The Daily Escape:
Poppy bloom, Picacho Peak SP, Picacho, AZ – February 2023 photo by Leila Shehab
Wrongologist blog commenter Terry McK had this to say responding to Wrongoâs post about Speaker McCarthy and his lieutenant Marjorie Taylor Greenâs antics surrounding gifting Tucker Carlson with the J6 videos:
âWe lie to ourselves about the nature of our government…..Nor have we a marketplace of ideas. We could have â but the marketplace is dominated by the intellectual equivalent of soda and snacks….Now most speeches are performance art delivered to an empty chamber. â
Heâs correct. Here are a few recent developments that track with Terryâs thinking. First, Joe Perticone in the Bulwark: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âA strange proposal is working its way through the Idaho state legislature that would have that state envelop more than a dozen of Oregonâs most conservative eastern countiesâin effect, shifting the border between the states 200-plus miles to the west. While last Wednesdayâs vote in the Idaho House approving this âGreater Idahoâ idea is nonbinding, it does legitimize the movement that has long been promoting the plan.â
A Bluer Oregon and a Redder Idaho. This movement is by the far-Right members of Idahoâs government. And among the 15 Oregon counties targeted to become part of Idaho, 11 have so far formally expressed their support for the plan. So unlike Taylor Greeneâs rantings about a national divorce, this idea has a lot of elected officials on board.
Second, Ars Technica reports that:
âTwo Republican lawmakers in Idaho have introduced a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for anyone in the state to administer mRNA-based vaccinesânamely…COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.â
This probably wonât go anywhere. And state-level politicians everywhere also have tons of bad ideas.
Finally, a sober look how some of the wealthy in the fancy towns across the western US are angling for succession or civil war comes from Vanity Fairâs James Pogue. Writing about Jackson Hole, Wyoming:
â…there was a constant traffic of small jets and private aircraft, humming into and out of a town that has become a modern refuge for people with remote jobs…many of them driven to the Northern Rockies by a worry…that the rest of America is on its way toward environmental, political, or economic breakdown.â
Pogue speaks with Catharine OâNeill, great-great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller. Sheâs a Conservative who worked in Trumpâs State Department and after the 2020 election moved to Wyoming:
âShe…views the corporate elite as enemies of America and believes that weâre on the cusp of a populist uprising against the brand of transnational capitalism championed by Republicans for most of the last half-century.â
She lives on a 580-acre âvertically integrated cattle operationâ she started. Today sheâs anti both Parties but would happily vote for Tucker Carlson if heâd step forward. These are the thoughts of the âdissident rightâ. A few of the wealthy have created secretive groups to help people âexitâ from society and from what they see as a failing American system.
From Pogue:
âWho even needs a civil war,â one…texted me recently, âwhen the institutions are doing such a good job of delegitimizing themselves?â
This cohort sees the Northern Rockies as one of a few places in America that will be livable once life in much of America is fighting heat waves, floods, storms, and fires. Theyâre focused on how to live through âmanaged decline,â the wind-down period after the age of cheap fossil-fuels and rapid economic and technological progress wane.
Theyâre certain that will also bring about the erosion of Americaâs âstate capacityâ, the governmentâs ability to do things. Then our âreal economyâ will hollow out, and our political divisions will worsen, even more than currently.
But this movement isnât only supported by the wealthy. Average American workers are increasingly priced out of housing and better educational opportunities for their kids. Many of these workers have service jobs that support the wealthy from Los Angeles to Jackson Hole, and from Cape Cod to Miami Beach. A Moodyâs Analytics report says that for the first time in 20 years, the average American is ârent-burdenedâ, meaning they put at least 30% of their income towards housing.
This makes many middle class Americans very susceptible to arguments by the dissident right about how corporate elites and modern capitalism are hurting their chances to realize the American Dream. This was the basic thrust of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in 2011. Now, the right wing is trying to take up their cause.
Will there be a second civil war? It doesn’t need to be a war. People donât understand how easy it would be to launch an insurgency in America. We should take a lesson from the way the Taliban defeated the American military using small arms, and there are plenty of small arms in America. Insurgencies are less a war than an extended political conflict, in which the insurgents try to get governments to overreact. And when they inevitably do, the insurgents build support. It doesnât take all that much to create a plausible scenario for conflict.
This is Wrongoâs second wakeup call this week. We canât do much about the wealthy who tell themselves that theyâre better off without America.
But we can and must do a lot to persuade average Americans not to fall victim to their rhetoric.
Jimmy Carterâs 1976 stump speech included this:
âIâll never lie to youâ…and…âwe need a government as good as its people…â
Would living his message today help us hold the country together?


