This week I'm checking an item off the bucket list: assigning Watchmen to a bunch of college students and getting paid to talk about it. It's a delightful tale of – spoiler! – the dangers inherent in disregarding all morality to further what one perception of the greater good. A story in which deeply flawed characters, and one in particular, act on the belief that they've figured out what's best for society is a compelling way to explore ends-justify-means morality. It might even be applicable to current events. Somehow.
The House Republicans' position for the past few weeks is simple to understand: They've decided that health care reform shouldn't happen and it's OK to subvert the democratic process or fly the economy into a skyscraper in order to stop it because goddammit we're right. They know better than the courts, the president, the voters, or the Congress that passed the law.
They have Truth and Rightness and Freedom and Bald Eagles on their side, so anything they do is justified. If people end up dying, so be it.
They can make a disingenuous "I've made myself feel every death… see every innocent face I've murdered to save humanity" speech when their imagined victory comes.
Conservatives are motivated solely by fear. That's it. Fear of the unknown, fear of things that are different, fear of change, fear that the government is coming to take what they inherited, and fear of a world in which they're not guaranteed social superiority and the institutions of society do not cater to them. Right now they're afraid and they've talked themselves into a pseudo-religious frenzy to (over) compensate for it. The House Republican caucus looks like a group of kamikaze pilots attending their own funeral before their voyage into immortality. True, the actual kamikazes just flew obsolete planes into the ocean and accomplished nothing. But this time will be different!
What they're afraid of is simple: they are afraid that everyone is about to discover how full of shit they are. This pattern repeats itself. Think about every time there have been changes to the legal status of gays and lesbians. The right has predicted the downfall of western civilization each time, and each time the law changes and…crickets. Tumbleweeds. Nothing happens. It turns out that the military wasn't brought to its knees by the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". The troops are not too busy cross-dressing and 69ing each other to do their jobs.
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All of their dire end-of-world predictions came to absolutely nothing. And that's what will happen again when this law goes into effect. More people will funnel money toward insurers – Remember how the Commie Socialist law is actually a handjob for the insurance industry? – and more people will enjoy the same frustrating, generally lousy, better-than-nothing health insurance that the rest of us have.
The death panels, the rationing, the six-month waits to see a doctor (which people with HMOs already have, but I digress), the skyrocketing costs, the doctors going out of business…none of it is going to happen. The Republicans are now backed into a corner; they are forced to recognize among themselves that they've been feeding the public a giant ration (see what I did there?) of horseshit at the behest of their beloved Job Creators and now the jig is up. They absolutely must stop the law at all costs or else face a future of half-assed explanations to Fox News hosts about why the dire predictions didn't come to pass. Maybe Dr. Manhattan/Ronald Reagan saved America with his super powers.
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Because they're afraid they've convinced themselves that this is a jihad, an epic quest of principle and morality. In reality it is nothing more than a political ploy, a smattering of dilatory tactics arising from too many late-night masturbation sessions with a copy of Robert's Rules of Order during their formative years interning for the Heritage Foundation and dad's company. The only principle at play here is the basest kind of self-interest; they are terrified to be revealed for what they really are, and now they are scrambling. At first glance they might appear to be willing to burn down the village in order to save it. In reality, they're willing to burn it down in order to save themselves.
How noble.
middle seaman says:
Is a conservative a person living in fear of the current and the future? I simply don't know. Jihadists, however, I know only too well. The Tea Partiers are Jihadists. You either do exactly what they prescribe or they'll bomb you and everything around you. Jihadists believe deeply in an old world where people like them control everything and they want to go back to that time even if it was in 19th century. They also hate compromise.
wetcasements says:
Hitler had strongly held beliefs and principles as well.
Daphne says:
well, also greed. I mean they're also motivated by greed. But fear primarily.
Xynzee says:
When we stop and think about it the modern GOP in reality has merely stuffed its ranks with the same people who brought us the War of Southern Treason.
They used to be the devil that the Democratic Party danced with, but thanks to LBJ signing a Republican lead Bill into Law they excorcised that cancer. Sadly, rather than let them dry out and shrivel like a turd on the pavement as they should have, Dicky picked them up and brought them home with him.
