StephenKMackSD's Blog

In his column of February 17, 2011 The Great Will (TGW) celebrates the ‘Enlightened Conservatism’ of Governor Mitch Daniels. His address at CPAC is the occasion that gives TGW the opportunity to explore   Governor Daniels as the probable, the necessary Republican candidate of 2012. Governor Daniels seems to be a man of political principle and honesty, although I must totally disagree about his politics.

TGW presents Governor Daniels ‘Conservatism’ as a ‘conservatism for grown-ups’: perhaps a backhanded insult to the less civil elements of the ‘unwashed’ Tea Party? TGW assumes the rhetorical pose of the puritan divine speaking from the exalted position of the pulpit, the seat of male power. Governor Daniels represents the ‘union busting’ ways of TGW’s former boss, although he is not a complete political Neanderthal i.e. Healthy Indiana Plan, but totally necessary given the low wage jobs his administration advertises as being  created. To add to his Conservative credentials Governor Daniels supports the Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Governor Daniels decertification of Public Sector Unions and Governor Walker’s attempt to do the same are congruent with a Republican Party frontal attack on the two party system, the primacy of civic republicanism, not to speak of Public Sector Unions as the friend and supporters of the Democratic Party.

To approach the concerns of both Governor Daniels and TGW, one could just point to the failure of ‘The Free Market’ as demonstrative of the poverty of this idea to address any issue, economic or political! Both of these very Public Men fail to acknowledge this political actuality: this failure to engage with that dismal economic and political fact renders any of their comments superfluous, except as part of a necessary propaganda offensive of an election campaign. Here is a quotation from the Governor’s speech: “Upward mobility from the bottom is the crux of the American promise, and the stagnation of the middle class is in fact becoming a problem, on any fair reading of the facts. Our main task is not to see that people of great wealth add to it but that those without much money have a greater chance to earn some”: a new ‘Conservative Progressivism’ or simply a judicious political pandering, in these tough economic times?

One comes away from reading this article with the distinct impression that TGW is auditioning for a job: thus the obsequious, near worshipful tone. But the substance of Governor Daniels remarks, as reported by our writer,  in advocacy of a politically necessary but painful austerity: one can find that darkly comical as Wall Street reaped profits in excess of pre-crash levels, while creating no new jobs, as reported by less biased sources. The Governor repeats the well worn clichés of ‘Conservatism’: ‘government is the problem’, ‘vouchers’ for health care, an ‘Update’ to Social Security and  Medicare, a repeal of the ‘regulatory rainforest’ and the piece de resistance ‘shock- and- awe statism’ as demonstrative of the  economic policies of the Obama Administration. This piece is pure public relations dreck, capped by a quote from the Gipper, ‘we have no enemies only opponents’, sounding the indispensable note of political nostalgia. TGW cannot end his column without a solemn warning quoted from Jefferson about great departures on “slender majorities” again a critique of Obama’s Health Care Reform, while obsequiously genuflecting to Governor Daniels as any wise courtier would.

Arianna Huffington is a large disappointment, in every way. She portrayed herself as a ‘progressive’ voice for women and a politics no longer mired in the thickets of the left/right political inertia. But what the sale of the Huffington Post to AOL has revealed is the real scope of her personal ambition and it’s breathtaking. Her stated goal and that of her partners was to provide a platform for the election of a Democrat to the presidency, by providing an alternative, a Democratic alternative to the right wing propaganda machine. In that Ms. Huffington and her partners have succeeded but the Democrat elected resembles in his Neo-Liberal policies and political timidity, Bill Clinton, i.e.  at the least a rehearsal of the bankrupt New Democratic imitation of Reaganism: is this a definition of success?

Ms. Huffington paid her core staff and relied on ‘citizen journalists’ who worked for free, providing content for site, adding a certain ‘progressive’, ‘egalitarian’ tone  A move probably inspired by one of her revered teachers, Milton Freedman. Does that even meet the basic standard to call ones endeavors ‘progressive?’.  Ambition of the scope Ms. Huffington has exhibited to be a political power broker and taste-maker has no peer in contemporary America ,but the career of Clair Booth Luce can provide a rough template, although imperfect- the biography of an out-sized ambition.

Cato