BEg2 chapter 17 (hey who’s on 18th?) Republican sins qua text

Michael Bailey michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
Tue Feb 8 09:46:57 UTC 2022


Mark Kohut wrote:

“But going back to the text, Republican could easily mean and in fact with
the sweeping histories involved
probably does mostly mean, the US Republic......You know, as Franklin said,
"a Republic if you can keep it"
associatively.

And the words are not Maxine's I would now say. Free indirect discourse...”


We know from Slow Learner that (at least he sez) he doesn’t like to
write purely to embody particular ideas; I think that means political
ideas too.

The guy has a way with words. Wrangling with the text is half the fun.

The broader sense of “republic” is one possible spinoff.

That particular phrase that he has his way with - “Republican sins
forever unremitted,” popped into the list of lamentable alterations to
the landscape - seems custom built to tease reflections.

1) as Joseph states, Republicans haven’t got a monopoly on sin

2) sins that are specifically Republican would be maximizing, rather
than optimizing, wealth and the wealthy - and the twisting of
discourse to choke out the ideals of fairness, accountability, common
interest, public projects for the good of all, and social safety nets,
which are essential and should be complementary to the pursuit of
wealth.

3) “sin” connotes a religious standpoint; in this brief diatribe it
seems to be used unironically.

4) forever unremitted seems to point to permanent damage? This seems
indicative of Maxine’s state of mind - “so far unremitted” can be
proven, but “forever” not so much. She’s pessimistically extrapolating
based on incomplete data.

5) there’s a cluster of definitions around “remission”

6) “avoidance of penalty” is one; this could mean the actual penalties
to our society for the success of successful Republican initiatives -
“preemptive” aggressive warfare being the worst, but also, persistence
of the racist filibuster, and the un-representative Congress - are
still being exacted.

7) another definition stresses the formal granting of remission by an
authorized priest under such conditions as repentance. The renegade
Republican stance is unrepentant and not seeking formal remission -
exemplified for instance by William Buckley in his “mother, but not
teacher” article where he - though a Catholic - told the Pope where to
take his gentle admonition and guidance.


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