Now what we're seeing is the result of an unholy union between former slavers and their Northern counter parts who brought us the Gilded Age and the Great Depression. So no, I don't see fear so much as the monster out of "The Thing".
Many headed, transforming but always intent upon everything else's destruction.
Dr. Mac says:
Yes, I agree, except for one issue. By 2010, when most of the asshats were elected, Obamacare was there waiting for the shitstorm. Asshat nutbags campaigned against it and got elected. Due to it's complexity and the concomitant shitty sales job by the administration, nobody understands it. It has remained as the firebrand issue. Obamacare has always been a convenient hook upon which to hang the asshat… lucky for them.
noskilz says:
That's a pretty good idea – although now I'm trying very hard not to imagine Congress with a bizarre costumed makeover like the bar scene from 3 Doors Down's "kryptonite"
Although I will admit I'm curious to see what finally winds up being a bridge too far for the GOP's base – kind of hard to imagine such a thing, really.
Tim H. says:
The nomenclature is misleading, this bunch of reactionaries has turned their backs on history, WTF kind of conservative has so little interest in history?
Linda says:
They are already in a sort of backpeddle CYA mode, swearing now that ACA is "flawed" (no kidding!), and they are just "delaying" until all the flaws are gone. Some of the less dimmer tea partiers now realize that sinking the economy to keep subsidized health insurance from the poor is rather a non-starter. And pinky-swear, they won't take any hostages next year. Unlike the last 2 years.
c u n d gulag says:
Yeah, considering what they threatened would happen, they now make Chicken Little seem rational, and the boy who cried "wolf" more famous for saying, "Whoops, never mind!"
And what REALLY pisses them off, is that PPACA was a REPUBLICAN plan, dreamt-up by the REPUBLICAN Heritage Foundation, for REPUBLICAN Presidential candidate Bob Dole to use in case Bill Clinton decided to make health care an issue against their REPUBLICAN candidate in 1996.
And the REPUBLICANS then had 8 years under REPUBLICAN President George W. Bush in which to pass the REPUBLICAN Heritage Foundation plan, but instead, were too busy NOT-paying for tax cuts on the rich, 2 unnecessary wars and occupations, torturing and renditioning people, socking others away in Gitmo, and deregulating the economy to the point of near national and global economic collapses.
When you whole goal is destruction, then doing something constructive is a complete aberration, and must be avoided at all costs. It'll stick out, and people might ask why didn't you do more of that, instead of going around the globe, destroying other people's shit.
And what's most shocking to me, is that PPACA might actually work!
This which surprises the shit out of me, because in my entire life, the only other thing some Republicans were ever right about, was Civil Rights – and we saw how quickly they ran away from that, when most of them joined in Nixon's "Southern Strategy," and had every Southern Democrat change parties, by the mid-80's.
I guess they're pissed-off enough to shut down the government, because some N*gger took the homework they did 17 years ago, slapped his name on it, and it turned out to get an "A+!"
And here's why they're throwing one of the most epic hissy-pissy fits in American history:
They're afraid that people will realized that when it comes to their health care, and their lives, and the lives of their parents, and the lives of their children, that Democrats and 'Obama care' – but Republicans don't.
Waspuppet says:
"They absolutely must stop the law at all costs or else face a future of half-assed explanations to Fox News hosts about why the dire predictions didn't come to pass."
Well, you know that's not true. Fox News won't ask any embarrassing questions like that. The shutdown is a glorious victory that will never again be spoken of five minutes after it ends, until about 10 years later when they will all offhandedly refer to it as an obvious mistake unlike whatever the current Republican plan his, which of course will be brilliant.
"They are already in a sort of backpeddle CYA mode, swearing now that ACA is "flawed" (no kidding!), and they are just "delaying" until all the flaws are gone."
Yeah, they want another year to vote against any ideas to improve it and then after a year say "It's still not ready." Cf. the individual mandate, aka the thing that pays for it all. They want to "delay" that for a year so they can then scream about how the law is exploding the deficit they claim to care so much about.
It's quite something, the way they think they're fooling anyone.
