Pardon me, but has anyone else noticed the hard right's tendency to isolate themselves from adversity, differing opinions, and …pretty much everything? If there is a group the GOP has not alienated in the past five or six years, I'd like to know who they are.
The Pope doesn't know Christianity. There's a good one for you. But that's what these Johnny-come-lately Republicans are saying. Let's take a stroll back through time and see how far we would have to go back to find a Republican presidential figure who would recoil at this sort of brazen stupidity.
Romney would probably leap at the chance to call the Pope a commie. It's not hard to envision that at all. After all, Romney flip-flopped on virtually everything he ever said on the campaign trail just to pander to whomever it was he was addressing at the time. Remember all that debate rhetoric that blind-sided Obama because it ran completely counter to what Romney had said just months, weeks, or even days earlier? If he thought his current audience wanted to hear it, Romney would grasp the chance to sink the Pope in turmoil at the drop of a hat.
What about Gee Dubya Shrub? That's not very hard to envision, either. He is infamous for rather ill-advised remarks, as well as poorly enunciated and equally poorly thought out conclusions. Dissing the Pope fits right into his established profile.
The elder Bush would have most certainly avoided this kind of controversy, as would Saint Ronnie. The current Party of Self-Destruction has developed its latest foolish permutation just since George H. W. Bush's administration. In the Republican edifice there are remnants of civility and intelligence that are hold-overs from earlier times, but predominantly the GOP today desires extremism and rigidity more than anything else. Oh, yeah, votes. I forgot votes and elections. The GOP would really REALLY like to see more votes. But wanting them and knowing how to find them are two different things. It's apparently a challenge the current crop of ultra-conservatives is incapable of meeting.
Thinking of remnants of the Old Guard Republicans, we are reminded of John McCain. He is clearly a dangerous hawk of the nth magnitude. He would probably authorize a bombing run on Canada because of socialized medicine. But at least he does have some heavily redeeming characteristics. He's not adverse to controversy, but you won't hear him dissing the Pope. He may be one of the few remaining party leaders who still have the rapidly disappearing triumvirate of a spine, a conscience, and a heart. And he probably didn't even need the Wizard of Oz to get them.
It's not difficult to see the rationale for the GOPs swing to the hard right wing. They put up a moderate in McCain and got stomped. Since then they have danced to the tune of extremism under the false impression that this is where victory must lie. Extremism has given us the Tea Party. Extremism has given us the most obstructionist Congress in the history of the nation. With the government shutdown and threat of default, it has given us the most dangerous flirtation with financial ruin since the Great Depression. And extremism is going to give us another bizarre right-wing radical candidate in 2016, ensuring yet another Democratic victory in what used to be characterized as a "race" for the White House.
The race has vanished. The race has become a parade. Now the country sees a foolishly isolated Republican candidate running against someone who has deliberately chosen NOT to alienate whole populations of voters. The 2016 GOP candidate will fully embrace calling out the Pope for not know anything about Christianity.
Selecting candidates like the inimitable Sarah Palin, they have been called the Party of Stupid. Pushing the TeaAnderthals down our throats, they have been called the Party of No, and the Party of Intimidation.
Through consistent rejections of job creation, of taxing those most able to pay, and of health care for the masses, the once-proud Party of Fiscal Responsibility has given way to the Party of Self-Defeat. They will stop an nothing to alienate yet another group of voters. Women, gays, youth, Hispanics, "liberals," teachers, union members, environmentalists, scientists, and now Roman Catholics. What's next, licensed drivers?