A Litany of Idiocy, or Why I No Longer Vote Republican
-Douglas B. McGaw (Emporia KS, Vietnam veteran)
dbmcgaw@sbcglobal.net
Let us start with some basic axioms:
1. Our economic health depends on our people being able to buy what they need, and afford to save up for what they want.
2. Our childrens’ future depends on maintaining a sound ecology, education and economy.
3. The stability of our society depends on our citizens having a high level of satisfaction with their lives.
4. The experience of the Great Depression shows that government spending is necessary to bring us back to prosperity in times of duress.
Corollaries to these axioms include (but are not limited to):
1. Access to affordable health care for all, including full access to womens’ healthcare.
2. Sharing the wealth enough so that one percent of the population does not own 80% of our resources.
3. Reversing environmental destruction.
4. Properly funding and supporting education for all.
5. Providing a minimum wage that allows for a standard of living that does not require government or charity support.
6. Insuring equality of opportunity for all regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
7. Providing infrastructure jobs to unemployed people as a means to help them and help the economy.
Now, let us review what the Republican Party is up to in their effort to win votes:
Fiscal issues:
1. Banking oversight: The GOP has supported and pushed for government policies that removed oversight on banks and lending institutions, thus destabilizing the economy.
2. Taxation: The GOP opposes any tax increases, even ones on those who can afford to pay them. They oppose closing any tax loopholes, even ones that benefit only the wealthy.
3. Debt/Deficit: The GOP is so obsessed with the debt and the deficit that they ignore the current needs of our economy to allow the government to create jobs and tackle the problems of our crumbling infrastructure. They are so obsessed with debt and the deficit that they ignore history which teaches us that government spending on jobs and unemployment is the surest and quickest way OUT of a recession. It is worth noting that in 5 years, despite GOP obstruction, Obama has reduced the debt by over half.
4. Sequester: Rather than accede to closing of tax loopholes for the rich (which they define as tax increases) they have forced us into the “sequester” whereby all spending is cut willy-nilly at a given percentage without concern over the relative necessity of the funding. (Note that the air traffic controllers were exempted from the sequester when it became evident that it would interfere with the Republicans’ ability to travel. Food stamps and school lunches, however, were not exempted.)
5. Government shutdown: In the attempt to force a defunding of Obamacare, the GOP shut down the government for over two weeks in October, causing untold hardship and expense, before relenting to public pressure.
6. Default: GOP hardliners would rather see us go into default than accept necessary social or jobs programs. They nearly forced a default in October 2013 and are threatening another attempt in January 2014.
The Role of Government:
1. Small government: The GOP intention to reduce the size of government is, of course, naïve. Worse, it is short-sighted and stupid. Government not only supports programs for the poor (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps and the like) but it also provides support for things that are generally considered essential and which simply cannot be supported or administered with private donations. Such programs would include police and fire departments, schools, jails, the armed services, the National Park Service, land management, and all sorts of research and development for health and national security. Government is essential in regulating commerce to insure that we are not arbitrarily victimized by – for example – bad drugs, poisoned food, and financial scam artists (especially those working under the legitimacy of the Wall Street umbrella.) Most significantly, government is the only agency that is able to effectively provide relief from natural disasters such as Katrina and Sandy. And to say, as many on the right do, that government doesn’t create jobs, is so obtuse and stupid that it would be funny if they weren’t so serious.
2. Tax and Spend: The irony of pinning this label on progressives is that the GOP is more at fault than any liberal agenda. During the Bush years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, those wars were unfunded mandates. Their policy of “don’t tax but still spend” is far more irresponsible than “tax and spend.”
3. Government and recession: In times of recession, virtually everyone except the GOP echo chamber knows that creating jobs – necessarily with government assistance and stimulus – is the first priority; if we do that right the debt issue will resolve itself over time. The lessons of the Great Depression are not that far away, and a little historical perspective supports the case… except for Republicans, whose preconceived opinions trump the facts.
Entitlements:
The GOP supports cutting or privatizing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits to the poor and middle class, while protecting welfare for the wealthy (entitlements for the rich) in the form of capital gains, exemptions on things like yachts, and the ability to hide wealth in offshore accounts.