Freeportguy says:
"They absolutely must stop the law at all costs or else face a future of half-assed explanations to Fox News hosts about why the dire predictions didn't come to pass."
I strongly disagree, because so far, they've been asked to explain or justify exactly ZERO prediction of apocalyptic proportion they've made since Clinton was elected. And God knows they've made MANY, specially since Obama got into the game! Since Fox is in on the game with them, Fox is equally guilty, if not more since they come up themselves with dire predictions used by GOPers!
Only thing they're afraid of: losing their access to the corporate money pipeline that makes their election possible and their life easier.
Waspuppet says:
cund: First off, don't be too surprised. This Heritage plan will only work in comparison with the alternative, which was nothing. Single-payer would still be better.
As for their fear, that's been known since Bill Kristol's 1993 memo. Now, the fact that HE was right about something – THAT surprises me.
c u n d gulag says:
Waspuppet,
Kristol being right about anything, is a singularity that can only be explained by the greatest minds in physics.
And about as likely to happen again, as rolling a 13 when playing craps with two dice.
anotherbozo says:
Bloggers all over the net are trying to say it, but as usual you said it best, Ed. Doesn't ease anyone else's pain but it added a little endorphin shot to my screwed-up chemistry. Cheers.
Have you really assigned Watchmen? Or was that sarcasm I missed?
Turkle says:
Ed, although you're probably not wrong, I personally think that the current conservative malaise is much less a pathological reaction to some existential fear, than it is a simple effect of the Citizens United decision. The crazies in the House don't have to fear Boehner, they have to fear the newly-empowered zealot billionaires like Adelson in NC that will spend unlimited funds to primary them from the Right if they don't go all-out against the ACA.
Psychoanalyzing political pathologies is a game that is as old as, well, psychoanalysis itself, if not older. I think we do ourselves a disservice when we pathologize political attitudes. Rather, we should seek structural explanations and more-or-less-rational self-interest. In this case, the Citizens United Decision fits the bill nicely.
Monty says:
These fuckwits aren't conservatives, but rather fascist totalitarians.
John Danley says:
Shutdown: It's nothing but a filibuster before the rapture.
Anubis Bard says:
An old Norwegian man once showed me a souvenir he had from World War ll. It was a tin cup that had been punctured by a knife. When the German occupiers left, they had taken what they could and destroyed everything else, down to this man's tin cup. I think Ed's right that the crux of the matter is the loss of (especially white, male) privilege. When I see these Congresspeople yammering, I see an occupying army being forced out and making sure there's no tin cup behind that can still hold water.
Well mostly says:
Yes, fear. It's pretty strong stuff. It's glaringly obvious when they talk. Anger typically follows. Shrinks could explain this two minutes.
What white male over a certain age, living in Dixie, would cotton to a black man telling him what to do? They would fit in a phone booth.
Ed has it right here: fear of getting found out how full of it they are and, by extension, how fearful they are. Serious amygdala hijack. Pussies always scream for war.
J Lennon said it this way: one thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside.
JimmyLaw says:
Woah, woah, woah.
"The dangers inherent in disregarding all morality to further what one perception of the greater good" and "The only principle at play here is the basest kind of self-interest; they are terrified to be revealed for what they really are, and now they are scrambling. At first glance they might appear to be willing to burn down the village in order to save it. In reality, they're willing to burn it down in order to save themselves"?
I thought you hated Breaking Bad.
ladiesbane says:
So many theories lately….
Citizens United has subverted the power hierarchy within the GOP; chaos ensues as most pols run toward the Moneybags Brothers with their hands out. Government bought and sold.
Tea Party Remix: their goal since Day One has been to shut down the government. Now that they have achieved this idiotic goal, their plan is to prolong it to prove that We Don't Need No Stinkin' Gubmint.
Power Junkies & Fame Whores: some of these jerks love the power of being able to wreck things and adore the press attention. Rome wasn't built in a day, but it was sacked in a matter of hours. They're not even fiddling; they're swinging mallets.
Conservative Pathology: combine the fears of the elderly ("I don't answer the phone after dark!"), dominant culture obliviousness, elitism / xenophobia / American exceptionalism / anti-intellectualism, and you have a political body that is flailing in its oxygen tent, trying to reach its car keys but needing last rites.
