Russell Vought, one of the architects behind Project 2025, believes there is nothing left to conserve. He desires revolution – and to burn down the system
I wrote this piece about why it’s time for new Democratic leadership in the Senate. It’s a deep dive into where things went wrong and what needs to change. I would appreciate it if you gave it a read.
I agree with your assessment of Vought's citation of Whittaker Chambers. Yes, he (Vought) appears to be a "self-regarding conservative intellectual". Yes, "by bringing up Chambers, Vought seeks to lend importance and gravitas to himself and his argument."
Whittaker Chambers used the phrase “crave a little height" twice in his posthumous memoir _Cold Friday_ (1964):
1. Page 38: "We may even hesitate to call what we feel futility... There is a sense of toppling culmination... Always, too, there is a sense of something left out, which brings an almost physical sensation that the air is being exhausted around us. It is to get above that exhausted air that we crave a little height, though we must reach it by crawling on our hands and knees."
2. Page 86: "On the eve of our time, Stefan Trofimovitch saw our problem clearly enough, even though, as sometimes happens, it took him a pointless lifetime to reach the insight and his last strength to frame it... It is for that we crave reality, for the infinitely great may not be on any less terms..."
Whichever quote Vought used, it seems clear he quoted it out of context just to use a well-turned phrase by someone revered by conservatives.
I rather disagree with you that Chambers became "a towering figure in the history of the conservative intellectual movement." It took continual anointing by William F. Buckley Jr. for that to happen. And of course Buckley himself started the practice Vought used by being a "self-regarding conservative intellectual" who regularly quoted, mentioned, and described Whittaker Chambers.
The American evangelical tradition can't be separated from racism. Racism melded with a more primitive, punitive, dualistic, life-hating and extreme strain of Calvinism. Really, really bad shit, and Vought is a core constituent, I think, one of those who would have been fighting at the barricades for Hitler until the end and, if he survived, romanticizing the Reich until he died.
You never know, though, until their lives are on the line. I look at the times when these kinds of lunatics drove the world into insanity and mass slaughter and, even knowing the outcome, can't discern the true believers. The opportunists and cynics will punt when the crisis comes and try to save their skins. Of course their constitutional claims are pure bullshit. Marketing tactics.
They'll claim the high ground while groveling before some piece of shit like Trump because it's pure, survival-driven desperation. Imagined, because they're nuts. I recommend everyone read or re-read George Lakoff, especially the articles he wrote after Don-boy entered the scene. It's a way I've found to get a grip on it -- it's so far gone into authoritarianism and disconnected from reality.
Not that you can't make a case for authoritarianism, but not their inhumane, paranoid kind and CERTAINLY not on the basis of the American constitution, a raging Enlightenment document, and Christianity, a manifesto against tribalism and intolerance. Typically, people this fucked up reveal themselves through their fixations, turned back on themselves. They're everything they lay on us.
“Trumpism was never about making America great again. It’s about weaponizing your fear and resentment. Immigrants, women daring to expect control over their own bodies, trans kids, and “wokeness”—these weren’t your enemies until he told you they were. Trumpism isn’t about policy, principles, or progress; it’s a spectacle, a theater of grievance where you gleefully cast yourself as the victim while ignoring the real threats tearing this country apart.”
Anyone have any ideas about how to fight back against this? It seems like so much of this is going to happen behind the scenes until it's too late. What do we do?
The palingenetic myth can also possibly stand for a return to a golden age in the country's history so that the past can be a guidebook to a better tomorrow, with an associated regime that superficially resembles a reactionary one. Fascism distinguishes itself by being the only ideology that focuses strongly on the revolution in its myth or, as Griffin puts it:
.. to put government in the hands of outstanding personalities instead of non-entities.
Through all of that, there would be one great leader who would battle the representatives of the old system with grassroots support. In the fascist utopia, one mass of people will supposedly appear who have only one goal: to create their new future. Such a fascist movement would ideally have infinite faith in its mythical hero who would stand for everything the movement believes in. According to this utopian ideology, under the guidance of their leader the country would then rise like a phoenix from the ashes of corruption and decadence.
The decades animus of the wealthiest American strata for any curb on their behavior, is the direct consequence of their sociopathic view of human nature as fundamentally sociopathic. The irony in all this is their idea of a natural order of tyranny by wealth, is the exact reason to have social curbs on their behavior. The only way the natural order can be established is by eternal conflict, and even a society of sociopaths is best off if they ensure no party gets ahead of any other.
“ Each person seeks mastery over a world of slaves” James McGill Buchanan
Ideologues are always dangerous because they do not compromise and therefore do not offer practical solutions to present problems. It is one thing to have the strength of your convictions. It is another to work with those who do not share those convictions.
And Republicans confirmed him.
All Republicans bear responsibility for Trump's crimes.
The only way we can start to rebuild after this would-be dictator is to ensure that there is accountability for this crime wave.
This was really well written and interesting. Thank you.
I wrote this piece about why it’s time for new Democratic leadership in the Senate. It’s a deep dive into where things went wrong and what needs to change. I would appreciate it if you gave it a read.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jasonegenberg/p/its-time-for-a-new-democratic-leader?r=3nm35j&utm_medium=ios
The anarchistic cosplayer
pretty organized and scary!!! Will get worse as they mobilize the police army they have assembled in every big city for the last ten years.