Class warfare:
1. Disdain: The GOP has long had a disdain for the working class, the working poor, the middle class, the elderly, women, and the just plain poor. The disdain is most clearly seen in Romney’s remarks about the 47% and Paul Ryan’s remarks about takers vs makers, but they are only symptomatic of the larger disdain to be found in that party.
2. Minimum Wage: The GOP has consistently failed to support a minimum wage that is close to the minimum standard of living. Their argument – that raising the minimum wage reduces employment because employers will hire fewer workers – is simply not borne out by the facts of history. In any event, this argument assumes that they actually care about jobs for anyone in the lower strata.
Jobs:
While the GOP makes a lot of noise about “jobs” it does exactly nothing. In addition to obstructing every effort by the Obama administration to stimulate the economy by subsidizing infrastructure jobs, they try to throw the onus back on the administration by pointing out how little it has done.
The Iraq Disaster:
The GOP supported – and continues to support – lies that “justified” a war in Iraq and cost us dearly in blood and treasure. They have supported that war even as it – and the one in Afghanistan – has been waged without a budget to pay for either one; on the credit card, as it were. This is the main factor in our debt crisis today.
Unconstitutional Detention:
The GOP supports secretive tribunals without due process at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan. By forcing the Obama administration to keep Guantanamo open, they have effectively shielded unconstitutional detainment and even torture from the attention of the American public.
Veterans:
The GOP likes to claim that it is the party that supports our veterans, but this claim is most often observed in the breach. The party is all too ready to send our service members off to war and to suffer death or injury, but the funding for supporting them when they come home is sadly lacking. In 2012, we lost more soldiers (and ex-soldiers) to suicide than we did in Afghanistan. With adequately-funded resources for veterans, that would not be the case.
Disaster Aid:
In the past, when natural disasters such as Katrina or Camille hit, the nation and Congress quickly pulled together to aid those affected (putting aside for the moment the ways in which the Bush administration failed to react adequately to Katrina.) But in the wake of the Hurricane Sandy destruction in the northeast (a notably “blue” part of the country), the GOP held up financial aid to victims. The disaster hit at the end of October, but funding was not approved until late January, an unconscionable delay due to GOP agitation against the spending represented. Ignoring the fact that every dollar spent on disaster aid represents up to seven dollars returned to the economy, there is the basic humanitarian issue involved here.
Health Care:
1. The Affordable Care Act: The opposition by the GOP to the effort to provide health care for all with government support is an epic in itself. The opposition is rooted in their fundamental belief that such health care both increases costs and reduces quality of care. The examples of other industrialized nations puts the lie to both those assumptions, and the example set by Romenycare in Massachusetts does likewise.
2. Medicare and Medicaid: Ever since its inception over 40 years ago, the GOP has been trying to reverse Medicare or at least turn it into a private voucher system. Were a voucher system to be implemented, the odds that the GOP would allow sufficient funding to support it would be similar to the odds of their funding the No Children Left Behind Act, which they also pushed through – in other words, slim to none. As for Medicaid, those states that have not opted into the federal system are all ones dominated by Republicans and have deprived the poor of basic health services.
The Environment:
1. Climate Change: First, it is a given in the scientific community that climate change is real and that humans are the primary and proximate cause of that change. Those who deny climate change cite questionable and unscientific research, are fond of anecdotal “evidence,” and cherry-pick the examples they use. The GOP is the party where climate change deniers find refuge.
2. Renewable energy: The GOP supports the “drill baby, drill” approach to energy solutions, ignoring the fact that oil is a non-renewable resource and is also one that contributes tremendously to global warming. They denounce and decry renewable solutions such as solar and wind energy, saying they are not needed or don’t do enough or are too expensive.
3. Pipeline: An example of the GOP’s emphasis on oil over all is the fervor of their support for the Keystone Pipeline from Canada to Nebraska. This pipeline will carry tar sands oil. Cleanup of tar sands oil spills is difficult or impossible with current technology, yet statistics show that there is a pipeline failure rate of 6% during construction, and 60% over time. The pipeline would have long-lasting and devastating effect on farms and ground water and is insupportable.
4. Fracking: They also support “fracking,” a process whereby water is injected into deep wells to force oil out. While using precious water resources, this too can have devastating effects on ground water, and it also opens us up to the ever-present danger of sinkholes where the oil is extracted and the injected water is absorbed into the surrounding strata.
