My clock radio woke me up this morning with an NPR news report on the lame-duck attempt by Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin to place last minute obstructions on the Democrats before they assume their office. (See RL’s post below.) On their way out the door, the lame-duck Republicans are going to use their majority to poison the wells so no one else can get a drink.

One Republican was quoted (I paraphrase) how “this was necessary because Republicans were concerned that the incoming legislators and executives were going to be instituting Liberal policies.” What’s astonishing about this statement is not that a politician might feel this way, but that he would publicly declare it as if it was self-evident, their obligation, their right to sabotage the incoming party. Their assumption of moral superiority is so complete that they feel everyone recognizes how their partisan preferences trump a mere election.

No attempt was made to justify this action as an ideological position that should apply equally to both parties (or they would have passed these laws restricting power while they were in office with a majority). They are doing it now while they still have a majority, in the last few days of the session. No, it was simply pushed as a means of hamstringing their opposition, not a general curb on state power. And it is further astonishing that this sort of blatant power grab is now promoted as standard operating procedure, a requirement and expectation of Republican governance. Kick those Dems in the balls while they’re down, before they have a chance to get up and come after you.

This statement was not made behind closed doors to party leaders, it was publicly proclaimed, as if it were their obvious and god-given mandate. “Instituting Liberal policies” is no longer considered as just what the opposition wants to do, but as an evil that everyone agrees must be prevented, and which the voters simply have no voice in. For Republicans, elections are no longer a means of determining what the public wants, they are a mechanism for justifying and enforcing what Republicans want.

All politicians want to push their program and obstruct that of their opponents. But there is a difference in this behavior that transcends partisan preference and ideological principle. Implied in this behavior is the idea that the other guys are so evil and corrupt that anything that frustrates them must be done, no matter how
illegal or violent. The Democrats are not just the opposition, who have different ideas about government, but a foreign and malign force which must be stopped by any means necessary, no matter how unconstitutional or extreme.

I worry that they will get away with this. But I also worry that even if they are defeated in this effort, the idea that “anything goes” in politics will become so established and accepted, so entrenched, that they may try it again, or that the next time it will done by the Left, using the Right’s attempt as their excuse and justification. From now on, we may be operating under a whole new set of rules and expectations. If there’s anything the 20th Century should have taught us, its that tyranny looks pretty much the same, whether it serves the Left or Right.

Modern Conservatism has not only mounted an undemocratic assault on Liberal philosophy, they have instituted an attack on Democracy itself. This is no longer politics, it is now Civil War. And next time, it will be easier to do it (perhaps even by the other side) because the precedent has been set. Regardless of how our current political issues are resolved, reconciliation has now become unlikely. The nature of American politics itself has changed, forever.

I hope you enjoy your tax cut. You, and the rest of us, have paid an enormous price for it.