Aren't they all right, to an extent?
Misterben says:
Nothing to add other than to say this was another terrific column.
Pennelope Pennebaker says:
I have to take issue with your characterization of kamikazes as being ineffective. According to wikipedia:
"Approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 sailors, and wounded over 4,800." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze
Not outcome changing, but certainly not as ineffective as the House Republicans.
Dave Dell says:
Watchmen. There's several hours of my life I'll never get back.
geoff says:
On the off chance you're really teaching "Watchmen", I'd like to point out that Rorscach is a thinly-veiled analogue of Steve Ditko's masked vigilante character The Question. Ditko was (is) a hardcore Randian who famously left Marvel's Spider-Man comic (of which he was co-creator) after philosophical differences with Stan Lee over the direction of the book. No compromise seems to be a Randian trait, and I think we're all suffering for that right now.
(I may not have a PhD in political science (or anything for that matter), but I knows my funny books!)
Bernard says:
More of "my way or the Highway". the Republican way or no way.
I'm sure Republicans and their bastard children, the Tea Party, are joyous with boundless rapture with this. from what i read online, the Republicans think this is Manna from Heaven.
Weimar Germany all over again. until we get rid of such Neoliberal/RightWing ideas, America is worse off than what once was Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany. in otherwords, the Republicans hate America. lol. Fighting Americans in another unCivil War,or the next stage of the War of Northern Aggression, as the hate filled Southerners call it.
the nonsensical stupidity, hatred and fear that is Republicanism! could'nt be any more hatefilled and poisoned, could it? well, yes it could be and i'd bet we will see more of the same.
Dr. M. says:
"Watchmen", like any artistic endeavor, is subject to different interpretations. I never saw it as a cautionary tale, but rather, an illustration of how those with greater knowledge and power can and should act in the best interest of humanity, and sometimes it is regrettably necessary to sacrifice some lives in order to save many more.
The character who made the decision was the man who had spent his entire life training himself to the highest attainable values of human mental and physical capability. He was supported in that decision by the character who had evolved even beyond humanity, being able to see and understand the connections and consequences that humans, limited in time and space, could not.
Rorschach, as Geoff pointed out, represented the ultimate failure of humanity, the pathetic specimen who believes himself, mistakenly, to be superior, and refuses to reconsider or set aside his flawed values even when they are proven to be harmful. It's entirely appropriate that he was simply vaporized away, but as the final page shows, the influence of his ideas cannot be destroyed that easily.
If you're applying the lessons of "Watchmen" to the current government crisis, the Republicans represent not Ozymandias, but Rorschach. They have the confidence of their own overestimated values and believe that that gives them the right to burn, torture, murder, and even attempt to wreck the plans that would bring the greatest benefit to humanity.
Regrettably, in the real world we have no Dr. Manhattan to simply explode them with a wave of his hand.
Jerry Vinokurov says:
These days, even one of them might not fit in a phone booth.
NonyNony says:
Okay most of what you write is dead on, but I'm gonna take issue with this:
Nope, nope, nope. That's one of the good things about the ACA – there's a cap on how much profit-taking can go on. Only a fixed percentage of fees charged by the insurance companies can go to
waste, fraud and abuseadministrative overhead.The money is being funneled to the hospital administrators, who have little to no incentive by the way the law is written to do anything to control costs. But there is a cap on how much the insurance companies can skim now, which is a good thing. And hopefully the competition in the marketplace will push down prices on the actual healthcare side as well, but I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one.
Now onto the important part:
@Dr. M.
If you're reading Watchmen and you see Ozymandias as the hero who does what needs to be done, you have watched the point sail right over your head. It is almost (but not quite) as bad as reading Watchmen and thinking Rorschach is the hero.