5. Environmental future: The long and short of the GOP “solutions” to energy is a disregard for the future and a disregard for the health and well-being of their constituents.
War Against Women:
1. Equal Pay: Despite their protests to the contrary, the GOP is engaged in an ongoing “war” against women’s rights and opportunities. It opposes equal pay for equal work where gender is concerned, as witness their opposition to the Lily Ledbetter Act.
2. Violence Against Women: It has resisted renewing the Violence Against Women Act and, until recently, has stalled attempts to reintroduce it.
3. Womens’ Health: It opposes the right for women to make decisions over their own bodies, feeling that the government has a legitimate interest in regulating pregnancies. This is ironic, since the situation not only invites comparison to the Communist Chinese experiment in regulating pregnancies, but the argument comes from a group claiming to be in favor of very little government intervention in our private lives. The hypocrisy is evident.
4. Abortion: The GOP has introduced legislation in almost every state aimed at making legal abortion nearly impossible to obtain, and in many states has succeeded in implementing that legislation. This will not eliminate abortions, but will reintroduce the back-alley abortions and coat-hanger procedures.
Freedom to Love:
The GOP opposes the right for all people to share love with and marry whomever they wish. The anti-gay agenda is beclouded with religious injunctions in the effort to deny civil rights to a class of people who, in no event, present any kind of threat to “the rest of us” – at least any threat that is not also present in heterosexual settings. It is instructive to remember that the Bible was also used to justify slavery not so long ago. While it seems that there is more “gay behavior” today than in the past, the only difference is that it is more open today – not more prevalent – and it exposes the failure of our society to provide equal protection under law to those people. Their civil rights are just as important and just as valid as the rights of African-Americans, Latinos, women, and other minorities that have had to struggle for their place in society.
Religion:
1. Fundamentalism: The GOP champions and supports the evangelical and fundamental expressions of Christianity. Beyond the gay rights issue, these groups also argue for things like enforcing traditional roles for men and women in a changing world, criticizing those who practice other religions or no religion at all, and promoting an anti-abortion amendment. None of this would be much of an issue if they heeded the First Amendment separation of church and state. Choosing to believe any of the above is a matter of personal choice, but trying to enact into law religious strictures that are not universally acceptable is unconstitutional. We live in a democracy, not a theocracy.
2. Biblical Literalism: Another classical religious tenet in the Christian tradition is that found in Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25, and Luke 18:25 where great wealth is equated with difficulty in entering the Kingdom of God (the camel passing through the eye of a needle analogy.) Disregarding the fact that Aramaic seems to use the same word for camel and rope, the point is that this is an unlikely event. When literal Christian belief – held by so many in the GOP – is juxtaposed to their defense of tax breaks for the wealthy, there is a tremendous gap in logic. Of course, strict adherence to the Bible would also require them to punish sinfulness by stoning others for adultery and literally plucking out their own eyes and cutting off their own hands.
3. Religious Freedom: Many in the GOP make much noise about “religious freedom” as if that were not already in place. But the “freedom” they want is the freedom to let their fundamentalist agenda be the only acceptable version of religious freedom. Ask the people arguing that we need more religious freedom to see if they concur with including atheists or Muslims. That will give you an idea of just how much “religious freedom” they support. This argument for more religious freedom usually centers around the Obamacare mandate for hospitals to provide certain services if they are to receive funds. The problem here is that the plaintiffs want to deny birth control or other services on religious grounds. This assumes that a particular religious point of view should trump government regulations, but such an approach would abrogate the separation of church and state mandated by the First Amendment.
Gun Violence:
1. Gun Safety: The GOP opposes any effort to limit the Second Amendment enough to enhance safety for ourselves and our children with common-sense solutions. The current movement toward universal background checks is a good but insufficient step and – even so – is opposed by many Republicans, so much so that they managed to filibuster it on the first try. The absolute right to bear arms of all types is evidently trumps the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To use an analogy, we as a society seem to have no difficulty with registering cars and licensing drivers for those cars. When drivers commit felonies or drive under the influence, they lose their right to drive. Cars may occasionally have lethal consequences, but guns are much more likely to be used for specifically lethal purposes. The logic of registering of guns and licensing of those users in a similar fashion would seem a no-brainer.
