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Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Burning Down Washington

to "save" America.
   
 
Kevin Roberts is President of The Heritage Foundation—a $100M/yr political lobbying business masquerading as a legit IRS non-profit 501(c)(3) "charity." This book had been scheduled for release in September 2024, but they delayed its publication until after the presidential election (likely owing in part to the "Forward" written by Trump running mate JD Vance, he of #HillbillyIshtar renown). They also altered the book cover art, removing the matchstick image and changing "Burning Down Washington" to the somewhat less, well—"inflammatory"—"Taking Back Washington."
 
Nonetheless, the incendiary allusions remain peppered throughout the pages.
 
Yeah...
 
He's on a roll with this riff.
 
 
The Dastardly "Uniparty" being all of us "Woke Libs" I guess.
 
Some encapsulatory le essense du Roberts:
The Permanent Things

What, then, are “the eternal rules of order and right” that Washington saw as being beyond a matter of opinion? They’re what Russell Kirk called “the permanent things.”

Today, the assault on the American way of life is aimed not just at our Constitution and political traditions but more insidiously at the foundations of civilization, which is to say, the permanent things. There is no point in preserving certain political forms if the society they were meant to protect has died.

The Party of Creation needs to
get over the old conservatism’s reluctance to “impose” its “values” on others [emphasis BG]. There is no way to avoid taking a stance on the practices that sustain the human race. We can say with certainty what the “permanent things,” the vital tasks of any culture, are. The aegis of every civilization protected them; the best of all that has been thought and said from each distinctive human culture has pointed to them.

Family: Men and women should marry (and do so younger than most do today). They should marry for life and should bring children into the world (more than most do today). Parents have the right and responsibility to raise their children, to educate them, to pass on their traditions, and to make important family decisions (including rejecting experimental medical treatments) in line with their conscience and values. Children owe their parents a measure of obedience and gratitude, and family members should take care of one another. The nuclear family is the foundation of the human order, but it should reach beyond itself to form the fabric of an extended family, community, and local place.

Faith: Mankind is made to worship, and our republic depends on the moral strength and habits of heart brought about by piety. We have in this country a glorious tradition of religious freedom, but it is not freedom from religion but freedom for religion. A man’s religious tradition is a matter of his conscience, but that we have a faithful people is a matter of public concern. Accordingly, the state must not discriminate against religious organizations in government programs, and freedom of religion should take precedence over the enforcement of other rights. Policies that encourage religious observance, such as Sabbath laws and voucher programs that include religious schools, should be encouraged. American society is rooted in the Christian faith—certainly public institutions should not establish anything offensive to Christian morals under the guise of “religious freedom” or “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Community: Americans’ pride has always been in their communities, the “little platoons” where citizens freely associate with one another and practice self-government. In communities, people from different backgrounds and walks of life orient themselves around the common good in its most concrete and practical form. Communities are places where we lift up one another’s burdens and practice the art of neighborliness, but also where we celebrate the holy days and feast together. If they are well ordered, our communities permit a feeling of comfort and safety at any hour of the day.

Work: Man is Homo faber, the animal that makes. By his labors, man provides for himself and his family. There is deep dignity in work, in the ownership one has of a job well done, that cannot be replaced by simply giving someone something they have not worked for or earned. Moreover, we know that the material prosperity that makes many of the other elements of the human order possible comes from productive human labor and the habits of discipline, skill, and care that undergird that productivity. At the same time, there is an appropriate time to rest from our labors together with our families and communities. The division of labor has also held political significance throughout human history. In the Western tradition, a republican government befitted only men who were masters of themselves, who were economically self-sufficient.

Nation: Man’s gratitude toward all the “little platoons” of human order culminate in his devotion to his broader nation and homeland. In a republic, this is experienced as a duty to safeguard the res publica, literally “the public thing” but better translated as “the common good.” The nation is cemented by a shared national origin story, according to which all citizens are “brothers, and children of the self-same earth” (literally or figuratively). Our deepest traditions about the purposes of government are reflected in the ancient ceremony for crowning England’s kings, when the archbishop of Canterbury hands to his sovereign the Sword of State with these words: “With this sword do justice, stop the growth of iniquity, protect the holy Church of God and all people of goodwill, help and defend widows and orphans, restore the things that are gone to decay, maintain the things that are restored, punish and reform what is amiss, and confirm what is in good order.”
Mix in a bit of blinding-glimpses-of-the-obvious Norman Rockwell-isms (cosplaying at profundities) with Cat 5 Aggrievedness and off you go.
 
Kevin takes some poignant past-their-sell-by-dates stabs at snark.
 
 

What can I say/tweet?
 

apropos, see Project 2025:
 
JD Vance's "Forward" to Kevin's Burning Down Washington. "Wagons" and "muskets," 'eh?
 
BLOGGER'S NOTE
I typically personally buy at retail and fully read the hundreds of books I cite / excerpt / review here. I rarely get a publisher's comp pre-pub "galley." I then cite lengthy, complete, relevant passages from the works under review. My readers can decide for themselves the worthiness of the content. Implicit in this approach, to be sure, is that my very choosing of the excerpts I do implies my assessment of their value (good or bad).

I don't do this for money, never have. I fall well within "Fair Use."

The Kevin Roberts excerpts set forth above, however, come from the Amazon "Look Inside" preview. I have better uses for the $14.99 Kindle edition, given the breadth of excellent volumes out there, and my extensive prior study of Mr, Roberts (Mr. No-Life here even read his doctoral dissertation. Seriously, I did that.).
It can't be defamatory. They're HIS words. And, within his writing you will find no shortage of recurrent, sharp-elbowed, condescending MAGA-resonant vitriol. More broadly, his microphone and video camera lens affinities are matters of ample, lengthy partisan public record.

 UPDATES

"There is no time—or room—for an insurgency. The Left captured the military quickly, and we must reclaim it at a faster pace. We must wage a frontal assault. A swift counterattack, in broad daylight. If we wait for nightfall, they will regroup. If we retreat from the system to rebuild, it's gone. And building another American military is not an option. We have only one Pentagon. One secretary of defense."
Peter Hegseth, Donald Trump's Nov 2024 nominee for US Secretary of Defense.
 
 
TRUMP AG NOMINEE MATT GAETZ
 
 
RFK JR, HHS SECY NOMINEE

 
ODNI

Tulsi Gabbard, nominated for Director of National Intelligence. ZERO experience in the intel field.
The anti-science / anti-intellect cohort is going to wreak havoc for Donald Trump.
Is it too early to start drinking? More in a bit. Crazy news week...
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