(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . How We Disturb Each Other (My Op/Ed about a Good Man Who Defends the GOP Against My Condemnations) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-08 [This piece is appearing in newspapers in the very red congressional district (VA-06) in which I was the Democratic nominee for Congress in 2012.] *********************** On the online thread of a recent op/ed of mine, a gentleman commented that that he found it disturbing and offensive that I describe the Republican Party as fascistic. I appreciate the combination of civility and frankness in his complaints regarding my analysis of the GOP. With similar candor, and civility, I wish to describe what I experience in those recurrent disagreements. It starts with my respect for this gentleman’s humanity and intelligence. If it weren’t for that respect I would not feel such deep puzzlement when I hear this gentleman’s regular defense of the GOP against my accusations. It’s not just him. For years, I’ve been disturbed and puzzled to see intelligent and decent people fail to see the incredible thing that the Republican Party has become. “Incredible” in being unmatched in the history of American political parties in its dishonesty, its criminality, its lack of commitment to the constitutional order, its hypocrisy, its lack of interest in cooperation, its exploitation of its followers. How not to see something so extraordinary that’s right out in the open? It’s so blatant that my dark assessment of the Republican Party is essentially akin to the understanding in much of the respectable world: Foreign friends of the United States would overwhelmingly choose my view over that of the Republican Party’s defenders. (Like when the leaders of the Western world asked, after newly inaugurated President Biden declared that “America’s back,” “But for how long?” For they worried about the continuing threat of the Trump Party, which had supported America’s abdication of its position as “leader of the free world.”) Many of the most brilliant social thinkers have been depicting the threat from today’s Republican Party akin to the picture I’ve presented. (Like the writings of Tim Snyder at Yale, a profound thinker on matters of democracy and tyranny. Professor Snyder knows Fascism, and he’d think my characterization to be right on target.) Many of the most principled of conservatives would side with me (like Judge Michael Luttig, a jurist most revered among conservatives, who has declared Trumpism a “clear and present danger” to American democracy.) The picture is so stark that it’s a disturbing psychological puzzle how some intelligent people can fail to see how pervasively dishonest have been the communications of today’s Republican Party to its supporters. Dishonest on climate change, on “voter fraud,” on “the Big Steal,” on concern about the federal debt, and on and on. Anyone seeing all this in a movie would recognize how dark and dangerous a thing the Republican Party has become on the American scene. “How can intelligent and decent people not perceive the blatant truth about the nature of the political force they support?” Never have I worked harder at answering such a question, yet also never have I fallen so far short of being satisfied with the answer(s) I can come up with. There is no part of that picture that I’ve striven more doggedly to understand than the psychological puzzle, And out of that continuous inquiry, I’ve written perhaps two dozen essays giving valid pieces of answers. But I remain mystified. Which is disturbing, because my life has been devoted to solving problems of this sort. For more than a half century, my intention has been to show the forces that hinder humankind’s making our world more as we want it to be, better than the world as it has been, with all the suffering, conflict, and injustice in our history, and as we see around us still. I’ve written books on the problematic forces at work in the system of interacting nations, on the dynamics of political systems, on the inherent biases of an unfettered market economy, and on how civilized societies mold the psyches of their human members. Always, that psychological dimension has been part of the picture. (Particularly in my book OUT OF WEAKNESS: Healing the Wounds that Drive Us To War.) The psychology of politics has been part of my work since the mid-1960s, when I gave a psychological analysis of the process that led members of some “Radical Right” groups to believe things like that the communists put Rock ‘N Roll into American culture to sexually corrupt American youth. What I say here about the Republican Party is said not as a partisan but as a man whose training and life’s work has been all about perceiving such things and making such judgments. So I would say to that gentleman who is offended when I express what I see about the party he supports: It makes sense to me that you would find it disturbing when I continually presenting to you a picture that differs -- in fraught ways-- from yours about something that, in fundamental ways, is important to you. Meanwhile, what I am experiencing is a profound bewilderment upon seeing someone with your strengths and qualities fail to see what is right before our eyes -- so extraordinarily vivid, grotesque, and destructive -- about today’s Republican Party? I disturb you by being “offensive.” You disturb me by being incomprehensible. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/8/2151815/-How-We-Disturb-Each-Other-My-Op-Ed-about-a-Good-Man-Who-Defends-the-GOP-Against-My-Condemnations Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/