Future History The Work of Robert Heinlien by Milo Clark . Revised Jan 2004
“As for the second notion, the idea that we could lose our freedom by succumbing to a wave of religious hysteria, I am sorry to say that I consider it possible. I hope that it is not probable. But there is a latent deep strain of religious fanaticism in this, our culture. It is rooted in our history and has broken out many times in the past. It is with us now; there has been a sharp rise in strongly evangelical sects in the country in recent years, some of which hold beliefs theocratic in the extreme, anti- intellectual, anti-scientific, and anti-libertarian.”
“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. . . . The custodians of the True Faith cannot logically admit tolerance of heresy to be a virtue.”
“. . . Could any one sect obtain a working majority at the polls and take over the country? Perhaps not – but a combination of the dynamic evangelist, television, enough money, and modern techniques of advertising and propaganda might make Billy Sunday’s efforts look like a corner store compared to Sears Roebuck. Throw in a depression for good measure, promise a material heaven here on earth, add a dash of anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, Anti-Negroism, and a good large dose of anti- furriners’ in general and anti-intellectuals here at home and the result might be something quite frightening – particularly when one recalls that our voting system is such that a minority distributed as pluralities in enough states can constitute a working majority in Washington.”
“. . . Impossible? Remember the Klan in the Twenties and how far it got without even a dynamic leader. . . The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed.”
I don’t know–look at Russian state media. It functions an awful lot like Fox News; adversarial, fact-averse, sensationalist and emotionally manipulative. Putin’s pet network keeps the Russians riled-up and paranoid, and it’s kept him in power–a narcissistic business guy with a tough-talk image turned billionaire’s autocrat, warmonger, bigot.
The KGB might have only just come into its own. It should serve as a warning to us all. I love Heinlein.
Trump is such a coward, he would never agree to a conversation with Malala, but I fantasize that someone brings her to one of his press conferences and hands her the mike.
So Megyn Kelly’s producers went down their list of 200 possible Conservative flame-throwers to find a possible guest and the first 199 all said ;No’?
I would bet that despite all his big talk, if it came down to Trump v. Clinton, Beck would be in that votting booth screaming: Can I vote for Trump more than once, please?!’
And despite my utter disapproval of Donald Trump, at least we see him capable of telling the truth now and then:
“.@GlennBeck got fired like a dog by #Fox. The Blaze is failing and he wanted to have me on his show. I said no - because he is irrelevant”
You are right in that Trump has no sense of shame AND his Trump-lodytes would show their asses, but the video would be golden if he disprespected or condescended to this lovely and courageous young woman.
Especially if, by GOTP insanity, he gets to the general.
I also will not vote for Trump. Trump would be a national embarrassment if he were ever elected President. I may not agree with President Obama on much but at least he is a man of honor and upholds the office with dignity and respect.
I will go even further than Beck, I would actually vote for Hillary. I people here know my feelings of dislike for Hillary.
He knows a lot of people that feel like he does because he surrounds himself with that kind of people. But Trumps got this one right. Beck is irrelevant.
When Truman integrated the Military, this is what my Dad was faced with, as a commander. He had to lead soldiers as left as myself and as conservative as justamarine. The schools I was in contained people who taught me who ranged from my point of view to those of justamarine. The same variation applied to the kids and the parents of those kids, along with my Scoutmasters and my Little League coaches. I (and a number of other minority kids, officers and NCO’s) were able to coexist, in an atmosphere (necessarily) absent of extremism.
I am not concerned about conservatism as much as extremists using the more socially acceptable word “conservative” when Reactionaries are as far from conservatism as Atilla is from Andy Taylor of Mayberry.
Murdoch and Ailes know all of this and their success has been the bane of recent U.S. culture.
You are 100% correct. Trump is simply playing into the reactionary element of the GOP. The bad thing is he is actually not an extremist himself but is smart enough to know how to keep himself at about 30% in the polls.
It is my firm belief that eventually the majority of the party will reject Trump and will settle on a more mainstream conservative. If that happens, my guess it will either be Rubio or Christie.
The nightmare scenario which is right now about 40% chance of occurring is a Trump/Cruz ticket.
That is not true at all. Many Republicans refused to vote for both McCain and Romney. The RNC is already preparing for what happens if Trump looks like he will be the nominee. The fear is many donors are like Beck, they may not support Hillary but they will withhold their resources. Some have already fired the warn shot that they will support Hillary.
I could never in good conscience vote for Trump and there are many who feel the same way. Do you really think those who are/were supporting Bush, Fiorina, Paul, etc… are going to turn around and support Trump?
Oh, I believe in karma too, Matt. But is it really his just desserts to lose the nomination and be sort of an afterthought by next Labor Day? Or, for Trump, his party, and his supporters, does karma look more like Trump winning the nomination handily, getting humiliated in the debates, Trump losing in a landslide, and the GOP taking historic losses throughout the country?
I know some people who are Trump supporters and they mirror many of those in that focus group. When you point out about his past support of progressive politicians and policies, they don’t care. When you mention that he essentially agreed with the Democrats on immigration until about June of 2015, they don’t care. When you mention that he supported bringing in Syrian refugees just 4 months ago, they don’t care. It goes on and on.
The only thing they care about is finally someone is standing up to the GOP establishment, Democrats, the Media, etc…and they don’t really care that he has never actually explained how he would get the things he says he is going to do done.
Again, no doubt that the further this Trump thing goes, the more damage he’ll do to the party. It’s more for the country, and in large part for my damn self as a citizen, that I just don’t want the humiliation of that guy as a major-party candidate for President. It’s like a disgrace in the family—I can’t prefer it and won’t hope for it, even if rationally it might bring a better outcome in the end. And there’s a third scenario you haven’t mentioned. It seems impossible but it isn’t. Gives me pause, it really does. That one’s like something horrible happening to your kids—it probably won’t happen, but even the thought is nearly unbearable. So I’m just going to hope for what I want to have happen la la la la laaaaaaa…