2. The Amendments: While the GOP considers the Second Amendment sacrosanct and virtually handed down by the will of God, the document in fact does specify that the right to bear arms is relegated to a “well-regulated militia” (or National Guard in modern terminology) and not specifically to individuals. The GOP does not seem to be as concerned with the First Amendment’s separation of church and state; the requirements for privacy and security covered by the Third and Fourth Amendments; the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Amendments’ right to due process, speedy trial and trial by jury in the case of the Guantanamo detainees; the Eight Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment – again in the case of Guantanamo; or the Ninth Amendment’s strictures against denying rights to minorities. The Tenth Amendment grants remaining powers to the States but does not allow the removal of rights – such as abortion or religious expression outside the “mainstream” – granted by the federal government. The Second Amendment is probably the one that most needs “amending.”
Education:
1. Funding: Education is the key to our future, but The GOP opposes efforts to increase educational funding. Concern over immediate fiscal concerns and “balancing the budget” in the immediate future is more important to them than insuring a good future for our children. Some GOP lawmakers have been heard to say that teachers are “lazy” and teacher unions are “school bullies.” In the last decade, Bush was able to push through the No Children Left Behind Act (NCLB) and then pulled the rug out from enforcement by failing to properly fund it.
2. Teacher Unions: Of all the major professions, teaching – along with nursing and medicine and public utilities – is one of the most critical. Yet teachers are almost universally underpaid for their work. The main reason that we still have many teachers is that the profession offers its own non-monetary rewards. However, GOP initiatives like NCLB and government cuts in education funding have caused large numbers of teachers to seek other types of work. Without unions, the teaching profession would be in even more dire straits. It is true that sometimes unions overstep the bounds of responsible behavior, but this is true of all groups that have a political agenda and is not a reason for eliminating them
3. Privatization: Another of the GOP pet projects is the privatization of education. They think home schooling is wonderful, and they push for school vouchers as the wave of the future. Of course, the main side effect of this is the withering and emasculation of public education. Let us be clear: public education is the best way to insure that our childrens’ learning is available to all regardless of social status. Imagine a situation where the quality of education is available to people in the same way that quality of housing is available; that is to say that the rich do well and the poor do not. This is precisely the end product of a voucherized education system where the school you go to is as good as what you and your community can provide. The poor and rural communities with fewer resources would have poorer schools, inferior teachers, and inferior education. This latter problem is exactly the reason we have – and need – public education with support distributed as equally as possible.
Collective Bargaining:
The efforts and sacrifices of labor over the past two centuries have demonstrated the need for workers to have the right to bargain collectively for their needs. The GOP, nevertheless, opposes the right of workers peaceably to assemble and engage in collective bargaining. Union-busting is a big part of their agenda, as witness recent legislation in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Ironically, this seems to apply only to working-class and public unions, not the cartels of the rich. It is true that political and financial shenanigans have been present in unions at various times and places, but that is also true of just about every organization, including right-wing organizations such as the NRA, the Club for Growth, or the Chamber of Commerce.
Immigration:
The GOP has opposed the right of undocumented aliens to adopt this country as their own and their right to earn (not be given) citizenship. Despite GOP noise about reforming immigration laws, every attempt to do so meets with Republican obstruction. It seems that the words of Emma Lazarus emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty (“bring me your tired…”) are being honored in the breach.
Voter Suppression:
1. Methods: Historically, methods to hinder voters have included poll taxes, literacy tests, arbitrarily changing of polling places and times, and even outright terrorism. Though these have been made illegal, the GOP actively engages in modern versions of voter suppression by shortening voting hours, reducing polling places, and creating long lines in heavily Democratic areas. GOP legislation in many states has also made – or attempted to make – the process of voting more difficult by requiring special identification that not everyone has or that costs money to obtain. For example the state of Kansas now requires the showing of birth certificates. Those who have to get that documentation from out of state must pay for that out of pocket. Additionally, the GOP supports efforts to “fix” the vote and Republican power by (a) gerrymandering districts and (b) playing with the idea of apportioning the electoral college votes – but only in states where the GOP would gain by that process.
