Discover more from Life in the 21st Century
How About Those Republicans
Pat Caddell and I had a long running conversation on which of America's two established parties would be first to collapse. This conversation needed some sense of American history because at this point it's been a century and a half since one of America's political parties saw history's dustbin.
In the 1850s, the Whigs disappeared, evolving into the present Republican party. In 1848, the Whig's had both the presidency and the House. They were no more in 1856. The 1854 election resulted in the most disparate House in American history. Eight parties elected representatives. The Democrats had the plurality with 150 seats, the dissolving Whigs had 54, the ephemeral Know Nothings with 51, and five other parties captured a total of 46 seats. It took 133 votes to elect Massachusetts Know Nothing Nathaniel Banks Speaker. So be of cheer, there's precedent for this newest show to go on a lot longer.
The 1850s were a particularly volatile time in American history. Industrialization was ramping up, immigration from increasingly chaotic old Europe grew ever faster, and that “peculiar institution” of slavery bestowed ever greater political turmoil. The Know Nothings were a result of the times, including a Protestant response from the Northeast to all those arriving dirty immigrants, particularly the Catholics flooding in with the barbarous Brits starving of Ireland and from the densely populated, increasingly jumbled German lands. Ever reoccurring virulent anti-immigration in a land founded by immigrants has always been one of the queerest aspects of the American political character.
The next decade saw slavery permanently removed by Mr. Lincoln's bloody consecration of the union. Industrialization rolled-on unimpeded, completely transforming life and the American landscape. In the 170 years after the dissolution of the Whigs, never at any time since has the established party duopoly really been threatened.
Certainly today, if America had any sort of politics, a number of issues could be grounds for a new or a number of new parties. What's interesting about this latest reality TV spectacle, it's pretty much devoid of issues, stoked overwhelmingly by the loathing much of the Republican base has for the Republican establishment. Just remember as the Good Doctor diagnosed, underestimate the political power of loathing and fear at one's own peril.
It all reeks of the stench of reptile Newt's pure power politics of nihilism, established by the former Speaker in the mid-1990s, now engulfing the entire system. Don't give Mr. Gingrich too much credit, he was more a catalyst, the whole political class joined in, gleefully racing ever further to the bottom.
Mostly I’ve thought the Democrats would be the party to come apart. Yet, the donkey's rotted corpse has created some sort of strengthening epoxy. Indeed over the last few decades, only the Reps have showed any kind of, well I wouldn't call it vitality, but a directionless momentum, like a rat desperately thrashing about with one of its legs snapped in a trap.
So, not much to expect out of all this but more bad television and occasional clueless humor, most recently provided by the President calling the House spectacle, “embarrassing.” Lord, Old Joe still doesn't get it, maybe it comes from the Democrats convincing themselves they won the November election? The one thing for sure that is happening is setting the Biden inquisition. This whole affair insures, if absolutely nothing else, it's going to be a brutal flaying. And here specifically I really miss Pat. I can hear him laughing heartily at Biden’s comment and adding a funnily acute rejoinder. If you're going to look at all this, humor is essential.
Subscribe to Life in the 21st Century
History, Science, Energy, Technology, Environment, and Civilization