A cabal is a group of people who associate with one another to promote an ideology and act as a group to accomplish some big, difficult undertaking such as undermining the integrity of a functioning democracy. Usually, the cabal and certainly its individual members try to remain unknown to everyone outside their group until something dramatic happens that forces these background activities into the foreground light. The 2016 US presidential election certainly seems to have been such a dramatic event.
For years, the Republican Party has been tuned to numerous fringe ideology based groups in a dog whistle type approach that has been conducted strictly under the table. They have been present for years as a near invisible minority inside the Republican Party, but since the 2016 election, they have been denied this mantle of invisibility by an upstart presidential candidate who seized control of the party to the complete shock and disbelief of many long time moderate Republicans who publicly distanced themselves from this year's party presidential nominee.
Curiously, this publicly scorned party presidential nominee won the election in spite of poor fund raising, many campaign missteps, and this party internal rancor. After winning, the new president-elect found himself on the receiving end of much conciliation and even praise from many of the previously shocked Republicans who now saw his win as a tremendous opportunity to promote their ideological agenda.
Republican Ideology Blend
The Republican ideology is a heterogeneous blend from the three major categories of Big Money Interests, Christian Religious Right, and Racist/Xenophobes. Leaders and strong advocates from these three fringe groups collectively form the functioning unit of the cabal. These leaders in the context of the cabal are responsible for raising the resources and marshalling the loyal voters they represent to the cause.
The extreme ideological position represented by each of these three categories are minority positions in the general population of the country, but these minority positions are frequently imposed as the law of the land. Their success is largely the result of these three groups having come together in the form of the Republican cabal.
Big Money Interests
Since the formal inception of democratic government in ancient Greece, it has been plagued by efforts of the rich and powerful in a society to steer the democracy in directions that are favorable to them many times to the detriment of the majority. They are small in numbers but large in resources, and are largely interested in government policy and regulation that is favorable to their current unfair economic advantage.The extreme economic agendas of the very rich result in government policies and regulations that line their pockets frequently at the expense of those from the other factions manipulated by the cabal who are not so economically favored. For example, reduced taxes on the rich generate very large shortfalls because the rich have most of the money, and these shortfalls must be made up 'somewhere else' or become deficits in the form of borrowed money from China. 'Somewhere else' always ends up meaning the shortfalls are generated from those who are not so rich.
The only other alternative is an overall reduction in government services, but since the rich don't want to lose their government subsidy payments and sweetheart government contracts, the reduction in government service has to come from things that benefit regular people such as education, health services, jobs, consumer protection, corporate oversight, and improving/maintaining public infrastructure to name but a few.
Christian Religious Right
The Founders of the US Constitution recognized the dangers inherent in being too much aligned with any particular religion. Thomas Jefferson was a strong advocate for what he called a "wall of separation between Church and State". This ‘wall’ is intended to protect the state from the corrupting influence of the particular demands of a specific religion because there is typically loss of freedom, repression, and discrimination as the prejudices of that religion are expressed through a government that aligns with a religion (e.g. Christianity in medieval Europe or the Taliban in modern day Afghanistan).Curiously, the Republican ideology is derived from the overly zealous Christian religious right who choose to be very political and only pay lip service to the constitutional mandate for religious freedom. They believe interpretation of this constitutional mandate should only be honored for those who practice some flavor of their particular religion. They represent relatively large numbers of voters, and their religious zeal translates nicely into the blind faith allegiance to the complete political ideologies of the cabal.
Racists/Xenophobes
It is ironic that a nation of immigrants (as in everyone except the Native Americans) should be so inclined to hate the most recent of immigrants regardless their background, but that has been the case since the very early inception of this nation. The third and final cabal ideology consists of those individuals with these xenophobic/racist tendencies ranging from moderate to extreme obsession.The inclusion of this category is important for two reasons. First, the demographic of this profile include a very large number of voters who all feel very strongly about these matters of race and immigration. The second and equally important consideration is that the targets of the racist and xenophobic contempt provides the cabal its much need scapegoat for all the ills faced by the nation. With just the right amount of spin, this 'foreign element' can even be blamed for many of the things which are a direct result of the cabals malignant agenda.