2. Rationale: The GOP uses the excuse of “voter fraud” to implement draconian measures to combat it, even where no evidence of voter fraud exists. Ironically, a number of instances of voter fraud – real or attempted – were exposed during the 2012 campaign and ALL of them were attempts by supporters of the GOP to undermine the Democratic vote.
The War on the Post Office:
In 2006, during a lame-duck session where the GOP was still in a majority but was about to be a minority in Congress, the GOP pushed through a bill (which they could count on Bush to sign) that required the USPS (the Postal Service) to fund its retirement plan some 60 or so years into the future. This drains many billions of dollars from the USPS coffers each year and has forced it to endure tremendous deficits. This in turn has forced the USPS into cutbacks, including closing thousands of smaller offices and the proposed cancelling of Saturday deliveries. It is difficult to understand why the GOP would want to do this to a service on which virtually everyone relies, but they are effectively killing the Post Office.
McCarthyism:
Until recently, one could reasonably have assumed that the McCarthy-era lies and innuendoes are a thing of the past. Enter Ted Cruz, a GOP and Tea Party stalwart and new senator from Texas. Cruz has wasted no time in making a name for himself by hurling wholly false and unfounded accusations at those he opposes. His most notable recent attack was to try to pin Defense Secretary Chuck Hegel with the tag of being a “Friend of Hamas.” The label of “socialist” is being used by the likes of Cruz to condemn those with whom they disagree, most notably the President.
Lies and Ingenousness:
1. Obama: The GOP has been all too willing to take rumor at face value and to twist the story to fit their prejudices. While this criticism can also be applied to the Democrats at times, the application of mendacity is virtually monopolized by the GOP. They are so opposed to our President that they will resort to lies and inaccurate smears accusing him of being a communist and a fascist (simultaneously, even!) and accusing him of extremes of socialism that are belied by the facts. They are so opposed to our President that in the 2012 campaign they resorted to unabashed lies (eg: the Jeep ad) and innuendoes (billboards threatening jail time for voter fraud) in the attempt to unseat him. They are so opposed to our President that they tolerate – and in some cases put forth – the transparent lie that he was not born in the U.S. and thus ineligible to be President. Some have challenged him to present his birth certificate and, when he did so, they insist that it is not enough, that it is likely a forgery.
2. GOP Opponents: The GOP is so ready to believe the worst of their opponents that they will jump on and publicize “dirt” that has been produced by nothing but a vengeful or satirical post on line. A recent dust-up regarding the purported use of prostitutes by Democratic Senator Bob Menendez was based on a clumsy and transparent attempt to discredit the senator. This attempt was in fact made by GOP partisans. Yet the Republican echo chamber tried to make a mountain out of this wisp of vapor, and didn’t even try to check the facts before leaping. This is only one case, but there are numerous examples where they use gossip and lies to try to support their position or discredit others.
3. Facts as optional: The faith-based and fact-free approach to politics is symptomatic of the GOP. Apparently, the adage that “you cannot have your own facts” hasn’t found root in the Republican world.
The Obama Obsession:
The GOP is so opposed to our President that they will obstruct him at every opportunity, including opposing him on proposals originally suggested by the GOP, such as the individual mandate on health insurance. They are so opposed to our President that the Republicans in Congress and the Senate have taken extreme measures to hamper his initiatives:
1. Filibustering: The GOP in the Senate has filibustered even innocuous bills, appointments and procedures in order to obstruct any progress. Where they raised one filibuster against Johnson in the 1960’s, they have raised over 500 and counting against Obama. One example is the GOP’s raising a ludicrous and unprecedented filibuster against Hegel’s nomination to Secretary of Defense, a filibuster which did not stand but which prevented him from participating in an important conference on military security in Europe. And all because (as John McCain admitted) GOP senators held a childish grudge against him for not backing Bush’s surge in Iraq.
2. Obstruction: The Republican-led 112th Congress has managed to block, vote down, delay, or water down virtually every initiative supported by the President. In the process they have passed fewer bills than any Congress in modern history. The 113th Congress promises to be even worse.
3. Legislation by Crisis: The Congress, in its attempt to cut benefits without tax reform, has stalled any useful legislation that would help alleviate the financial crisis under which we labor. The GOP waited until after the eleventh hour to avert the “fiscal cliff” and pushed us into a “sequester” rather than accept common sense. In October, we faced a government shutdown and a near-default due to GOP obstinacy. We are stupidly lurching from one self-imposed crisis to another in the name of blocking the President’s initiatives.
