Dakota Beacon

Column: The Passing SceneBy: Dennis M. PatrickDate: September 22, 2017
THE RULING CLASS HAS NO CLASS I am back after a brief hiatus. Thank you for your patience and loyalty. Please note the new email address at the end of this piece.*   *   *   *   *   *

Why don’t Republicans behave as winners when they win or as the loyal opposition when they lose? Angelo M. Codevilla answers that question in his book “The Ruling Class.” As early as 2010 he illustrated that for years Republicans wanted to be part of the “big clique,” that inner circle dominating Washington politics. The Ruling Class (the Establishment) is comprised of professional politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, together with their fundraisers and special interests.

Republican and Democrat officeholders and their entourages display a presumption to dominate. Never has there been so little diversity within America’s upper crust. They show very few differences in habits, opinions and sources of income between one another. They think, look and act as a class – the Ruling Class.
America’s Ruling Class speaks the same language and shares the same tastes, habits and bureaucratic propensities as they rule over the ordinary people beneath them.

While most Americans pray to the God who created and sustains them, the Ruling Class prays to themselves as saviors of the planet and improvers of humanity.
The Ruling Class accumulates power by redistributing other people’s wealth. Power derives from public office because it is from there that elected officials distribute the “bacon” to their constituents from whom the money was confiscated as taxes in the first place. Money becomes an aphrodisiac administered by Senators and Representatives to the public so they can show love and be loved in return.

The Ruling Class is bound to clash with the rest of America over whose country America is and over what way of life will prevail. Some in the Ruling Class paid a price having been defeated by challengers in primary elections.

The Donald Trump phenomenon, like the Tea Party before it, is a citizen uprising against the Ruling Class – the political and fundraising careerists who make their living off the government. The Establishment, so identified as The Ruling Class by Codevilla in his book by that title, goes a long way to explaining why Republicans do not behave as the loyal opposition when in the minority or as leaders when in the majority. Establishment Republicans warned us that Donald Trump was not a conservative. Of course, he never said he was. Yet, the hypocrites who issued the warning do not demonstrate conservatism themselves.

The threat to the Republican establishment was brought on by their own behavior. Truth be told, Establishment Republicans as part of the Ruling Class led by John McCain and Paul Ryan would be content to lose the US House and Senate in 2018 as long as they kept their own seats and retained personal power. They would sacrifice a Republican presidency in 2020 rather than accept an outsider into their club. The same holds true for Establishment Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. The Ruling Class shows no class.

Republicans with the help of conservatives and independents controlled the US House since 2010 and both Houses of Congress since 2014. Republicans were elected to a majority in both Houses of Congress by a frustrated public seeking tax reform, repeal of Obamacare, reduced government regulation, debt control, immigration reform, jobs and national defense against terrorism. What do the voters who produced the Republican majority have to show for their allegiance? Very little. No wonder people are willing to look for leadership outside the Ruling Class.

Senator John Hoeven and Representative Kevin Cramer sadly joined the feckless Ruling Class. They are not conservative – except in their rhetoric at election time. Evidence? The Heritage Foundation showed their voting records to be less than 50% conservative. The Ruling Class displays its allegiance to one another. John Hoeven supported his fellow senator Mitch McConnell for Senate leader. Kevin Cramer supported his fellow congressman Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House.

Most Senators and Representatives cringe at the thought of being held hostage by the sycophant media who may blame them for an inconsequential “government shutdown”. Time and again Democrats snookered Republicans with this tactic. Time and again Republicans, lacking steadfastness, succumbed. In the 1978, 1995 and 2013 “shut downs,” non-essential services comprising less than 13% of the government were briefly “shut down.” That may be a good thing given that those non-essential functions weren’t wasting tax dollars.

It is easy for The Ruling Class to give the appearance of “getting things done” by voting on non-controversial measures they know in advance won’t go anywhere. These are “safe” votes that can be sold to their constituents as “bipartisan” efforts.

On hard issues requiring leadership such as income tax reform, immigration and border security as well as repealing Obamacare, the Ruling Class resolved nothing. Our Senators and Representatives have talked a good fight for years. Yet, through those years, nothing substantive has been accomplished. It is time to drain the swamp starting with the 2018 primaries and conventions.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).