There are a lot of bad ideas to choose from in the world, but even I'm a little surprised by the realization that the Republican Party isn't really their chief promoter - in fact, they have no ideas whatsoever. When in power, they do nothing. Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. They sit on their asses sipping champagne, accumulating money, open the taxpayer spigot to the least worthy and least in need, and then just sit back and watch American civilization hemmorhage with a self-satisfied, shit-eating grin on their sneering faces. And if anyone other than Republicans dares to hold public office, then the sole objective of the GOP in dealing with them is to stop them from doing anything either. There is no actual plan behind it, or agenda, or philosophy, or even really ideology - just a kind of unconscious reptilian compulsion.
Even when a Republican does come up with an awesomely bad, nightmarish idea, they always sabotage themselves long before anyone else has a chance to stop them. I remember the era from 2001-2006, when the Bush regime had cloaked itself in the imagery of world domination and cultivated a messianic aura around its agenda that had the evangelicals in near-ecstasy. It was indeed chilling for about half that time, but after a while something became clear that was both a relief and a horror unto itself: They really had no intention of doing anything to make these grandiose ambitions come about - they were just murdering and thieving for the hell of it, to grab a few (trillion) bucks here and there, dance on the bones of an enemy of the Bush family, and then just sit on their asses feeling like masters of a world they had zero control over.
This was a turning point in my understanding of what the Republican Party had become, and the nature of the disease that feeds it. They desperately try to cultivate rage when they haven't suffered at all in generations, so the best they can come up with is "Well, I'm comfortable, but I don't like the idea of you having the chance to be comfortable too," and what comes out of it is the kind of petty, self-involved swamp muck that passes for evil these days. I've made my fair share of Nazi analogies to these bigoted cretins, but in fact they seem more akin to a different sort of Germans - the kind who says "Ve believes in nossing, Lebowski! Give us ze money or ve cut off your johnson!" A silly, cartoonish burlesque of criminal depravity and infantile solipsism.
The Bush regime said they were going to bring "democracy" to Iraq, but they violently resisted its emergence at every turn both there and at home. Based on a deeper assessment of their trajectory, we said they were going to steal Iraq's oil, but they failed to take even the most common-sense measures to build a functioning imperial economy despite trying to rule Iraq as if they already had one. To truly understand what they were doing, we just have to accept the fact that they didn't actually have any real plans, intentions, or an underlying philosophical or ideological basis for their actions - they were just acting on impulse moment-by-moment, and counting on semi-competent subordinates to run around like decapitated chickens trying to make sense of it all. They want power above all else, but their desire for it is a rudimentary barbarian lust without any capacity for genuine passion, instead flailing drunkenly and getting less capable with time rather than learning from mistakes.
But more prosaically, what exactly is the Republican record of achievement? None of them run on it, because it doesn't exist - not unless one goes so far back in time as to cite actions they now overwhelmingly oppose. We know they've vastly inflated the bank accounts of the wealthiest 0.000001%, but whose lives have they improved? Anyone? Bueller? They create no opportunities, make no discoveries, build nothing, make nothing, do nothing, are nothing. They make this country a less beautiful, less functional, less productive, less creative, less innovative, less imaginative, less human, and less inspiring place every day they have any role in its government. They're like the background heat-entropy that's left over when all form has been obliterated, all possibilities exhausted, and no future remains. It's existentially horrific watching them in action, like watching shadows fuck and spawn baby shadows, and it's just about time to turn the floodlights on these useless miscreants so they can go back to professions more in keeping with their nature: Endangered animal poachers and used car salesmen.
Soundtrack to what remains of the Republican soul: