Ressentimental Journey Part Deux

In my previous post, [1] I discussed the fact that a "cold civil war" between two distinct American tribes has been going on since the founding of the Republic. It waxes and wanes and takes on different character, but it is always simmering, beneath the surface.

The ressentiment that fuels the conservative tribe is taking one of its forays into internecine purges, something that both tribes engage in from time to time, but which conservatives have turned into one of their purifying rituals. Stubborn insistence on conformity of thought and complete capitulation of the other side is one of its tenets, and always has been. Indeed, its one of their prime motivating impulses.

Nobody has ever captured this destructive mindset better than Abraham Lincoln, speaking to the Southern states in great frustration at the Cooper Union in 1860 [2], when the cold war was on the verge of bursting into flame.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events...

Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break up this Government unless such a court decision as yours is, shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action?

But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!"

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle.

A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony, one with another...Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them.

Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally surrendered to them? We know they will not. In all their present complaints against us, the Territories are scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insurrections are the rage now. Will it satisfy them, if, in the future, we have nothing to do with invasions and insurrections? We know it will not. We so know, because we know we never had anything to do with invasions and insurrections; and yet this total abstaining does not exempt us from the charge and the denunciation.

The question recurs, what will satisfy them? Simply this: We must not only let them alone, but we must somehow, convince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them, is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them.

These natural, and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly - done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves avowedly with them.

Sound familiar?

Just as it was when the resentment tribe called itself the confederacy, today's conservatives are not content with anything less than conversion. To that end they will happily obstruct any initiative that gives them less than total victory. They filibuster even when it doesn't make sense, just to keep their record untainted with compromise. They insist, as they recently did with immigration reform, for instance, that nothing less than total capitulation to their position will do. It is not enough that politicians or civic leaders agree to build their wall while providing a path to citizenship. They must agree that undocumented workers will be forced out of the country and join them in making it a national crusade. And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as words.

Silence will not be tolerated — liberals must place themselves avowedly with them.