It has been a week and a few days of heavy news much of which is still evolving which accounts for such a tardy post on the subject. Yes, it has been a time of a Papal visit to America and of a Presidential candidate’s visit to Oklahoma, and of the resignation of the third office in line to the Presidency. All of these events made big news last week and this week. They did however play before a backdrop of a greater overarching issue: a transitional period for Conservatism and the Conservative Movement. The truth is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine what constitutes conservative ideology and what differentiates it from run of the mill assholism.
It is not an every day event when the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church visits the United States. By and large the Pope’s visit was well received by most in the cities he visited, Washington, DC, New York and Philadelphia. It was duly noted however that not all citizens were pleased with the pontiff’s presence. I admit to hearing murmurings from the faithful in my daily work routine, criticisms of Pope Francis to the effect that he does not represent Catholicism, or at least the old conservative faith promoted by his predecessor, Pope Benedict. Indeed, when the Pope addressed the Congress of the United States there were a few big named Roman Catholic Church members who opted out of attendance. Although I am a non-believer I could not help but enjoy hearing the Pope’s message of environmental stewardship and caring for the lesser among us. It struck me as being very humanitarian and very caring for all people. Yes, in the end the Pope said a lot of things the conservative majority preferred to not hear. The one thing the Pope did do that garnered him a lot of respect from the non-believing quarter is his addressing of his church’s sexual abuse issue. By the time he departed to return to the Vatican, having to deal with not being on the right side of so much of the Pope’s ecclesiastical doctrine was but one part of conservative cognitive dissonance of the week.
After the Pope’s visit to Congress, House Speaker John Boehner, himself a Roman Catholic, announced his resignation from Congress. That is not just resignation from the post of House Speaker but from his congressional seat altogether. Suddenly I understood why the man had a drinking problem. Given all the trouble he had keeping his membership from shutting down the government, I can now understand why he got his fill of frustration. The downside is that he has now created a vacancy which a more extremist GOP member will likely fill. Yes, it is a time to be afraid. The forces who insist on governing by crisis and by hostage taking seem to have won this particular tussle. Back in April I wrote about the of the two parties. I have a sinking feeling we are about to find out just how crazy the GOP really is. I am curious as to how far to the right the new normal will be and what we will be referring to as the “good old days.” Seriously, how far right does a Republican have to be in order to be acceptable to the extremists controlling the party?
Last week it seemed that almost daily any one of a number of right wing conspiracy theories seemed to collapse under the weight of its own falsehood. From the Clinton Benghazi faux scandal to the non-existent Planned Parenthood video to Jade Helm, conservative hoaxes and conspiracy theories were falling down. The everyday conservative heroes also were being exposed as frauds. Comedian Bill Maher did an excellent job of highlighting the inconsistencies and bogus claims of conservative instant heroes who turn out to be embarrassments. From Kim Davis to George Zimmerman to Cliven Bundy to Josh Duggar, it was not a good week to be a conservative role model.
So where does this leave conservatism and its movement? This certainly appears to be a time of rebranding. With Presidential candidates like Donald Trump pulling his party further and further to the right we can only hope that enough people will see the damage and demand a return to reason in governance.
This is a story that is still evolving. In spite of that it still has not been a very good couple weeks for the conservative brand.