1. I
think most liberals are probably familiar with one part of what has become
known as Wilhoit’s Law – that the true goals of the right are
inequality, injustice, repression and control. This is
how composer Frank Wilhoit put it in 2018: crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/l...
2. I
think liberals are probably less familiar with another part of Wilhoit’s “law”
– that these goals are so indefensible in a country founded on
liberty and equality that it is necessary for conservatives to cover them up
with lies.
3. “As
the core proposition of conservatism is indefensible if stated baldly,” Wilhoit
wrote, “it has always been surrounded by an elaborate backwash of
pseudophilosophy, amounting over time to millions of pages. All such is
axiomatically dishonest and undeserving of serious scrutiny.”
4. On
the right, US citizenship has always been a matter of white power. The
overarching objective of conservatism since the founding has been maintenance
of a social order in which rich white men are on top.
5. But
that can’t be plainly said in the land of freedom and opportunity, where
everyone is said to have an equal chance at success, or happiness, if they work
hard and play by the rules. So the right lies.
6. The
Republicans say “illegal immigration” is a matter of law enforcement. They say
“border integrity” is a matter of national security. They say liberal
immigration policies that fall short of enforcing the law and securing the
border debase what it means to be a law-abiding US citizen.
7. They
make endless appeals, all in bad faith, to higher principles in order to cover
up for the fact that their true goal is the abomination of those same
principles.
8. But
as the right expands its power, it sometimes requires new and better
rationalizations. It occasionally finds it necessary to slough off the old
lies.
9. Since
the 1990s, for instance, nothing has been more “sacred” than the 2nd Amendment.
We were told the freedom to bear arms “shall not be infringed.” On the strength
of this apparent conviction, little if anything has been done to address the
spread of shooting massacres over the last decade.
10. Yet
when the Trump regime needed an explanation for why Border Patrol officers were
forced on January 24 to kill Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis, the
sacredness of the Second Amendment was easily forgotten. bsky.app/profile/atru...
Trump:
"With that being said, you can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns.
You just can't. You can't walk in with guns. You can't do that. But it's just a
very unfortunate incident."
11. Alex
Pretti was legally permitted to conceal carry. (He did not brandish his weapon.
CBP disarmed him before he was shot.) That, however, wasn’t enough. bsky.app/profile/atru...
12. The
right refused to act on a decades’ worth of shooting massacres because it was
in the right’s interest to allow terror to spread across the land. That could
never be plainly said, of course, so it covered up that objective with the
Second Amendment.
