Anywho, here's a little quote from a fun author:
Most postrevolutionary regimes are overthrown by their own hard-line radicals, the ones with the most blinkered ideological outlook— precisely because they’re also the ones most willing to murder anyone who stands between them and a solution to the crisis.— Miriam/Helge, from “The Trade of Queens,” by Charles Stross
If you haven't read The Merchant Princes series, it has a lot of flaws, but a lot of interesting ideas. You can probably see where I am going with this, though. In the context of the book, Miriam/Helge was discussing the tensions in a parallel universe in which the American revolution didn't happen until around 2003 because the King wound up in exile in the New World after France conquered the British Isles in 1760, and the revolution looked more like the Bolshevik revolution than 1776, complete with the internecine purification process afterwards.
Gee, hard-line radicals with blinkered ideologies willing to shoot people on their own side? Metaphorically speaking, of course. What does this have to do with Roy Moore and the conservative movement these days? Hmmm.... Let me think about that...
Let's see, we've got an ideological movement that sought power, electorally rather than through revolutionary means, but hey, their whole fuckin' imagery in 2010 was the "tea party" and the Revolutionary Fuckin' War! We've got people like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz trying to out-conservative each other, along with the House Freedom Caucus, making it more difficult for the unified government to pass anything, we've got Roy Moore running in a special election today to challenge Luther Strange, probably on path to victory, and he'll just add to the blinkered caucus.
We are in metaphorical terms here, but sometimes it amazes me how often the sci-fi authors get the politics better than the writers who try to handle politics directly. Good ole' Charlie Stross has these guys' numbers.
The basic problem, spatially and game theoretically, is that actors like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz try not to allow any ideological room to the right of them. They are constantly trying to out-conservative everyone. Consequently, they must reject every deal, and undercut their own party's ability to do anything, which is the basic reasoning behind my last series of posts. Roy Moore makes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz look like Susan Fucking Collins.
Part of the problem is that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are, at the end of the day, at least kind of faking it. There is a level at which what they do is basically just bullshit. Remember how Trump commented that Paul's vote might have been won over on Graham-Cassidy, and I sort of said that if Paul became pivotal, that might have worked? That's because Rand Paul is a bullshit artist. Yes, he is very, very conservative, but he's also the guy who took bong hits while worshipping Aqua Buddha. No, you don't do that shoving the bong into someone else's face, you fucking scumbag, but there is a degree of posturing to him. And Ted Cruz? Total fucking faker. Yes, conservative, but when he led the House conservatives to push Boehner towards a shutdown a few years ago, it was because he knew the GOP would have to cave, and he could be the guy saying that they should have held out longer. Conclusion? Total fucking faker.
Roy Moore? True believer. Ted Cruz duped the House conservatives into shutting down the government in 2013 based on the premise that they could force Obama to defund Obamacare. It was bullshit, and the point was to bolster Cruz's credentials as the "true conservative," but that was the scam. Roy Moore is basically as dumb as the idiots in the House who listened to Ted Cruz. And there is a high likelihood that he is about to win a Senate seat.
McConnell is shitting bricks right now because the most blinkered ideologue, willing to murder anyone (metaphorically) who stands between him and a solution, is probably about to win a Senate seat. And McConnell can't pass anything now, when his worst problems are people like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and John McCain. Add Roy Moore?
Yeah, you thought the Senate had trouble with "repeal-and-replace?" You ain't seen nothin'.
