An intellectual's decent down the rabbit hole.

[berg80]

One could arguably make the case this.........

The Flight 93 Election - Claremont Review of Books

claremontreviewofbooks.com

.........was written to give cover for Trump's failed coup years before it happened. Not that Michael Anton could have known Don and Co. would actually try to pull it off. But his piece does try to lend a rationalization for bringing to an end our democracy as we know it. Seemingly founded on the idea conservatives are so right about everything, and liberals so wrong, that our form of government must be sacrificed to save the country.

The Claremont Catastrophists

Probably the best-known faction of catastrophists and the one with the most direct connection to Republican politics is led by Michael Anton and others with ties to the Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank in California. Mr. Anton’s notorious Claremont Review of Books essay in September 2016 called the contest between Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton “The Flight 93 Election.” Mr. Anton, who would go on to serve as a National Security Council official in the Trump administration, insisted the choice facing Republicans, like the passengers on the jet hijacked by terrorists intent on self-immolation in a suicide attack on the White House or the Capitol on Sept. 11, was to “charge the cockpit or you die.” (For a few months in 2000 and 2001, Mr. Anton was my boss in the communications office of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and we have engaged in spirited debates over the years.)

Mr. Anton’s “Flight 93” essay originally appeared on a website with modest traffic, but two days later Rush Limbaugh was reading it aloud in its entirety on his radio show. The essay set the tone of life-or-death struggle (and related imagery) that is common among catastrophists.

Opinion | Get to Know the Influential Conservative Intellectuals Who Help Explain G.O.P. Extremism (Published 2023)

A coalition of catastrophists is trying to make the next generation of Republicans believe that the country is on the verge of collapse.

www.nytimes.com

It actually makes me even more concerned about MAGAism that there is a pseudo-intellectual underpinning for it. One wonders if by chance Steve Bannon, the CEO of the 2016 Trump campaign and former chief of staff to the prez, was influenced by Anton when Stevo called for the end of the administrative state. A not so subtle call for anarchy with a authoritarian like Trump filling the vacuum of power left behind.

After leaving the Trump White House, Mr. Anton updated and amplified the argument in a 2021 book, “The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return.”

America faced a choice: Either Mr. Trump would prevail in his bid for re-election or America was doomed.

John Eastman, a conservative lawyer also at the Claremont Institute, agreed. That is why, after Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Mr. Eastman set about taking the lead in convincing Mr. Trump that there was a way for him to remain in power, if only Vice President Mike Pence treated his ceremonial role in certifying election results as a vastly broader power to delay certification.

This stuff takes my breath away. Welcome to the friendly fascists who with good intentions really just want to save America. They know better than the majority who keep rejecting their candidates. And if the majority doesn't come around, these folks are only too happy to take control.

 

[Oddball]

 

[SeaMajor7]

More "pseudo-intellectual" BULLSHIT PROJECTION from Stalinberg.

 

[1srelluc]

That mess belongs in conspiracy theories.

 

[berg80]

At its core what folks like Anton are pushing is the belief they have the right to rule from minority status. It's why Repubs are so hellbent on rigging state legislatures so they can maintain power while garnering fewer votes. It's behind voter roll purges, gerrymandering, and laws they have enacted to suppress votes from certain demographic groups.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

This is why self described "intellectuals" are always the first ones the Marxists round up and execute after they seize power. The "intellectuals" were too fucking stupid to know they were being played

 

[Oddball]

At its core what folks like Anton are pushing is the belief they have the right to rule from minority status. It's why Repubs are so hellbent on rigging state legislatures so they can maintain power while garnering fewer votes. It's behind voter roll purges, gerrymandering, and laws they have enacted to suppress votes from certain demographic groups.

 

[Lesh]

At its core what folks like Anton are pushing is the belief they have the right to rule from minority status. It's why Repubs are so hellbent on rigging state legislatures so they can maintain power while garnering fewer votes. It's behind voter roll purges, gerrymandering, and laws they have enacted to suppress votes from certain demographic groups.

Which is why Republicans keep saying that we are not a democracy. They want their minority to rule

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

.




"An intellectual's decent down the rabbit hole."

All that needs to be said. The irony simply shrieks.




.

 

[berg80]

View attachment 853018

Once a thinker begins to conceive of politics as a pitched battle between the righteous and those who seek the country’s outright annihilation, extraordinary possibilities open up.

That’s how, in May 2021, Mr. Anton came to conduct a two-hour podcast with a far-right Silicon Valley tech guru and self-described “monarchist,” Curtis Yarvin, in which the two agreed that the American “regime” is today most accurately described as a “theocratic oligarchy.” In that arrangement, an elite class of progressive “priests” ensconced in executive branch agencies, the universities, elite media and other leading institutions of civil society promulgate and enforce a distorted and self-serving version of reality that illegitimately justifies their rule.

 

[22lcidw]

One could arguably make the case this.........

