First of all, Happy New Year everyone!
Now, let’s get down to brass tacks,
Why did I choose the title Commissar Conservatives for my new book? It may seem to teen two contradictory terms, but by having a closer look – and by saving very well though example of one it is easy to see that the title makes perfect sense.
A commissar is defined as an official in the former Soviet Union or today’s China whose task is to control public opinion through indoctrination. This is accomplished either by personal contact or by the political “education” of the masses. The commissar’s method is force-feeding political philosophy to the populace; effectiveness is built upon the inherent threat of violence.
But isn’t a commissar confined to communism? Not so! As my book explains, the more strident the form of economic libertarianism, the more its followers mimic the worst attributes of communism.
While certain populist conservatives have resorted to violent intimidation (the January 6, 2021 Insurrection, possibly the attacks on power-plant substations) movement conservatives need not resort to violent intimidation. Instead, they employ a process known as autocratic capture.
Anne Applebaum explains: “Autocratic capture is a form of systemic corruption in which politicians have improper influence on private companies. They use government power to put pressure on businessmen and to force them, or their employees, to toe a political line.”
Here are examples of the practice by populist movement conservatives.
Enter Ron DeSantis
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) often engages in Autocratic capture. He had the state strip the Disney company controlled town of of its special tax status and ability to govern itself. This action was taken in retaliation for Disney’s public disapproval the governor’s ‘don’t say gay policy.’
The Florida governor consistently abuses his position to engage in the indoctrination of his strident form right wing libertarian populism. He even bullies children.
While a member of Congress he was a member of both the House Freedom Caucus and the Federalist Society (he still is an active Federalist Society member. The Federalist Society openly embraces the radical philosophy of economic libertarianism which is linked to the flawed legal theory of Originalism.
Originalism ignores the contrary views of National icons Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis and Thurgood Marshall who knew the Constitution to be “a living breathing document.”
A sub-variant of autocratic capture is regulatory capture. It is frequently employed in the states controlled by movement conservatives. This occurs when regulatory agencies become dominated by the agendas of outside interests and not by public consensus.
The Florida school curriculum’s discussion of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment is now illustrated with a picket fence being dismantled instead of a sturdy wall separating church and state.
DeSantis displayed further his regulatory capture chops in several instances that drew national news attention in 2022. For example, when he suspended the Hillsborough County’s duly elected district attorney. The D.A. had merely exercised proper prosecutorial discretion when he stated he would not prosecute doctors or women under Florida’s new highly restrictive abortion ban. DeSantis called it “incompetence and willful defiance of his duties.” DeSantis also replaced four elected Broward County school board members all of whom were held Democratic women with Republican men. He also filled one vacant seat with another male Republican for good measure.
The Florida governor often moves beyond governance by a given political philosophy. Instead he repeatedly crosses a demarcation line by engaging in indoctrination through intimidation. While the fear of the gulag or assassination is not his weapons choice, more subtle methods are employed: firings that nullify elections, onerous legislation and micromanagement.
Such behavior disturbingly approaches that of the political commissar.
While some pundits are increasingly framing DeSantis as more moderate than Trump, he is not. Like many other extreme libertarians, his idea of freedom and liberty is the right to oppress others. He is far more autocratic than the former president.
Indeed, Ron DeSantis is the very definition of a Commissar Conservative.
Make sense? Click here to read more!