The Trouble with Tribals

What’s wrong with this picture:

Aside from the obvious fact that the main problem is that our Ruling Class has just passed a law empowering the President to declare you and me an Enemy of the State, strip you and me of habeas corpus and throw us in prison forever on the basis of his unilateral and omnipotent will alone, there is something else deeply troubling here.

It’s this: It’s Rachel Maddow warning us of this, not supposed “small government conservatives”. Indeed, the main voices who have spoken out on this have been people like Jon Stewart, Glenn Greenwald, the ACLU and sundry other lefties. On the Right (with the exception of “He’s clearly insane according to all right-thinking conservatives” Ron Paul), it’s been remarkably quiet on the Right as American takes the plunge into become a lawless police state. One has to ask: what in hell are conservatives conserving anymore?

Indeed, I have a feeling that not a few righties have the notion that because people like Maddow, Greenwald, Stewart and the ACLU are shouting so loudly about our Ruling Class’ move to repeal Magna Carta, there must be something very good about it. That the right can scream about Obama the Tyrant every time he clears his throat (recess appointments! It’s the END OF THE WORLD!!!!), and yet be so strangely silent about this, a real act of tyranny, is astounding. That’s what happens when we stop thinking about the common good and start thinking only, “Whatever They are for, I oppose.” Twenty years ago, the Left was the principal practitioner of identity politics. Now it is the Right (in my experience) that judges everything by who the messenger is, by who you associate with, and by which website you link. This silly notion that quoting the wrong person makes you ritually impure has to stop. The issue is no longer Left v. Right. It is our Ruling Class against the rest of us.