The Flight 93 Election - Claremont Review of Books

claremontreviewofbooks.com

.........was written to give cover for Trump's failed coup years before it happened. Not that Michael Anton could have known Don and Co. would actually try to pull it off. But his piece does try to lend a rationalization for bringing to an end our democracy as we know it. Seemingly founded on the idea conservatives are so right about everything, and liberals so wrong, that our form of government must be sacrificed to save the country.

The Claremont Catastrophists

Probably the best-known faction of catastrophists and the one with the most direct connection to Republican politics is led by Michael Anton and others with ties to the Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank in California. Mr. Anton’s notorious Claremont Review of Books essay in September 2016 called the contest between Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton “The Flight 93 Election.” Mr. Anton, who would go on to serve as a National Security Council official in the Trump administration, insisted the choice facing Republicans, like the passengers on the jet hijacked by terrorists intent on self-immolation in a suicide attack on the White House or the Capitol on Sept. 11, was to “charge the cockpit or you die.” (For a few months in 2000 and 2001, Mr. Anton was my boss in the communications office of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and we have engaged in spirited debates over the years.)

Mr. Anton’s “Flight 93” essay originally appeared on a website with modest traffic, but two days later Rush Limbaugh was reading it aloud in its entirety on his radio show. The essay set the tone of life-or-death struggle (and related imagery) that is common among catastrophists.

Opinion | Get to Know the Influential Conservative Intellectuals Who Help Explain G.O.P. Extremism (Published 2023)

A coalition of catastrophists is trying to make the next generation of Republicans believe that the country is on the verge of collapse.

www.nytimes.com

It actually makes me even more concerned about MAGAism that there is a pseudo-intellectual underpinning for it. One wonders if by chance Steve Bannon, the CEO of the 2016 Trump campaign and former chief of staff to the prez, was influenced by Anton when Stevo called for the end of the administrative state. A not so subtle call for anarchy with a authoritarian like Trump filling the vacuum of power left behind.

After leaving the Trump White House, Mr. Anton updated and amplified the argument in a 2021 book, “The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return.”

America faced a choice: Either Mr. Trump would prevail in his bid for re-election or America was doomed.

John Eastman, a conservative lawyer also at the Claremont Institute, agreed. That is why, after Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Mr. Eastman set about taking the lead in convincing Mr. Trump that there was a way for him to remain in power, if only Vice President Mike Pence treated his ceremonial role in certifying election results as a vastly broader power to delay certification.

This stuff takes my breath away. Welcome to the friendly fascists who with good intentions really just want to save America. They know better than the majority who keep rejecting their candidates. And if the majority doesn't come around, these folks are only too happy to take control.

MAGA only exists in the minds of the elites and their Prog peasant underlings. There is none. Controlling the order and putting America first seems to be something that is traitorous in the modern American system. The warnings are here. Fast food is one of them. The prices are rising faster than the wages. The poorer people are slowing down going to Mickee Dees and other places. Others are not and willing to pay more extreme prices. Extra charges and extra tips are added also in some places and especially deliveries.

 

[berg80]

Which is why Republicans keep saying that we are not a democracy. They want their minority to rule

How did this sense of entitlement to rule become established on the Right? Are they authoritarian by nature?

And we haven't even touched on the irony of the self declared goal of people like Anton being to "save the country" while his beliefs hasten its ruin.

 

[berg80]

Controlling the order and putting America first seems to be something that is traitorous in the modern American system.

Trying to subvert the will of the voters by installing yourself as their leader is not putting America first. It's putting Trump first.

 

[Oddball]

Once a thinker begins to conceive of politics as a pitched battle between the righteous and those who seek the country’s outright annihilation, extraordinary possibilities open up.

That’s how, in May 2021, Mr. Anton came to conduct a two-hour podcast with a far-right Silicon Valley tech guru and self-described “monarchist,” Curtis Yarvin, in which the two agreed that the American “regime” is today most accurately described as a “theocratic oligarchy.” In that arrangement, an elite class of progressive “priests” ensconced in executive branch agencies, the universities, elite media and other leading institutions of civil society promulgate and enforce a distorted and self-serving version of reality that illegitimately justifies their rule.

 

[The Duke]

One could arguably make the case this.........

The Flight 93 Election - Claremont Review of Books

claremontreviewofbooks.com

.........was written to give cover for Trump's failed coup years before it happened. Not that Michael Anton could have known Don and Co. would actually try to pull it off. But his piece does try to lend a rationalization for bringing to an end our democracy as we know it. Seemingly founded on the idea conservatives are so right about everything, and liberals so wrong, that our form of government must be sacrificed to save the country.

The Claremont Catastrophists

Probably the best-known faction of catastrophists and the one with the most direct connection to Republican politics is led by Michael Anton and others with ties to the Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank in California. Mr. Anton’s notorious Claremont Review of Books essay in September 2016 called the contest between Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton “The Flight 93 Election.” Mr. Anton, who would go on to serve as a National Security Council official in the Trump administration, insisted the choice facing Republicans, like the passengers on the jet hijacked by terrorists intent on self-immolation in a suicide attack on the White House or the Capitol on Sept. 11, was to “charge the cockpit or you die.” (For a few months in 2000 and 2001, Mr. Anton was my boss in the communications office of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and we have engaged in spirited debates over the years.)