Ideological Purity:
One of the most notable characteristics of the GOP today is its emphasis on ideological purity. During the Reagan years there was a lot of discussion about “big tent” Republicanism, but things have changed. With groups like CPAC and the Tea Party dominating things, purity has become the end-all and be-all of GOP acceptability. Those Republicans who balk at issues like opposition to same-sex marriage or abortion, or who fail to toe the line on obsessing about the deficit or destroying health care or the environment, or who are willing to compromise in anything – all these are outside the pale. This may make for strong agreement within the echo chamber, but it continues to marginalize the party. With the disappearance from their ranks of large numbers of women, Hispanics, African-Americans, LGBT people, young, and the elderly who wish to protect Social Security and Medicare, the party’s big tent is looking more like a pup tent filled mainly by older and southern white males.
GOP Stupidity:
1. Extremism: The GOP is dominated by its fringe. Both sides have extremists but only the Republicans are dominated by their extremists. Those old enough to remember the 50’s and 60’s can recall that the extremist John Birch Society was virtually sidelined by the mainstream Republican party; not so any more. Now groups like the misnamed Club for Growth and the Tea Party dominate the party’s agenda. They do so by using the primary as a means to enforce “purity” on their candidates, which in turn means that those in office feel the need to reinforce their conservative bona fides, even if they are not so inclined.
2. The Tax Pledge: The inane and insane pledge that most Republicans made to Grover Norquist (not even an elected official) to refrain from raising ANY taxes has hamstrung both Republicans and the nation.
3. Lowest Common Denominator: The GOP caters to the lowest common denominator in the electorate in order to garner votes. The GOP is not only the party of white males; it is also the party where racism still prospers and where virtually all the racists can be found. It is the party that accommodates those who look for black helicopters and jack-booted thugs to come and confiscate all our weapons in a knee-jerk reaction to any proposal that suggests any restrictions on gun ownership. It is the party that houses climate change deniers. Additionally, it is the party that tolerates and encourages those who support the “creationist” view of the world despite overwhelming evidence of a much different reality. Bobby Jindal was describing his party accurately when he accused it of being the “stupid party.”
4. Budget stupidity: The latest Paul Ryan budget proposal recently passed by the House but will, fortunately, not make it past the Senate or the President. Not only does it recreate the failed plan from 2011 and 2012, it doubles down on its worst effects relative to the poor, and demands that we repeal Obamacare, which is now a popular program. It also cuts in half the time to balance the budget, thus devastating all sorts of programs, and Ryan still has not specified even one loophole that he would close. Republicans never think to apply the giggle test to see if their ideas even make sense in the real world.
5. Nullification: The GOP seems to ignore the mandate of the last election and think that the road to the budget is their way or the highway. Imagine their indignant reaction if the roles were reversed and the Democrats erected a stone wall against the wishes of the people.
Conspiracy Theories:
Another GOP failure involves conspiracy theories. Most conspiracy theories assume that the government is somehow so powerful and all-knowing and evil that we all need to be afraid and should stock up on our armaments. There are a lot of conspiracy junkies to be found on both the left and the right, but the right-wing conspiracists are much more problematic for one simple reason: they have the ear of actual congressmen who echo their fantasies. It is one thing for Alex Jones or Glenn Beck to spout to their faithful and brain-deprived listeners some nonsense about the government using black helicopters and other nefarious instruments of death on our citizens. It is another thing altogether for the GOP chairman of the Homeland Security Committee – Michael McCaul – to co-sign a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security endorsing the possibility that the Boston Marathon bombing was actually a government conspiracy. It is another thing altogether when Michigan congressman Kerry Bentivolio asks a Homeland Security spokesperson in committee hearings if they have plans to set up “FEMA camps” to imprison people. Both these men are GOP congressmen and both need to be censured and drummed out of the party for terminal stupidity. That the GOP does not do this is symptomatic of the extremism that has devoured the party.
Hypocrisy:
1. The GOP wants less government involvement in the lives of individuals, yet it also wants federal oversight of womens’ uteri.
