The House Freedom Caucus misfires, right off the bat

I've never quite grasped the necessity of mission statements, and that of the newly established House Freedom Caucus — the farther-right alternative to the House's far-right Republican Study Committee — is a barking testament to my incomprehension:

"The House Freedom Caucus gives a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them. We support open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans," the mission statement reads.

Well, how nice. Too nice. Nobody "feels" that Washington represents them, but that scarcely makes tea-partying wingnuts of us all. And who doesn't support every elusive virtue, from accountability to the rule of law, as well as every commonsensical objective, let's say, "prosperity"? And all those opposed to liberty? Please feel free to raise your hands, notwithstanding the contradiction.

Thus the first official act of the rogue-going House Freedom Caucus is a declaration of absolute mush — a bit like party platforms, except that platforms used to mean something, while the Caucus' mission statement never will.

The HFC has missed a splendid opportunity to say exactly what it's all about: that it's a feral bunch of pseudoconservative misfits, even for the modern Republican Party — which in itself says a lot — hellbent on destroying any last vestige of genuine conservatism that may yet survive the party's increasingly rigorous tests of ideological purity.

Now that's a mission statement whose necessary authenticity I could have grasped.

 

Comments

[William Caulfield]

If you do not support Liberty, you will be forced to support Liberty. Supporting Liberty is non-negotiable.

[Peter G]

When in the course of political events, it becomes necessary for one faction to dissolve the bands which have connected them with another virtually identical faction, and to assume among the Kooks of the Earth,the meaningless drivel and unobjectionable desires of everyone on earth, the indistinguishable and equal use thereof to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God paradoxically and exclusively entitle them, an absolute lack of respect for the opinions of all mankind that is not them requires that they should hurl poop like a demented monkey in a primate exhibit at the zoo.----

The Preamble to the Declaration Of Absolute Mush ( a lesser known American Historical document)