Mr. Anton’s “Flight 93” essay originally appeared on a website with modest traffic, but two days later Rush Limbaugh was reading it aloud in its entirety on his radio show. The essay set the tone of life-or-death struggle (and related imagery) that is common among catastrophists.

Opinion | Get to Know the Influential Conservative Intellectuals Who Help Explain G.O.P. Extremism (Published 2023)

A coalition of catastrophists is trying to make the next generation of Republicans believe that the country is on the verge of collapse.

www.nytimes.com

It actually makes me even more concerned about MAGAism that there is a pseudo-intellectual underpinning for it. One wonders if by chance Steve Bannon, the CEO of the 2016 Trump campaign and former chief of staff to the prez, was influenced by Anton when Stevo called for the end of the administrative state. A not so subtle call for anarchy with a authoritarian like Trump filling the vacuum of power left behind.

After leaving the Trump White House, Mr. Anton updated and amplified the argument in a 2021 book, “The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return.”

America faced a choice: Either Mr. Trump would prevail in his bid for re-election or America was doomed.

John Eastman, a conservative lawyer also at the Claremont Institute, agreed. That is why, after Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Mr. Eastman set about taking the lead in convincing Mr. Trump that there was a way for him to remain in power, if only Vice President Mike Pence treated his ceremonial role in certifying election results as a vastly broader power to delay certification.

This stuff takes my breath away. Welcome to the friendly fascists who with good intentions really just want to save America. They know better than the majority who keep rejecting their candidates. And if the majority doesn't come around, these folks are only too happy to take control.

At its core what folks like Anton are pushing is the belief they have the right to rule from minority status. It's why Repubs are so hellbent on rigging state legislatures so they can maintain power while garnering fewer votes. It's behind voter roll purges, gerrymandering, and laws they have enacted to suppress votes from certain demographic groups.

Which is why Republicans keep saying that we are not a democracy. They want their minority to rule

Once a thinker begins to conceive of politics as a pitched battle between the righteous and those who seek the country’s outright annihilation, extraordinary possibilities open up.

That’s how, in May 2021, Mr. Anton came to conduct a two-hour podcast with a far-right Silicon Valley tech guru and self-described “monarchist,” Curtis Yarvin, in which the two agreed that the American “regime” is today most accurately described as a “theocratic oligarchy.” In that arrangement, an elite class of progressive “priests” ensconced in executive branch agencies, the universities, elite media and other leading institutions of civil society promulgate and enforce a distorted and self-serving version of reality that illegitimately justifies their rule.

How did this sense of entitlement to rule become established on the Right? Are they authoritarian by nature?

And we haven't even touched on the irony of the self declared goal of people like Anton being to "save the country" while his beliefs hasten its ruin.

Trying to subvert the will of the voters by installing yourself as their leader is not putting America first. It's putting Trump first.

 

[berg80]

What do you think about Anton's article?

 

[HikerGuy83]

At its core what folks like Anton are pushing is the belief they have the right to rule from minority status. It's why Repubs are so hellbent on rigging state legislatures so they can maintain power while garnering fewer votes. It's behind voter roll purges, gerrymandering, and laws they have enacted to suppress votes from certain demographic groups.

Why isn't this thread in the paranoia forum ?

 

[22lcidw]

Which is why Republicans keep saying that we are not a democracy. They want their minority to rule

One party is leaning far more left than the left of a Democratic Party. And when they vote on legislation any moderate or if there are even conservative democrats are forced to vote on the legislation presented or else. Even left leaning Democrats are not as far left as the Progressive Socialist Communists which controls legislation and gets most of everything. And when needed the Republican shills show up to get it across the line or make it look like something akin to bipartisan comrades. Republican shills even take turns in important votes. Many will go home saying they voted a high percentage for their constituents while Progs got their agendas through with their help.

 

[The Duke]

What do you think about Anton's article?

I think it's pretty longwinded, and I bet you didn't read it all.

Also, you're a tard.

Your paywalled article trying to slam it can't be seen without internet hokery. So yeah!

Read the 1st article in the OP people. It's longwinded AF, but not too bad.

It seems the NYT is butthurt about it, so it must be alright!

 

[Lesh]

One party is leaning far more left than the left of a Democratic Party. And when they vote on legislation any moderate or if there are even conservative democrats are forced to vote on the legislation presented or else. Even left leaning Democrats are not as far left as the Progressive Socialist Communists which controls legislation and gets most of everything. And when needed the Republican shills show up to get it across the line or make it look like something akin to bipartisan comrades. Republican shills even take turns in important votes. Many will go home saying they voted a high percentage for their constituents while Progs got their agendas through with their help.

That’s an amazing bowl of word salad there