Updated: GOP, RIP

Conservatism, Elections 2008, IMMIGRATION, Iraq, Republicans

MCCAIN: He was the wrong man; a progressive, as opposed to a conservative. He followed an equally wrong, wretched administration (Iraq), from which he deviated only slightly—and then to the left (global warming).

The GOP: It is no longer conservative, but neoconservative. “Strategists” hostile to principles, the Karl Rovians, have sought to “attract” intractably hostile minorities to the party by relinquishing philosophical coherence. While trying hard to appeal to minorities, who seldom vote Republican, GOPers worked overtime to marginalize the Republican base—issues most important to conservatives were mocked out of meaning and never mentioned. Immigration, for one. (Watch the chilling testimony of an architect of the central plan to overthrow America.)

As minorities move into a majority position, thanks in no part to Republican immigration policies, the GOP will become redundant.

Update: WHO’S RACIST? Here are the exist polls by race (and sex).

Related: “Why Weep For Joy?”

Why Weep For Joy?

Barack Obama, Elections 2008, Race, South-Africa

Would I weep for Joy if a Jew were elected president of the US? No (especially given my tribe’s leftist penchant). But Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey (who catapulted Obama from anonymity), and Jessie Jackson wept for Obama’s triumph. Caught in a drama of their own making.

Now, if Americans were as good at driving a bargain as they were at coming out in droves for Obama, they’d insist that the media and their minders in Washington quit smearing them as racists. Quit talking about how those rednecks have come along way; talk about a people who do not judge a man by the color of his skin.

As some of us have always contended, Anglo-Americans are no racists.

If anything, American minorities are more deserving of the pejorative since most stated quite openly that they voted for Obama because they perceived his run as a triumph for their side. But of course, as one petty government official once wrote:

“In the United States, at present, only whites can be racists since whites dominate and control the institutions that create and enforce American cultural norms and values. … All white individuals in our society are racist, even those who have no conscious prejudice because they receive benefits distributed by a white, racist society thoughts institutions.” (Frederick Lynch, 1989)

Don’t expect the charge to be dropped when the founding people of America no longer control its institutions. As is evident from South Africa, if white, one can be among a disenfranchised minority, yet still be considered racist.

Updated: Deifying Democracy

Democracy, Elections 2008, Political Philosophy

A lot of gushing is going on about our wonderful democracy at work—the allusion being to the long lines and high turnout. Not to rain on anyone’s line, but:

America was not conceived as a democracy—majority rule was never the intent here. In a democracy, majorities get to decide what is up for grabs. In a republic, where the central government has limited and clearly enumerated functions, majorities merely determine who is to be elected.

We are thus subject to the whims of the national majority, or, rather, of its ostensible representatives.

It is these representatives who triumph in this or any election, certainly not that fictitious entity “The People.” While it seems obvious that the minority in a democracy is openly thwarted, the question is, do the elected representatives at least carry out the will of the majority?

The answer is No. The People’s representatives have carte blanche to do exactly as they please. As Benjamin Barber wrote:

It is hard to find in all the daily activities of bureaucratic administration, judicial legislation, executive leadership, and paltry policy-making anything that resembles citizen engagement in the creation of civic communities and in the forging of public ends. Politics has become what politicians do; what citizens do (when they do anything) is to vote for politicians.

In Restoring the Lost Constitution, Randy E. Barnett further homes in on why the informed voter ought to have little incentive to exercise his “democratic right”:

If we vote for a candidate and she wins, we have consented to the laws she votes for, but we have also consented to the laws she has voted against.

If we vote against the candidate and she wins, we have consented to the laws she votes for or against.

And if we do not vote at all, we have consented to the outcome of the process whatever it may be.

This “rigged contest” Barnett describes as, “‘Heads’ you consent, ‘tails’ you consent, ‘didn’t flip the coin,’ guess what? You consent as well.'”

Update I (Nov. 5): Wrote Michael Oakeshott in The Claims of Politics:

“Political action involves mental vulgarity, not merely because it entails the occurrence and support of those who are mentally vulgar, but because of the simplification of human life implied in even the best of it purposes.”

Update II: Afrikaner Special Task Force In Action in Africa

Africa, Crime, Military, South-Africa

Afrikaner Special Task Force in action in South Africa, doing what kept the place a civilized society until … recently. Not for the fainthearted.

Update I (November 3): I am somewhat surprised, like Alex, that this unit is allowed to operate in the new South Africa given the unit’s ethnic composition. The ANC is disbanding other Afrikaner-dominated paramilitary units, such as the Commandos.

Note how these (fine) young men revert to speaking Afrikaans when things heat up. Can anyone translate for us?

Update II (November 5): Read JP Strauss’ translation (hereunder) of the exchange before and during the assault. Thanks, Mr. Strauss.