One of our favourite bloggers is a gentleman trained as both journalist and lawyer who writes under the pseudonym ‘The Mound of Sound.’ While claiming to be a disaffected liberal, he writes from a progressive perspective. The only problem with his frequent and voluminous polemics is that they are sometimes heavy wading.
He recently wrote a piece of more than 2000 words on the members of the U.S. Republican Party who have an appetite for authoritarianism. While we would not use a word quite that long to explain things, we have to agree with the idea.
But if we have one small quibble with his thesis, it is that he used far too many political scientists as authorities to support it.
Frankly, we have always found that political scientists can be found to advance any theory you might wish for. Just try to read the doctoral theses of some of these people and you will soon see what we mean.
The experts our compatriot should have used to prove his thesis about GOP authoritarianism are Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Yes, the current political situation in the U.S. is in much greater need for psychotherapists than political scientists.
And we would have equated the current dilemma of the Republicans to a wonderful narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: The Charge of the Light Brigade. You can so easily imagine the Republican candidate leading that charge. Just think: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
Now honestly, who do you think could best understand that GOP leader?
A political scientist would question the size of that leader’s support. Freud would get right to the important question: the size of his penis?
You really have to face the facts. The Brit who ordered the charge of the Light Brigade had to be certifiable. Why are people making excuses for the American Republican candidate?
And the people who need this renewed authoritarianism in America are hardly safe from a critical review of their mental health. The candidate’s supporters are largely made up of middle-aged white men who obviously miss the succour of feeding from their mother’s teat. They appear to be afraid of blacks, Mexicans, Muslims and women who are smarter than them.
While we wish our fellow blogger well, he needs to be assured that life is not all that complex. The Republican Party in the United States has landed a Looney Tunes as presidential candidate. The party will eventually recover.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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