Neither of them are heroes. None of the twisted people who put on costumes and think that they can solve the world's problems in Watchmen are heroes. Not Nite Owl, not Silk Spectre, not Comedian, not Ozymandias, not Rorschach and not naked blue Godman. All of them (except, admittedly, naked blue Godman, who isn't actually trying to do anything) are trying to solve real-world problems through comic book logic – put on a costume, beat up some people, save the day. Ozymandias is the worst of them because he's deluded himself into thinking that he's following a path superior to Rorschach, but he's still using the same simple-minded comic book logic that Rorschach is, it's just applied at a global scale.
(The frequent observation that the final plot that Moore had Ozymandias produce is ridiculous, unworkable, and "silly" is exactly right – it is. And I contend that that was intentional – it is supposed to telegraph that Ozymandias is just as much a cartoonish buffoon as Rorschach, but more dangerous because he's playing with weapons of mass destruction instead of with a grapple gun. I thought it was a bit on the nose, but given how many arguments I've been in over Ozymandias and whether what we're supposed to be thinking about his plan, maybe Moore should have possibly made it even MORE over the top than he did.)
Xecky Gilchrist says:
One quibble with comparing the current House crop to the kamikaze pilots at their own funerals – I doubt the pilots were as drunk.
sluggo says:
@ Bernard
Point of Order.
Please use the correct term for the Civil War : The War of Southern Treason
ladiesbane says:
@NonyNony: a profit cap for insurance companies has always been in place, and my loud cheers to you for pointing out where the bulk of the profit goes.
One of my initial beefs with the ACA was its title. It's not the Affordable CARE Act, it's the Affordable INSURANCE Act. Big difference.
Anyone not a gazillionaire who touts a self-correcting free market economy, etc., is someone who has never paid the retail cost of treatment for a serious condition. Who in hell thought for-profit healthcare (or for-profit journalism) would work well or be ethically sound?
drouse says:
That has never happened and isn't going to either. Anything they can't rewrite into a victory(if you squint just a bit) is immediately dropped into the memory hole. It can be entertaining in a rather dreadful sort of way. In truth, it really reminds me of watching Pinky and the Brain.
"Hey Brain, what we going to do today?"
Sarah says:
Agreed. Don't forget the Tesla thing.
LosMarathons says:
Ed, you seem to be basing your argument on the premise that Republicans are ever held accountable for the absolute nonsense they spew. I mean FFS, the entire Bush admin got to walk away and wipe their hands of the whole Iraq debacle. And that's an extremely high-profile instance of where they were proven to be, unequivocally, full of shit.
Rosalux says:
Here's what you do. Pair your film with Hannah Arendt on "ideology" and you've got a lovely intellectual meal.
griff50 says:
Fear is exactly what motivates conservatives. A deep fear of loss of power and privilege, and an obsession with "those people" staying in their place. The ideology is only important as long as it is self-serving. Notice how they love their own gov't paychecks and subsidies. We are what we do, not what we say we believe. "Ideology" is how we justify ourselves. People who are doing crappy things to others to preserve their status need a justification, or they would simply have to admit they are scared of a loss of status, power, money, etc. Hate and greed are the natural outcomes of fear. You hate what scares you, and money and stuff makes you feel secure in an insecure world.
American conservatism has no allegiance to the mythical "free market" or any other principle. The only thing they crave is more power to help them feel more secure, and allow them to exercise their bigotry freely.
WereBear says:
Loved this article!
Fear is enough all by itself. They don't understand a world where people are openly gay, people of all skin colors get along in harmony, and all the comfortable fictions they were raised with are all exposed in their raw and throbbing glory.
Back when, everybody sucked it up, and those who benefited simply pretended their good fortune was NOT on the backs of the disenfranchised. I now see prejudice as simply a means of "shrinking the pool" of possible rivals. Eliminate half the population with discrimination against women, create a permanent laboring underclass with ethnic myths, and buy off the rest of the white men by installing them as your "overseers," just like in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Those who prospered under such a system are all butthurt that their happy fictions are being exposed, undermined, and destroyed. Cry me a river.
Matt says:
What really disturbs me is the parallels to the *last* time that a bunch of rich, very conservative d00ds decided that backing an angry band of radicals was a good idea.
The difference is that THIS time, the people doing it are quite familiar with what happened the last time (in Weimar Germany) and are likely STOKED about it – moving beyond merely "scared" to "outright evil".