2. The GOP argues that all life is sacred, yet barely utters a peep when abortion doctors are assassinated by members of their party; they also have no problem with supporting endless and mindless wars that kill people.
3. The GOP argues for fiscal restraint, yet blithely supports two simultaneous unfunded wars which have devastated our economy.
4. The GOP argues for cuts in spending, yet attempts to fund Defense to levels that even Defense has not requested.
5. The GOP claims to be concerned about future generations when arguing for cuts, but ignores future generations in its denial of climate change and ecological imperatives.
6. The GOP claims to care for children, yet consistently pushes for cuts in programs aimed at feeding and educating the children who are least able to obtain those benefits without government help.
7. Additionally, the GOP betrays children in its attempt to block curbs on the guns that are so central to the violence at Newtown and Aurora and Columbine and so many other places.
8. The GOP claims to support fairness and equity, yet consistently supports programs that benefit the wealthy over the poor and middle classes.
9. The GOP claims that the sequester is a beneficial “diet” for the country, yet when air travel for congressmen becomes problematic they are all too anxious to “fix” that problem – and only that problem – regardless of expense.
10. The GOP claims to stand up for small business, yet includes in the definition of “small business” such behemoths as Koch Industries, while giving short shrift to the truly small businesses.
11. The GOP criticizes the President and Democrats for not being bipartisan, yet it is their own insistence on remaining “pure” and not supporting ANY tax increases and filibustering almost all Democratic initiatives in the Senate and not allowing popular bills to even be presented in the House that shows where the intransigence lies.
12. The GOP is so verbally protective of the Constitution, yet in fact is so ready to toss it aside if doing so suits their purposes and prejudices.
In short, the GOP is the party of hypocrisy. It abuses the good name that Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt once gave to the Republican Party. “GOP” apparently has come to mean Greedy Old Party.
Spokespeople:
The GOP continues its spiral into meaninglessness as it fails to put serious people up front to speak for the party. When for speakers at their main events like CPAC they use the likes of Ted Cruz, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Huckabee, Ann Coulter, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Bozo the Trump, Louie Gohmert, Rick Santorum, Rand Paul and Alan West, they show the hollowness of their program. The party has stopped being serious and has taken the road to extremism.
Adjectives:
Hypocritical, stupid, arrogant, selfish, out-of-touch, disdainful, regressive, backward, reactionary, mean-sprited, anti-environment, anti-worker, mendacious, self-deceiving, unyielding, uncaring, mean-spirited, close-minded, regressive, misogynistic, intolerant, racist, elitist, fanatical, extremist: If you have to apply these adjectives to one of the two parties, there is only one party that deserves each of them more than the other party.
In Conclusion:
The “Party of NO” is a well-earned sobriquet for the GOP. When they regained control of the House in 2010, they blocked virtually any meaningful reform coming from the Democrats. They have obstructed a plethora of initiatives that would improve the well-being of Americans and have done so while providing exactly ZERO plausible alternatives. The politics of tearing down government programs without any alternatives is not only dangerous, it is treason.
The main American values include freedom, liberty, equality and justice. The litany from above does not show American values; they are in fact un-American values. They are the values of an aristocracy jealous of its power and determined to use any means at hand to maintain its privilege. By lying to the voting public, by spinning their ideas as somehow good for the people, by bamboozling voters into accepting their propaganda as facts, the Republicans often cajole and scare enough voters to elect them. Republican tactics reveal their assumption that most voters are lazy, uninformed, or just plain stupid and can be led into voting for the GOP. And, of course, many of them are just that.
Unlike the Republicans, Democrats generally support fairness over privilege, intelligence over wishful thinking, real solutions over nostrums, voting rights over voting restrictions, jobs over austerity, facts over fantasy, love over hate, tolerance over intolerance, acceptance over rejection, people over property.
The GOP activities outlined above will definitely help the GOP to win the votes of such people as the Koch brothers, white racists, NRA enthusiasts and those who actually expect the Rapture to happen a week from Tuesday. Why anyone else would vote for them is a mystery.
The GOP is successfully alienating African-Americans, Hispanics, ethnic groups, women, LGBT people, labor unions, the elderly, educators, scientists, and intelligent independent voters, not to mention virtually all Democrats.
The Republican strategy is, in the long term, one of idiocy.