How They Come Together
Internally to the cabal, these ideological factions do something that they will never do externally. They extend to the other ideologies in the cabal a willingness to compromise and offer concession.
The overzealous religious will accept unreasonable tax breaks for the rich in exchange for Supreme Court justices who will support their assault on abortion (perhaps even sex in general) and the LBGTQ community. These strong abortion advocates have great compassion for unborn children, but next to none for underprivileged children with little to eat or opportunity to succeed.
One of the Koch brother publicly acknowledged to be very liberal in many of his political leaning. He admits to believing that a woman should be able to choose an abortion if she thinks it is the right thing for her, but he openly supports candidates who would do everything in their power to deny access to that right. He does not say why, but it appears to be a concession he makes for the greater power of the cabal to solicit the support of these large number of voters opposed to abortion into all cabal sponsored activities like tax breaks for the wealthy.
How They Pursue Objectives
The thing that really distinguishes a cabal from any other a group of people sharing some collection of strong beliefs is how this group of people conduct themselves in the course of pursuing a political voice for these beliefs. In the case of our democracy, this conduct is revealed in the way they engage in the election process and then how they execute the process of governing when they are elected.
How They Campaign
The key issues and policy positions of the Republican Party are well known at this point. They haven't change in 30+ years. They
want to reduce taxes and reduce/eliminate regulations (for their money interests),
oppose gay rights, abortion, and religious freedom for non-Christians
(for their religious right wing), and obstruct immigration reform and
defend discrimination and intolerance (for their racism/xenophobia
wing). The reduce taxes and reduce/eliminate regulations positions are already know to a problem because of the 2008 Great
Recession, and none of these positions have majority support in the
general US electorate. Republicans don't want to campaign on their already well know
positions.
In recent years, Republicans has demonstrated a very strong affinity for candidates to focus their campaigns much more heavily on personal matters instead of current pressing issues. As a results, our elections have denigrated into character assassination and general mudslinging. The benefit in this approach is character assassination and general mudslinging can be very effective even if it is only loosely based in reality, and in this most recent election, any basis in reality seems to no longer be a requirement.
Many have found the tone and discourse in this most recent presidential election to be crude and coarse to the point of being disrespectful of the office of the president. A traditional campaign focused on policy issues and candidate qualifications has been replaced with never ending sideshows of mudslinging and character assassination where everything was reduced to a very personal context.
The candidate’s demeanor and decorum during this campaign was coarse and boorish to the point that Trump campaign rallies appeared to be modeled after the Jerry Springer tabloid talk show. The audiences were stirred with such frenzy that they frequently resulted in mindlessly chanting of hateful things, aggressive shouting directed at anyone thought to be against them, and even physical confrontation.
Weeks after he won the election, most still don't really know Trump's position on many key issues.
In recent years, Republicans has demonstrated a very strong affinity for candidates to focus their campaigns much more heavily on personal matters instead of current pressing issues. As a results, our elections have denigrated into character assassination and general mudslinging. The benefit in this approach is character assassination and general mudslinging can be very effective even if it is only loosely based in reality, and in this most recent election, any basis in reality seems to no longer be a requirement.
Many have found the tone and discourse in this most recent presidential election to be crude and coarse to the point of being disrespectful of the office of the president. A traditional campaign focused on policy issues and candidate qualifications has been replaced with never ending sideshows of mudslinging and character assassination where everything was reduced to a very personal context.
The candidate’s demeanor and decorum during this campaign was coarse and boorish to the point that Trump campaign rallies appeared to be modeled after the Jerry Springer tabloid talk show. The audiences were stirred with such frenzy that they frequently resulted in mindlessly chanting of hateful things, aggressive shouting directed at anyone thought to be against them, and even physical confrontation.
Weeks after he won the election, most still don't really know Trump's position on many key issues.
