glory day of ReaganBook! I’ll miss you for at least another day!