COMMENTARY: The Disloyal Opposition
By Joseph J. Honick
In July, 2009, I wrote what turned out to be a legitimate claim that the far right of the GOP was leading a disloyal
opposition to the constitutionally elected president of the United States.
Events since the recent mid-term elections have provided further proof. Worse this deconstructionism (rather than mere obstructionism) has come amid an economy that went south under George W. Bush and two wars he pressed for and for which there appear to be no solutions, strategies or conclusions.
When I termed the Republican wins as “Arrogance of Victory Minus the Pride” the point was to demonstrate the winners had no sense of obligation to the American people, only to the demolition of President Obama’s administration. And they have now had the chutzpah to produce a letter for all Republican Members of Congress that pledge them to obstruct any and all Democratic proposals.
Just to please those phony purveyors of something called “fair and balanced” news, I have my own problems with the stumblings of President Obama and made that clear in various articles to this audience. But I also agreed with Republican assertions when stuff was heaped on W early on when they claimed rightly we only have one president at a time.
Now, however, with the revelation of a letter that smacks of virtual political sabotage, stronger language has to be used, especially in time of war and economic disaster, tainted even more by diplomatic subversion by some outfit whose goals are up for grabs.
Real American leaders and political leaders of all parties would have called for commitment to unity in behalf of all Americans. The Republican leadership has failed miserably, openly and disloyally. Sadly, the Democratic leadership has also failed to contend courageously, articulately and clearly with these efforts.
There is history for this unfortunately.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to get people to work during deep depression, the right fought it tooth and nail. Not only that, but records of the 74th Congress show that a cabal of extremists of powerful industrialists and others even wanted to finance the actual overthrow of the Roosevelt White House and tried to get a former Marine Corps commandant and war hero, General Smedley Butler, to lead it.
When FDR tried to get a draft going to gear up n view of Hitler’s commitment to war, the right wing fought it and with tragic consequences.
But, when the war was on, all other bets were off, and both parties committed themselves to winning the war as soon as possible.
Not now tragically, foolishly and perhaps even dangerously.
Nor is it some commitment to something called “conservatism”. What we have traditionally thought of as conservative and liberal were pretty much legitimate differences of how the nation should function but with understanding we are all Americans. Sadly, some today in power claiming to be conservative lean more to a term unfortunately lost to our political vocabulary: reactionary.
(Parenthetically, there is an old saw that liberals want to do everything right now regardless of cost or anything else; conservatives want to do it all but just not right now; reactionaries never want to do anything for the first time, perhaps why they have such a low birth rate!)
It was the late and highly respected conservative spokesman William Buckley who said he could figure out who the liberals were but could not understand who the real conservatives were. Perhaps we need to restore the term “reactionary” to our public debates because there are some outstanding conservatives in both parties who must be numbed and embarrassed by the very idea a political party in time of war and economic distress would have the gall to publicly announce it will stand in the way of any opposition proposals regardless of merit or need.
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Joseph J. Honick is a frequent contributor to Huntington News Network and is president of the international consulting firm GMA International Ltd., based in Bainbridge Island, WA. This commentary was previously published in O'Dwyer's PR Report and is reprinted by permission.