Click on the entry title for a link to read an excerpt from Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, by investigative reporter Max Blumenthal.
Blumenthal refers to a couple of writers I read deeply as a young man, and whose themes continue to resonate for me: Eric Hoffer ("The True Believer"), and Erich Fromm ("Escape from Freedom").
I was for 15 years or so a registered and active Republican, although I have never voted a straight ticket in my life. Individual competence, intelligence, and integrity are of more significance to me than party ideology.
Eventually, I left the party, an ephiphany I wrote about here.
These days, virtually all the moderates have abandoned positions of party leadership, disgusted by the rise of rhetoric and the decline of common sense. The folks who are left are "conservative's conservatives." Now, I hear from multiple sources that they are seeking to seize control of the school board -- a non-partisan race. In the process, they have also made political threats against members of their own party who aren't right wing enough.
So I combine this article with local events, and I wonder: how and when does a people reclaim their political structure from authoritarian stridency? And who, exactly? After all, I myself withdrew.
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