Nationalism, corruption and finding a better way in the news cycle

Nationalism, corruption and finding a better way in the news cycle
The reason for anti-papism in Britain was the attempted coup against Elizabeth, for which the plotters justly list there heads. Guy Fawkes did not win any friends for the Church, nor did Phillip II of Spain and his Navy.

To defend his own throne against democracy, Gregory XVI penned Mirare Bid. Vatican I continued to resist free thought, Leo XIII argued against the Americanist Heresy and Pius X created a modernist straw man to justify persecuting dissenters.

Father John Coutney Murray argued for freedom of conscience until he won the day at Vatican II with the acceptance of Dignitatis Humanae, finally catching onto the Enlightenment about 400 years late (and St. John Paul with Veritas Splendor seemed a counter-revolutionary).

While no one deserves persecution, the ideas coming from the throne were reprehensible. That the Vatican position and some of its bishops resisting Francis might be called reactionary is an understatement.

Reaction's ugly child is racism. It's purpose is to split the poor so that they do not demand reform. It is a feature of conservatism, not a flaw, especially in the U.S.

When open racism was about to cost Evangelical schools to lose their tax exemption, the White reactionaries went after abortion to keep their base riled up.

It is easy to draw a line from the John Birchers under Koch Sr. to the Silent Majority and the Southern Strategy and Lee Atwater and Roger Stone to Judicial Watch and their Right Wing conspiracy to the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth to the Tea Party, Roger Ailes, Fox News, the Birthers and MAGA. Am I being paranoid? You should have seen my email from the neo-Birchers in 2008.

As women have solidified their position (abortion rights are constitutionally secure and women are beating men in academic achievement), immigrants have become the new target of choice. No wonder the New Zealand shooter lionized Trump.

The Clintons are hardly left wingers. They are more moderate neo-liberals. Obama, who was rich as an author before being elected, was forced by the Great Recession to bring back the Clinton retinue.

Supposed bicoastal elitism used to be called the cultural elite, which was the liberal elite, the New York Liberal Elite and originated as the self styled New York Jewish Liberal Elite. They were a response to McCarthy and his acolytes Cohn and Nixon, the former cultivating Trump.

Rich parents, Hollywood or not, have always demanded special treatment for their kids and options for avoiding conscription. Absent grade inflation, this problem takes care of itself. Those with ability, like W, graduate. Those without wash out, like the Donald.

Getting ahead through sexual favors is nothing new, but the women are usually victimized. Me too is a just reaction. Let us hope the studio executive class has been restrained for now, as well as certain priests. Sadly, no fix is a permanent bulwark against entitlement. Women still have a ways to go and female immigrants are sex trafficking victims way too often.

Francis is certainly a force counteracting the forces of racism and exploitation.  Spiritual renewal is necessarily but not sufficient.

The latest thing is attacking AOC who, along with Senators Warren and Harris, are the best red meat the reactionaries have seen in a long while. MSW really needs to read The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin  to really understand how reactionaries work and why they need progress to react to it.

That is why Democratic socialists like AOC and me are needed to propose systemic change. It is past time to Occupy Capitalism as a way to reduce the power or wealth. It really isn't about the money.