How They Govern
These recent years of the Republican majority control, first in the Congressional House of Representatives and then control of the Senate are very telling. The tradition of compromise that was the foundation of our democratic process has been replaced with their 'my way or the highway approach'. They would rather see the government shutdown perhaps even be torn down than give even an inch to reach a compromise position. Since compromise is not considered an option, they assume obstructionist positions when they do not have the comprehensive power required to force their agenda preferring to see nothing accomplished unless they can have everything they want.Another aberrant behavior that has emerged in the Republican Legislative Caucuses is the tendency to vote as a unanimous block leaving little to no room for compromise or bipartisan efforts. State and Federal legislators should be accountable first to their constituents and second to their conscience, but when the need to be accountable to their constituents is virtually eliminated by gerrymander, to whom are they accountable. As it turns out, they are accountable to the Republican Party because if they don't follow the Party line they can be 'primaried' (i.e. challenged in a primary race) where they can be defeated. There is no need to be accountable to constituents and conscience is not an options if it goes against Party lines.
Additionally, they recognize the value of a judicial system uncompromisingly stacked in their favor and do everything in their power to see these positions are filled with like minded individuals. The cabal has carefully studied the Constitution and its system of checks and balances. These checks and balances are intended to keep the government honest and on an even keel, but properly manipulated, it can render absolute control to the mastermind of that manipulation.
There is an abundance and commonality of anti-LBGT and anti-abortion tactics that are similar in function and form that are likely a backlash to the Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage. These bills are believed to have been engineered in the same place by a large network of conservative lawyers called Alliance Defending Freedom whose CEO Alan Sears is a former Reagan-era Justice Department official and author of The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today. These laws are not the result of public outcry in the states where they are being introduced into law. They originate in these cabal think tanks and are sent to the states to be rubber stamped into state laws by the Republican majority legislatures.
After winning an election Republican candidate from an opposition incumbent assume the role of conquering warriors who on entering the new government sack all the offending things done by opposition elected officials (e.g. Trump's endless array of Executive Orders and the attempted repeal of Obamacare). Bearing in mind their own proclivity to sack and burn, the defeated Republican governor from North Carolina in a parting shot worked with the Republican controlled Legislature prior to his departure to passed two laws to limit the incoming Democratic governor's power.
Scope of the Assault
This battle for control our democracy is not limited to just the Federal Government. Concerted campaigns have enabled Republican control of most state level government. After years of careful study and strategic execution, these state government strongholds are actively engaged in trying, quite successfully, to enable minority positions to have their say imposed over that of the majority using tactics of the are quite simple and consistent with our democracies current rules of engagement.
These state legislatures are critical to their comprehensive strategy of control. They are the stageing ground for the suppression of dissenting positions with diluting dissenters with gerrymandering districts of representation and hindering dissenter access to their voting rights with voter ID requirements, fewer polling places, and reduced time polling place are available.
After the Republican defeat in 2012 presidential election, Republicans openly discussed the possibility of tying Electoral College vote allocation to the gerrymandered congressional districts so that they could do to the presidential election what they are already doing to dilute dissenting opinions in the Federal and state legislatures. Allocating Electoral College votes by gerrymandered district would super size the advantage they have in the existing Electoral College which already promotes a tendency to slightly increase presidential voter significance to the states that have smaller population many of which are solid red Republican.
The numbers emerging from the past few elections indicate their approach is also very successful.
The Chink in Their Armor
The Trump stunning victory was clearly not what the cabal leaders wanted from the beginning of this presidential election season. In fact, his surprise victory was due in large part to voter reaction to years of very blatant meddling in the election process by the self-interested very rich. It was clear to everyone that the elections were being bought by those with money for the sole purpose of ensuring their continued unfair economic privilege. Every traditional candidate had to have some billionaire's support to fund their campaign (thanks to the Citizens United decision), and this shameless pandering to these billionaire benefactors was done very openly.
Trump's only appeal to voters was the fact that he created the appearance that he was beholden to no one. He was quick to criticize the billionaire walk of shame that every other presidential candidate was forced to make, and this criticism was part of his appeal to the common man voters. They in furn were willing to forgive his every misstep and gaff. He was caught in lies, flip-flopped on issues, was rude, crude, and abusive to women, and clearly unqualified in experience, knowledge, and temperament for the job, but they (men and women) supported him anyway.
