The candidates mentioned Reagan’s name 19 times, the current White House occupant’s once. Much as the Republicans hope that the Gipper can still be a panacea for all their political ills, so they want to believe that if only President Bush would just go away and take his rock-bottom approval rating and equally unpopular war with him, all of their problems would be solved. But it could be argued that the Iraq fiasco, disastrous to American interests as it is, actually masks the magnitude of the destruction this presidency has visited both on the country in general and the G.O.P. in particular.
This week we have an expanded Frank Rich edition wherein I reference other articles to bolster his almost always incredibly insightful point. The massive wrong doing we are seeing uncovered is literally the rest of the iceberg.
Virtually every government office in this administration is utterly and totally corrupted, having been sublimated from whatever job the office was supposed to accomplish to keeping right wing Christian extremists in power. We have talked about this many times. Three years ago an researcher at the FDA quit and spoke out and warned us that the ideologues installed at the FDA would keep the FDA from protecting us. The result? E coli kills us with Republican incompetence. Just one example of what happens when barely educated Republican campaign operatives it run public broadcasting, the FCC, the EPA, you name it.
This non-uniter is having a hard time appealing to the loose confederation of extremists, all of whom are in shock as their dreamgasm war has turned into an international debacle and the largest debt laden albatross ever hung on America. Despite the compliant press. Yet the press missed one more thing. They missed the radical nature of the incoming presidency, instead trading access and schmoozing for the type of hard-hitting journalism that once comprised most news broadcasts.
A week or so ago ten middle-aged white Republican debaters gathered, David Letterman said like "guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club."
Since then, panicked Republicans have been either blaming the "Let’s Make a Deal" debate format or praying for salvation-by-celebrity in the form of another middle-aged white guy who might enter the race, Fred Thompson. They don’t seem to get that there is not another major brand in the country — not Wal-Mart, not G.E., not even Denny’s nowadays — that would try to sell a mass product with such a demographically homogeneous sales force. And that’s only half the problem. The other half is that the Republicans don’t have a product to sell. Aside from tax cuts and a wall on the Mexican border, the only issue that energized the presidential contenders was Ronald Reagan. The debate’s most animated moments by far came as they clamored to lip-sync his "optimism," his "morning in America," his "shining city on the hill" and even, in a bizarre John McCain moment out of a Chucky movie, his grin.
John Dilulo, running faith based programs was one of the first Bushies to jump ship because he warned there was no policy apparatus- campaigners decided policy- with policy being run by Mike Browns and Monica Goodlings and idiot political operatives, GOP contributors have been given free passes to felonious activity: Diebold was allowed to create havoc and confusion and many still believe that Ohio was hacked, as was Florida, not once, but both the last presidential elections; and if held fairly would have seen a defeated Bush. Insurance companies were allowed to actually write US law. Energy Companies wrote US policy n secrecy and still will not give us the script we are supposed to be following. Pundits are paid off and planted to shill Bush policies and keep their funding and lack of of dependence a secret. The period to the end of this sentence could be extended to cover torture, tax fraud, theft and war profiteering and go on for another 200 pages. Pro fossil fule usage advocates are in charge of the EPA, anti science nuts are in charge of education and wouldn’t you know it: no black attorneys have been hired to the civil rights division in years.
And so the first M.B.A. president ignored every rule of sound management. Loyal ideologues or flunkies were put in crucial positions regardless of their ethics or competence. Government business was outsourced to campaign contributors regardless of their ethics or competence. Even orthodox Republican fiscal prudence was tossed aside so Congressional allies could be bought off with bridges to nowhere.
So yes, a Reagan Administration at least had integrity. At least people from both sides of the aisle were allowed in and no park ranger ever had to take an oath to Bush. But this brand of Republicans are Stalinists. They spread propaganda like the Nazis and to stymie the accusation against them, they level it against the Democrats. If you doubt that even the police forces of the country haven’t been politicized, consider this: This last week federal prosecutors in Oregon defined charges in filings on arson and sabotage of 10 radical environmentalists amounted to terrorism. Of course we don’t see Christian nation or God Hates Fags or the KKK called terrorists.
There is no end to the perfidy deeply rooted in every part of the US government. It has been stated that the Iraqi Army is a fiction. Actually, The Republican Party is a fiction. These are not patriotic fiscal conservatives that read Ayn Rand. These Republicans are a mixture of sell out corporate consultants blowing the K Street devils for their mammon, and anti- gay anti-science Christianist bigots. This was a takeover. And we will see the thugs scramble for the door when the light is turned on. Just like cockroaches. Because all cockroaches need to stay around is a dark, damp place near a box of Chips Ahoy.
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