Prescient (Today's Word of The Day)

Back in 1952, Earl Warren, three-time Republican Governor of California, warned of a ‘a withering right wing’.

Way before the Tea Party was even a wicked gleam in a Koch brother's eye, way before the implementation of the Southern Strategy by the Republican Party, Warren was troubled by wingnut subversion of traditional conservatism. When asked to explain he said:

"You know the people who believe that anything that is done for them represents social progress but if it’s done for anybody else it represents socialism."

If he hadn't bought the farm in 1974, I'm sure Warren would be feeling pretty vindicated round about now. This 26-word summation (almost a proto-tweet) explains the whole gamut of wingnut philosophy: f*ck everyone else. From the 50s tighty-righties thru 'baggers yelling "Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare" to all those icky little initiatives being advanced by Boehner's GOP to disadvantage just about every group but the fat, white and stupid voting block, conservative selfishness just keeps on trucking.

Everything the wingnuts represent - anti-intellectualism, anti-pragmatism, anti-pluralism, anti-populism, a feudal mindset that values the interests of the rich over the common good - it's all there, summed up in Warren's prescient words.