Viguerie And The Fine Art Of Rhetorical Omission

by tristero

Poor Richard Viguerie. Betrayed by George W. Bush:

The main cause of conservatives’ anger with Bush is this: He talked like a conservative to win our votes but never governed like a conservative.

This is just the latest talking point of course, but what’s interesting is what Viguerie didn’t discuss. Some are obvious and I’ll let you have the pleasure of finding them (grin). Here are a few that are a bit more subtle.

Let’s start with a small omission. Unlike others on the far right, Viguerie’s not claiming that Bush governed as a liberal. Rather, he says Bush is just a corrupt, incompetent, deceitful, Big Business pork-feeder.

If one were trusting, one could think of that as progress of a sort, meaning Viguerie’s reality-testing is improving, and that bodes well for the future of American politics. But being cynical about all things right wing, I tend to read this as – possibly – a weird feeler to the Lieberman wing of the Democratic party, to see if they might be willing to buy some of Viguerie’s mail order snake oil. He does say, after all, his new movement will be “independent of any party.”

More importantly, Viguerie doesn’t want to distract attention from the distinction he wants to draw between the evil Biz Repubs and the saintly “real” conservatives. For even if he sees Bush’s character and concerns with something resembling partial acuity,Viguerie, on all other subjects, is still out there in rightwing nutland – mewling over the morals and ethics of a science policy he doesn’t know the first thing about, gibbering on about the dangers of letting two people who love each other get married, and professing wariness of the conservative cred of two judges who make Roger Taney look like a multi-culturalist.

In short, by consigning Biz Cons and Bush to hell for betraying the “real” conservatives, Viguerie sees a political opportunity right now, a potential realignment of voters who are outraged at the sops to Big Biz and deeply concerned about other things, presumably things that directly affect them.

And then, being a Con-man from way back, Viguerie pulls a fast one. He links opposition to the evils of Big Biz to his own far-rightwing agenda. Quite a slick trick.

Now this would be a ridiculous idea, and majorly bizarre, if it weren’t for the fact that Viguerie is quite serious and rightwingers have been making these kinds of illogical links for years. Worse, many important folks strongly opposed to Viguerie and his agenda, both Democratic and Republican, still haven’t figured out a way to link opposition to Big Biz to opposition to Big Cons like Viguerie himself without sounding like Marxists. (That, too, is majorly bizarre, but that’s another post. Here, I’d just like to look a little closer at what Viguerie says. ‘Cause it’s good news, I think. )

Now, Viguerie is partly correct, if not exactly original. The Biz Republicans don’t have any kind of wide national base – the most rabid and wealthiest of these creatures total far less than 1% of the population – which is why they’ve tolerated loony nuts like Robertson, Dobson, and Viguerie himself. And which is why a spoiled rich brat like George W. Bush loves to affect the thickest down-home Texas accent he possibly can, ’cause it makes him “sound like an American,” not the filthy rich elitist he clearly is.*

But Viguerie is quite wrong in assuming that the folks united against the decadence of America’s corporate rich and the obscene tax giveaways to large corporations and their wealthiest members are all fellow loons on his moon. They’re not and 20 seconds of thought should make it clear how illogical Viguerie is being, and how desperate he is for us not to notice.

Ken Lay may disgust you but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re pro-coathanger – Viguerie wants to pretend that it does. In fact, those of us who work for a living and haven’t bought the sick, rightwing framing of the issue know very well that there are times when carrying a pregnancy to term is a choice, and that choice should never be made by politicians but by ourselves.

LIkewise, contempt for Halliburton’s unspeakable behavior does not translate into strong opposition to marriage rights and benefits for all couples that want to get hitched. Again, those of us who live in the real world have far more important things to worry about – like job security, health benefits, education, and the like. (BTW, I’m avoiding the terms “populist” and “populism” here because I think they have meanings that make it easy to miscontrue a very fluid and complex reality.) But Viguerie wants us to ignore the non sequitur and think that because you don’t like Halliburton bigshots, you have to hate gay people.

And that brings us to yet another omission in Viguerie’s essay, which should make it quite clear what a fast one Viguerie is pulling here. And how much trouble he sees for the far right agenda if ever the Democrats wake up. Check it out:

Viguerie brought up the godless UN – which affects directly nearly none of the people Viguerie is claiming as a conservative base – but neglected to mention the failed assault on Social Security, which affects all of us.

Now why would Viguerie forget to rant against Social Security, that commie central-planning nonsense left over from the Nazi Roosevelt Administration? After all, it’s the fluoridated water of entitlements, corrupting Americans and sapping all our precious bodily fluids, Well for one thing, he can’t use it to pretend Bush isn’t a “real” conservative and without that, his argument falls flat on its Laffer Curves.

In fact, Bush and the other rightwing nuts tried like hell to eliminate Social Security by proposing a path to disaster a la FEMA and CIA. And Bush failed to wreck Social Security because of a simple fact Viguerie dare not mention: The base he’s talking about isn’t nearly as far-right as he’d have us believe. They aren’t all Birchers or Randall Terry lovers; in fact, my guess is that if the Vigueries of American politics were properly labeled as the extremists they really are, and not accorded WaPo op-ed privileges and the like, the apparent support for rightwing conservatism shown in the polls would be far lower.

So yes, there are a lot of folks who can no longer be counted upon to vote in goosestep for the next corporate shill the Republicans put up for national office. But this is not an opportunity for so-called “conservatives” -actually rightwing radicals -of Viguerie’s stripe. This really is a splendid opportunity for Democrats, and even liberals.

So, Democrats: Don’t blow it this time around, okay? Bush has handed you on a platter both the potential for marginalizing the very dangerous American right plus the potential for political dominance. It will never get better than 2006 and, potentially, 2008. Don’t blow it, people.

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*Oversimplified, naturally, in order to get at an idea that doesn’t depend upon the complications. For the record, George W. Bush is, indeed, a Biz Con all the way through. He is also a cultural Con in Viguerie’s sense all the way through. To certain readers, this may seem a logically impossible assertion: How can someone be all one AND all the other? Well, it’s rather hard to explain in a brief footnote, but it’s kinda like transubstantiation or being many substances at the same time. As for being “impossible,” I refer you the living contradiction that is George W. Bush for proof of its reality.