A political Bizarro World

Yet another example of the Political Party reversal I discussed in Success? Serving Others. I said:

I think I have mentioned it in the past in the context of foreign affairs and international relations but I am struck by the reversal of the stereotypes I carry from my youth (and which to some extent you still see today) between Democrats and Republicans.

In my youth I had the impression of Democrats being the party for global engagement, trade and exchange and the Republicans being isolationist and xenophobic. Today it is, in terms of policy, largely the reverse. When exactly did that happen?

Likewise with the stereotypes around interpersonal relations. Democrats were the ones who were about individualism, community involvement, serving others, giving more than receiving and Republicans were supposed to be about greed and self-interest and subjugation of individual to national interests. Today, in terms of policy and measured evidence, it seems again like the roles have been reversed.

James Taranto points out a new example of Political Party Reversals in Loyalty Oafs. Back in the 1950's and McCarthyism, Loyalty Oaths were administered by government and private parties to ensure that Communists were not employed by the government or industry. G.K. Chesterton had a humorous comment on the touching American faith in asking straight questions and expecting straight answers. From G.K. Chesterton's What I Saw in America. He is relating to the different practices and how "A man is perfectly entitled to laugh at a thing because he happens to find it incomprehensible. What he has no right to do is to laugh at it as incomprehensible, and then criticise it as if he comprehended it. To illustrate his point he describes his visit to the American Embassy for his visas.

The officials I interviewed were very American, especially in being very polite; for whatever may have been the mood or meaning of Martin Chuzzlewit, I have always found Americans by far the politest people in the world. They put in my hands a form to be filled up, to all appearance like other forms I had filled up in other passport offices. But in reality it was very different from any form I had ever filled up in my life. At least it was a little like a freer form of the game called 'Confessions' which my friends and I invented in our youth; an examination paper containing questions like, 'If you saw a rhinoceros in the front garden, what would you do?' One of my friends, I remember, wrote, 'Take the pledge.' But that is another story, and might bring Mr. Pussyfoot Johnson on the scene before his time.

One of the questions on the paper was, 'Are you an anarchist?' To which a detached philosopher would naturally feel inclined to answer, 'What the devil has that to do with you? Are you an atheist?' along with some playful efforts to cross-examine the official about what constitutes an [Greek: arche]. Then there was the question, 'Are you in favour of subverting the government of the United States by force?' Against this I should write, 'I prefer to answer that question at the end of my tour and not the beginning.' The inquisitor, in his more than morbid curiosity, had then written down, 'Are you a polygamist?' The answer to this is, 'No such luck' or 'Not such a fool,' according to our experience of the other sex. But perhaps a better answer would be that given to W. T. Stead when he circulated the rhetorical question, 'Shall I slay my brother Boer?'--the answer that ran, 'Never interfere in family matters.' But among many things that amused me almost to the point of treating the form thus disrespectfully, the most amusing was the thought of the ruthless outlaw who should feel compelled to treat it respectfully. I like to think of the foreign desperado, seeking to slip into America with official papers under official protection, and sitting down to write with a beautiful gravity, 'I am an anarchist. I hate you all and wish to destroy you.' Or, 'I intend to subvert by force the government of the United States as soon as possible, sticking the long sheath-knife in my left trouser-pocket into Mr. Harding at the earliest opportunity.' Or again, 'Yes, I am a polygamist all right, and my forty-seven wives are accompanying me on the voyage disguised as secretaries.' There seems to be a certain simplicity of mind about these answers; and it is reassuring to know that anarchists and polygamists are so pure and good that the police have only to ask them questions and they are certain to tell no lies.

But back to the topic of Loyalty Oaths. Republicans used to be fans of Loyalty Oaths back in the 1950's. "Are you now or have you ever been . . ." etc. But as Republicans have become (or returned to) their Classical Liberal roots (Adam Smith, David Hume, Locke, et al.), they moved away from that statist nonsense.

So who is calling for loyalty oaths now? Democrats! Or at least a Democrat pundit, Jonathan Alter in The United States Needs Corporate "Loyalty Oaths". There could be all sorts of discussion about the specifics of the proposal. What strikes me though, is the Political Party Reversal. It is as if we are occupying a political Bizarro World (of the Superman comics of my youth).