Every attempt by the Republican cabal to derail him failed. These failures exposed the one major flaw in their ambitious and otherwise so successful ploy. The millions of foot-soldiers (i.e. base voters mostly in it for the ideals) for their efforts had been callously used and all they got in return for a few token favors while the cabal leaders walked away all the money and tangible rewards.
The curious thing about the Republican cabal is that only one of these three ideological factions actually realized the big windfall. The other two factions which actually generate the voting numbers required to make the cabal work were typically left disappointed as their specific goals are only marginally or not at all realized.
The Christian Religious Right are promised judges and legislation that would support their crazy and in many cases unconstitutional ideas about women's reproductive health and relentless persecution of the LBGT community. The xenophobes and racists are promised border walls, mass deportation of foreigners, and voter suppression. In return, they pretty much gave up everything; jobs, healthcare, and hope for the future.
Curiously, the very rich with the smallest population minority position of the three actually got something they could use in the form of real large tax breaks and a multitude of sweetheart government deals and subsidies. In shady business matter like those that lead to the 2008 Great Recession, they took everything leaving the middle-class of this country picked clean of anything of value.
This highly skewed disparity favoring the rich was apparent to those in the other factions. Early on, their disaffection was successfully scapegoated onto outside parties like the Democrats or immigrants. These scapegoat excuses were propagated on cabal friendly media such as Fox News, but after years of hearing the same old lies, the voting ranks who support the cabal were in full revolt. The scathing realization of these years of extreme disparity forced this election to spiral out of its usual cabal careful control.
The Other Shoe to Fall
During the course of this election, the subterfuge may have gotten out out hand when the Russians were discovered to be trying to intercede in the election process to favor the election of Trump. The U.S. Intelligence community determined with "high confidence" that Russia's interference had helped Trump win the election and reported numerous instances of that interference such as:
- A KGB sponsored Russian think tank prepared a report describing ways to interfere the U.S. presidential election in Trump's favor.
- The Russian intelligence groups Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear were determined to be responsible for hacking Democratic groups and individuals and releasing that information via third-party websites, including WikiLeaks though Putin had denied Russian 'state-level' involvement.
- Russia used paid social media trolls and developed/decimated fake news stories as part of the influence campaign's messaging strategy in concert with other cyber-activity.
- Russian intelligence in an attempt to continue to developing these capabilities are believed to have already begun a spear-phishing campaign targeting US government employees and individuals associated with US think tanks and NGOs in national security, defense, and foreign policy fields.
In deploying the hacked emails and fake news, Russia exploited the very same election manipulation mechanism used by the cabal in the form of Political Action Committees and dubious internet news sources.
With the success in the US presidential election, Russia is reputed to want to apply these lessons learned to future influence efforts worldwide, including against US allies and their election processes. Evidence of this intention has been claimed in the recent Germany election and in the ongoing presidential election in France.
So far in the Russian interference investigation,
- Flinn has resigned as National Security Adviser and later sought a plea deal for testimony,
- Sessions perhaps perjured himself and recused himself from the investigation, and
- Nunes pulled some outlandish stunt which resulted in his resignation as lead of a congressional investigation,
These allegation are only preliminary with direct mention to only one individual so far, but the possibility several other may eventually be snared in this net is currently being speculated. Perhaps, greater depths of the workings of the cabal will be exposed as the investigation unfolds.
Conclusion
Certainly, fringe elements are common in all political parties, but these particular Republican fringe ideologies have demonstrated behaviors that have made many people feel uncomfortable and even fear for their personal safety. Additionally, the transition process for this new Republican administration to assume complete control of the Federal government of this country (i.e. Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches) has also been fraught with many decisions that reinforce concern about many of these behavior concerns observed during the election.
Make no doubt about the fact that this manipulation of our government process is being planned, organized, and executed to affect a complete control of our democracy by a well-organized and not so well-intentioned minority, and it may be too late to stop them.
Make no doubt about the fact that this manipulation of our government process is being planned, organized, and executed to affect a complete control of our democracy by a well-organized and not so well-intentioned minority, and it may be too late to stop them.
