On "Secret Societies" and the Moral Corruption of Politicians
It was in this point of view that we discover the courage of the people of Salem Village, who were engaged in opposing what they considered the machinations of the Devil – they supposing he was the cause, operating through the agency of witches, of all the torture and misery they beheld, and that, by their opposition, they were liable also to suffer from his malignancy. They believed, also, that the Devil was about to establish an agency, or kingdom in New England; and had actually commenced operations in Salem Village. This, Cotton Mather, Parris, and others, were determined should not be done, at least if they could help it.
~ Charles W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft
As with the poor benighted folk of the Dark Ages, members of the Republican Party in our time are steeped in black magic, superstition, apocryphal tales of evildoers and all manner of fantastical plots, secret cabals and political dark arts. Only alchemy is missing - but stay tuned.
"And that secret society — we have an informant talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off-site. There's so much smoke here, there's so much suspicion," spluttered Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson last week. He was speaking of that seething hotbed of sedition and subterfuge, the FBI.
Right on cue, that carrier of the GOP Inquisition's Holy Bulls - False, er Fox-News, relayed Brother Johnson's divine revelation to the (flat, of course) world virtually non-stop. Has-been Inquisitor, Lou Dobbs ranted, "It may be time to declare war outright against the Deep State and clear out the rot in the upper levels of the FBI and the Justice Department."
Grande Inquisitress Jeanine Pirro managed to breathlessly blurt out again through her botoxed lips and surgically lifted face, "THEY NEED TO BE TAKEN OUT IN CUFFS!"
Cuffs only? Why, where're the tongue bore and breaking wheel? Gee, something about a fevered imagination can make one soft.
And His Holiness Franklin Graham darkly warned, "I believe we are in a coup d'etat.There are people in this country who are wanting to destroy the president and take over the government by force."
He's referring, of course, to The Deep State, that spiderous network of conniving black heart bureaucrats hell-bent on destroying King Donald from within. The Dark Wizard, Sean Hannity, warns that the Deep State even plans to arrest him and Trump Faith theologian Steve Bannon (application of the tongue bore would be welcome). I was a denizen of the Deep State for 25 years. You can read my full confession here. Ah, but "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do!"
Dimensions of heresy and apostasy everywhere! Enemies closing in! Plots! Secret societies! What is it about the far right that draws them to conspiracy theories and scenarios once so outlandish that civilized society used to relegate them to distant reaches we once called the lunatic fringe, but now, due to clever mainstreaming, we refer to as the "alt-right"?
It's because the truth inconveniences them and belies their fantasy world of dark forces and reactionism.This country has a rich and unfortunate history of witch hunting, starting with Salem and continuing through the first and second Red Scares. The second was presided over by Senator Joe McCarthy. We still grapple with the damage he inflicted six decades ago. Numerically, his victims included 300 in the entertainment industry who were blacklisted from relevant employment, and nearly 3000 government employees hounded from their positions by a latter day Torquemada with trumped up charges. The cream of the State Department's China experts was purged - why? For having "lost China" to the communists. But the long-term moral damage of McCarthyism is inestimable.
Now we witness a lunatic president and his abettors in Congress and the conservative media waging an accelerating witch hunt against the FBI, of all institutions. This upon attacks against the justice system broadly as well as a free press. I delve into this further in my article in Washington Monthly, Trump’s Dangerous Witch Hunt Against the FBI. Their goal is to stampede a gullible base of supporters into mass hysteria - Salem-style - and take down justice and law enforcement.
Putting party over country exposes the extent of moral corruption in the Republican Party. But the irony is that this cannot be good for the viability of that party. The father of modern conservatism, Edmund Burke, warned, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” So far, the GOP is doing nothing. And if they continue to do nothing, our democracy will weaken and our society will decline. Welcome back to the Dark Ages.