What if I don’t want to meet him
I agree with your assessment of Vought's citation of Whittaker Chambers. Yes, he (Vought) appears to be a "self-regarding conservative intellectual". Yes, "by bringing up Chambers, Vought seeks to lend importance and gravitas to himself and his argument."
Whittaker Chambers used the phrase “crave a little height" twice in his posthumous memoir _Cold Friday_ (1964):
1. Page 38: "We may even hesitate to call what we feel futility... There is a sense of toppling culmination... Always, too, there is a sense of something left out, which brings an almost physical sensation that the air is being exhausted around us. It is to get above that exhausted air that we crave a little height, though we must reach it by crawling on our hands and knees."
2. Page 86: "On the eve of our time, Stefan Trofimovitch saw our problem clearly enough, even though, as sometimes happens, it took him a pointless lifetime to reach the insight and his last strength to frame it... It is for that we crave reality, for the infinitely great may not be on any less terms..."
Whichever quote Vought used, it seems clear he quoted it out of context just to use a well-turned phrase by someone revered by conservatives.
I rather disagree with you that Chambers became "a towering figure in the history of the conservative intellectual movement." It took continual anointing by William F. Buckley Jr. for that to happen. And of course Buckley himself started the practice Vought used by being a "self-regarding conservative intellectual" who regularly quoted, mentioned, and described Whittaker Chambers.
The American evangelical tradition can't be separated from racism. Racism melded with a more primitive, punitive, dualistic, life-hating and extreme strain of Calvinism. Really, really bad shit, and Vought is a core constituent, I think, one of those who would have been fighting at the barricades for Hitler until the end and, if he survived, romanticizing the Reich until he died.
You never know, though, until their lives are on the line. I look at the times when these kinds of lunatics drove the world into insanity and mass slaughter and, even knowing the outcome, can't discern the true believers. The opportunists and cynics will punt when the crisis comes and try to save their skins. Of course their constitutional claims are pure bullshit. Marketing tactics.
They'll claim the high ground while groveling before some piece of shit like Trump because it's pure, survival-driven desperation. Imagined, because they're nuts. I recommend everyone read or re-read George Lakoff, especially the articles he wrote after Don-boy entered the scene. It's a way I've found to get a grip on it -- it's so far gone into authoritarianism and disconnected from reality.
Not that you can't make a case for authoritarianism, but not their inhumane, paranoid kind and CERTAINLY not on the basis of the American constitution, a raging Enlightenment document, and Christianity, a manifesto against tribalism and intolerance. Typically, people this fucked up reveal themselves through their fixations, turned back on themselves. They're everything they lay on us.
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/05/02/berkeley-author-george-lakoff-says-dont-underestimate-trump
White supremacy is one hell of a drug…
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY GLOATING MAGA NEIGHBOR
“Trumpism was never about making America great again. It’s about weaponizing your fear and resentment. Immigrants, women daring to expect control over their own bodies, trans kids, and “wokeness”—these weren’t your enemies until he told you they were. Trumpism isn’t about policy, principles, or progress; it’s a spectacle, a theater of grievance where you gleefully cast yourself as the victim while ignoring the real threats tearing this country apart.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/an-open-letter-to-my-gloating-maga-450?r=4d7sow&utm_medium=ios
From this piece, Vought sounds not just dogmatic and ideologically wrong, but, in fact, unhinged.
Anyone have any ideas about how to fight back against this? It seems like so much of this is going to happen behind the scenes until it's too late. What do we do?
Banality of evil ring a bell? I can’t decide which of the Fuhrers minions he most resembles- Eichmann? Himmler?
Gee, that sounds awful familiar.
—
The palingenetic myth can also possibly stand for a return to a golden age in the country's history so that the past can be a guidebook to a better tomorrow, with an associated regime that superficially resembles a reactionary one. Fascism distinguishes itself by being the only ideology that focuses strongly on the revolution in its myth or, as Griffin puts it:
.. to put government in the hands of outstanding personalities instead of non-entities.
Through all of that, there would be one great leader who would battle the representatives of the old system with grassroots support. In the fascist utopia, one mass of people will supposedly appear who have only one goal: to create their new future. Such a fascist movement would ideally have infinite faith in its mythical hero who would stand for everything the movement believes in. According to this utopian ideology, under the guidance of their leader the country would then rise like a phoenix from the ashes of corruption and decadence.
—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palingenetic_ultranationalism
The decades animus of the wealthiest American strata for any curb on their behavior, is the direct consequence of their sociopathic view of human nature as fundamentally sociopathic. The irony in all this is their idea of a natural order of tyranny by wealth, is the exact reason to have social curbs on their behavior. The only way the natural order can be established is by eternal conflict, and even a society of sociopaths is best off if they ensure no party gets ahead of any other.
“ Each person seeks mastery over a world of slaves” James McGill Buchanan
Ideologues are always dangerous because they do not compromise and therefore do not offer practical solutions to present problems. It is one thing to have the strength of your convictions. It is another to work with those who do not share those convictions.
Reactionary is the proper term to apply to such people. That is what trumpism is.