The Friends of Abe has acted as a clandestine club for Hollywood conservatives for more than a decade, hosting secret events where they could vent rightwing views and hear speeches from visiting Tea Party luminaries.
But on Thursday the organisation – which counts Jon Voight, Jerry Bruckheimer and Kelsey Grammer among its 1,500 members – made an abrupt announcement: it was dissolving.
“Effective immediately, we are going to begin to wind down the 501 c3 organization, bring the Sustaining Membership dues to an end, and do away with the costly infrastructure and the abespal.com website,” the executive director, Jeremy Boreing, told members in an email, a copy of which the Guardian has seen.
“Today, because we have been successful in creating a community that extends far beyond our events, people just don’t feel as much of a need to show up for every speaker or bar night, and fewer people pay the dues that help us maintain that large infrastructure.”
The announcement caught members by surprise and fueled speculation that infighting over Donald Trump’s candidacy, among other factors, had drained commitment. Others said the group had been losing steam for years. …
_________________________
Have you had your 2016 Moment? I think you probably have, or will.
The Moment is that sliver of time in which you fully realize something epochal is happening in politics, that there has never been a presidential year like 2016, and suddenly you are aware of it in a new, true and personal way. It tends to involve a poignant sense of dislocation, a knowledge that our politics have changed and won’t be going back.
We’ve had a lot to absorb—the breaking of a party, the rise of an outlandish outsider; a lurch to the left in the other party, the popular rise of a socialist. Alongside that, the enduring power of a candidate even her most ardent supporters accept as corrupt. Add the lowering of standards, the feeling of no options, the coarsening, and all the new estrangements.
The Moment is when it got to you, or when it fully came through. …
… a sob welled up and I literally put my hands to my face and sobbed, silently, for I suppose a minute.
Because my country is in trouble.
Because I felt anguish at all the estrangements.
Because some things that shouldn’t have changed have changed.
Because too much is being lost. Because the great choice in a nation of 320 million may come down to Crazy Man versus Criminal.
And yes, I know this is all personal, and not column-ish.
But that was my Moment.
You’ll feel better the next day, I promise, but you won’t be able to tell yourself that this is history as usual anymore. This is big, what we’re living through.
_____________________________
“Lately conservative thinkers and journalists had taken to making clear their disdain for the white working class. I had actually not known they looked down on them. I deeply resented it and it pained me. If you’re a writer lucky enough to have thoughts and be paid to express them and there are Americans on the ground struggling, suffering—some of them making mistakes, some unlucky—you don’t owe them your airy, well-put contempt, you owe them your loyalty.”
— Peggy Noonan (from the article above)
Karen, Gary Johnson is the best governor we have had in my voting lifetime. He was fair with his line item vetoes. I don’t agree with his stance on abortion, but it does follow the libertarian thought process. I could be a libertarian if I had any faith in my fellow man. People do not seem to know right from wrong these days.
One of the points one of my Libertarian friends makes is to remind us that our government is made up of people who are just as corrupt & sinful as the ones we don’t trust in our personal lives, but they have more power than the average citizen.
Something that occurred to me recently, in reference to morality, is that the government has followed the lead of the people. IOW, our people have already chosen to support various sins that then become “acceptable” through law. Our government is not holding back any onslaught of sin.
One discussion that YF & I had a couple years ago had to do with my wish for smaller government & her belief that government “takes care of us”. In frustration, she wrote an impassioned post listing a bunch of horrors that were originally thought up by private citizens. I don’t remember what they were, but I think one of them was one of the ways to gas Jews during WWII. I pointed out to her that none of those private citizens could have gotten very far with those horrors if it weren’t for the governments that ran with them. (She did not reply to that.)
As for abortion, Libertarians are split on that. I’ve also learned that there are capital-L Libertarians & lower case-l libertarians. 🙂
I should have explained that. What I meant by “capital-L Libertarians & lower case-l libertarians” is that not all people who consider themselves libertarians, or are attracted to those ideas, are aligned with the Libertarian party.
Fair points, Karen, though I still think the most logical way forward(or at least I did think this before the 2016 disaster campaign) is to incorporate smaller government and states’ rights principles BACK into the Republican Party rather than to break away with a niche movement that will further weaken the conservative movement
Wandering Views 
A dangerous world.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/21/four-saudi-shockers-60-minutes-left-out-of-their-28-pages-report/
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http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/21/secretive-hollywood-conservative-group-dissolves-trump
________________________
The Friends of Abe has acted as a clandestine club for Hollywood conservatives for more than a decade, hosting secret events where they could vent rightwing views and hear speeches from visiting Tea Party luminaries.
