Work Ethic

By Sniffles

E.J. Dionne, one of our favorite observers of the political scene, has written what appears to be an interesting book about the last 50 years of the conservative movement. Take it from us cats, that history is not pretty.

But E.J. argues thoughtfully that the state of conservatism right now is unhealthy for the country, and taking the long view, we suspect he's right. Still, it's striking to be reminded of the fantasy land that so many of the teabags and the Freepers and the anti-choicers and the gay haters currently live in, and which we've seen played out at every Republican Presidential debate so far.

"For half a century, the history of American conservatism has been a story of disappointment and betrayal," E.J. writes. "Conservative leaders have denounced decades of change, pledging what would amount to a return to the government and economy of the 1890s, the cultural norms of the 1950s and, in more recent times, the ethnic makeup of the country in the 1940s.

"But no conservative administration — not Richard Nixon’s, not Ronald Reagan’s and neither of the Bush presidencies — could live up to the rhetoric that conservative politicians regularly deploy to rally their supporters."

And so, those supporters are mad. Really mad. Which is why we have Trumpism. Now, when we cats think about it, we get mad, too. For example, we're plenty mad that young African Americans keep getting gunned down in the streets by police. But overall, we're pleased with a lot of the progress the Obama Administration has been able to make. We want to protect that progress — and we want to make more.

But we understand that to do that — and to achieve the criminal justice reform whose necessity is a current embarrassment to the country — we must be willing to shoulder onerous tasks. See, when you live in a democracy in which multiple voices are heard, and which is constructed as ingeniously as the Founders intended, governing can be complicated and difficult. In fact, we think that maybe Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, et. al. purposely made it so, so that new policies and programs would not be undertaken willy-nilly.

Putting one's shoulder to the governmental wheel is, at least, what grownups in a diverse, dynamic democracy do. The ones who live in Right-Wing La La Land — and who get all riled up by the meaningless generalities of Donald Trump — just scream. Things like "Make America great again!" "Build a wall!" and "Bomb the hell out of ISIS!"

They are silly. As one leading Presidential candidate on our side has observed, "Anyone running for President should see things as they actually are, not just as we want them to be, talk about the real problems and not try to create and inhabit some alternative universe." We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)