What we are seeing is a form of existential politics that we have heard from people like Netanyahu in Israel, and Donald Trump in the US. It presents politics as an Either/Or, Binary dilemma: either you are with us, or you are against us. Either you support Israel or you are against it. Either you believe Trump is the saviour of America, or America is lost.
On one level, this is Leninism, the curse of radical politics: no debate, no critique, just obedience to the leadership at all times and on all levels. In the US this is how Bannon and other figures on 'the Right' have studied what Lenin achieved, but have also taken cues from the Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci and his arguments about cultural 'direction' (
Dirigere) or Hegemony, in which all political communication is shaped by singular concerns intended to produce an end, which is total power.
What this means is that, for example in Israel's case, Negotiation is Appeasement, Compromise is Surrender, and Peace Treaties a Betrayal. This is why Sharon and Netanyahu opposed the 1993 Treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, but in doing so established a devastating Either/Or, Existential structure which suggests, in theory or practice, that if 'The Arabs' are opposed to Israel, then Israel has no choice but to remove the threat, using violence/war if necessary.
In the Republican Party, the decision to move away from a co-operative to a combative relationship with the Democrats, in which the Democrats became the Enemy, with whom there could be no Negotiations, no Agreement, no Compromise, has created a Leninist dynamic in the Party which, as with the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in the early 20th century, means that it is not enough to be a member of the Republican Party in Congress, one must demonstrate an absolute commitment to Donald Trump as the leader and the source of Authority, the hegemonic totem of the Party. No Trump = No Party. It means more time is taken up purifying the Party than dealing with day-to-day issues. Impeaching the President on bogus grounds is more important than tackling the homeless on the streets, to take one example.
And while the House may elect someone who campaigned against the Democratic outcome of the 2020 Election, in effect, campaigned then and now against the American voters, in the Senate, one single member, Tuberville, has prevented the appointment of the head of the US Navy even as US Naval warships are parked off the coast of Israel, while he and others have blocked the appointment of numerous US Ambassadors -why? Not because of some national security threat, but because Tuberville doesn't think the US military should have service policies regarding LGBTQ+ personnel, doesn't think women in the services should have abortions if pregnant, and so on. The tail is wagging the dog, and the dog is barking.
Dogma, doctrinal issues, and no regard for the wider interests of the constituents who elected them -an obsession with Trump and his bogus agenda. It doesn't concern Mr Johnson if the majority of American women want to make their own choices on their pregnancy, when he can do it for them, based on his dogmatic views; just as it doesn't matter what American parents want for their LGBTQ+ child, the Dogma will decide, and so on.
It is the rot at the root of democratic politics, and leads to the end of politics as a relationship shaped by open debate and decision making. It is not just happening in Israel and the US, and remains the greatest threat to world peace, because if 'we' cannot maintain our own democratic institutions and way of life, we go the way of Russia, China, North Korea, or the corrupt governments where narcotics and money are all that matter.
That said, there are elections in November, and next year too, so maybe the US will walk back from the brink, though it seems to me the Republican Party is a corpse with an orange wig, waiting to be interred in the graveyard of retarded political losers.
Election denier, climate skeptic, anti-abortion: seven beliefs of new US House speaker Mike Johnson (msn.com)
What we are seeing is a form of existential politics that we have heard from people like Netanyahu in Israel, and Donald Trump in the US. It presents politics as an Either/Or, Binary dilemma: either you are with us, or you are against us. Either you support Israel or you are against it. Either you believe Trump is the saviour of America, or America is lost.