But on Thursday the organisation – which counts Jon Voight, Jerry Bruckheimer and Kelsey Grammer among its 1,500 members – made an abrupt announcement: it was dissolving.
“Effective immediately, we are going to begin to wind down the 501 c3 organization, bring the Sustaining Membership dues to an end, and do away with the costly infrastructure and the abespal.com website,” the executive director, Jeremy Boreing, told members in an email, a copy of which the Guardian has seen.
“Today, because we have been successful in creating a community that extends far beyond our events, people just don’t feel as much of a need to show up for every speaker or bar night, and fewer people pay the dues that help us maintain that large infrastructure.”
The announcement caught members by surprise and fueled speculation that infighting over Donald Trump’s candidacy, among other factors, had drained commitment. Others said the group had been losing steam for years. …
_________________________
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From Peggy Noonan:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/that-moment-when-2016-hits-you-1461281849
_____________________________
Have you had your 2016 Moment? I think you probably have, or will.
The Moment is that sliver of time in which you fully realize something epochal is happening in politics, that there has never been a presidential year like 2016, and suddenly you are aware of it in a new, true and personal way. It tends to involve a poignant sense of dislocation, a knowledge that our politics have changed and won’t be going back.
We’ve had a lot to absorb—the breaking of a party, the rise of an outlandish outsider; a lurch to the left in the other party, the popular rise of a socialist. Alongside that, the enduring power of a candidate even her most ardent supporters accept as corrupt. Add the lowering of standards, the feeling of no options, the coarsening, and all the new estrangements.
The Moment is when it got to you, or when it fully came through. …
… a sob welled up and I literally put my hands to my face and sobbed, silently, for I suppose a minute.
Because my country is in trouble.
Because I felt anguish at all the estrangements.
Because some things that shouldn’t have changed have changed.
Because too much is being lost. Because the great choice in a nation of 320 million may come down to Crazy Man versus Criminal.
And yes, I know this is all personal, and not column-ish.
But that was my Moment.
You’ll feel better the next day, I promise, but you won’t be able to tell yourself that this is history as usual anymore. This is big, what we’re living through.
_____________________________
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“Lately conservative thinkers and journalists had taken to making clear their disdain for the white working class. I had actually not known they looked down on them. I deeply resented it and it pained me. If you’re a writer lucky enough to have thoughts and be paid to express them and there are Americans on the ground struggling, suffering—some of them making mistakes, some unlucky—you don’t owe them your airy, well-put contempt, you owe them your loyalty.”
— Peggy Noonan (from the article above)
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Here’s an article with some info on Libertarian Gary Johnson. (This is not an endorsement on my part, just offering it as an item of interest.)
http://theodysseyonline.com/columbus-st/gary-johnson-for-dummies/383068
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Karen, Gary Johnson is the best governor we have had in my voting lifetime. He was fair with his line item vetoes. I don’t agree with his stance on abortion, but it does follow the libertarian thought process. I could be a libertarian if I had any faith in my fellow man. People do not seem to know right from wrong these days.
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rkessler “I could be a libertarian if I had any faith in my fellow man. People do not seem to know right from wrong these days.”
Exactly.
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One of the points one of my Libertarian friends makes is to remind us that our government is made up of people who are just as corrupt & sinful as the ones we don’t trust in our personal lives, but they have more power than the average citizen.
Something that occurred to me recently, in reference to morality, is that the government has followed the lead of the people. IOW, our people have already chosen to support various sins that then become “acceptable” through law. Our government is not holding back any onslaught of sin.
One discussion that YF & I had a couple years ago had to do with my wish for smaller government & her belief that government “takes care of us”. In frustration, she wrote an impassioned post listing a bunch of horrors that were originally thought up by private citizens. I don’t remember what they were, but I think one of them was one of the ways to gas Jews during WWII. I pointed out to her that none of those private citizens could have gotten very far with those horrors if it weren’t for the governments that ran with them. (She did not reply to that.)
As for abortion, Libertarians are split on that. I’ve also learned that there are capital-L Libertarians & lower case-l libertarians. 🙂
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I should have explained that. What I meant by “capital-L Libertarians & lower case-l libertarians” is that not all people who consider themselves libertarians, or are attracted to those ideas, are aligned with the Libertarian party.
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Fair points, Karen, though I still think the most logical way forward(or at least I did think this before the 2016 disaster campaign) is to incorporate smaller government and states’ rights principles BACK into the Republican Party rather than to break away with a niche movement that will further weaken the conservative movement
LikeLiked by 1 person