What happened to them? Seriously, what the hell?
The Grand Old Party. The sect who nominated Lincoln. The brave men who fought for the Union. The talented management who presided over Reconstruction. The Rockefeller doctrine of business sense and good ethics and morals. The Theodore Roosevelt Politicians. The Harding, Coolidge and Hoover Administrations of the Roaring 20s.
Where did the glory days of the Republican Party go to? This country witnessed, in only a few generations, a party systematically allow the minority on the ultra-conservative Evangelical right destroy what was carefully put into place in the 1850s. In 150 years, we witnessed numerous rises and falls of Republicans, but now we Democrats shake our heads and cringe whenever a self-serving, highly ignorant Republican blathers on incoherently about limiting Judicial Review.
They were greatly opposed to slavery and even went so far as to staunchly oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which sought to extend the long arm of slavery to Missouri. "Not in my damn country," they said to the ovation of cheers heard all over the North.
A party that saw what the country needed after the Civil War was higher education, better banking, efficient railroads and better industry and more copious cities initiated the prosperity of the country in the early 1900s, at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution.
No one my age, or my parents age remembers that, though. No one remembers how the Republicans wanted to annex Hawaii in the 1870s. No one remembers that in 1934, the senate saw 25 Republicans against 71 Democrats. No one remembers how the unchecked (initial) good intentions of big business were the cause of the Great Depression.
What people associate the Republican Party with now is the notion that Affirmative Action is being deemed as a "quota system." The great majority of Republicans think that deserving white men lose their jobs to less qualified Blacks and Hispanics. Yes, I shit you not, there are people who go to sleep at night believing that affirmative action is there so mess around with better qualified people, who don't get the job simply because "they were White." Reverse racism is only a small fraction of how much these people are sore losers. They claim that the public school system fails, and would instead prefer to send their kids to prestigious schools, furthering the mentalities of secularism, and denying integration efforts.
Let me pause for a second and reveal that not all Republicans are created equal. But as an average American, I cannot help but be bombarded with the vast ignorance of the minority, those Sean Hannity's and Newt Gringrich's who (not so) jokingly get angry when "they have to choose between English and Spanish on the customer service recording". "Why the hell should I have to press '1' for English, damnit!?"
In fact, a number of times in this post, I had to go back and erase "they" and find a different term, because to lump all Republicans together is very
Republican ignorant and short-sighted of me.
Older people might remember how Franklin Roosevelt whooped the collective Republican ass for 4 elections, resulting in the passing of the 22nd Amendment, a reflexive measure that left the party recoiling from the fact that Eisenhower would have easily won a third term if not for the Amendment. Yes, the Eisenhower Republican was a good template for what "should have been". Small government, low taxes, saving, hard work, and individual freedoms. That's funny, because Republicans today don't like any of those.
Government should be as big as possible because we, the People, in order to form a more perfect union, cannot even wipe our own asses without falling face first into the latrine.
Taxing the people and giving bonuses and adorning your office with an $87,000 rug while people on the street are starving has become the norm with businesses. If your company crashes, don't worry; there's a 100 million dollar Golden Parachute of Fuckoffery waiting, along with a Platnium Chariot to whisk you off to your private island.
Forget saving for a rainy day, make bad investment decisions, conduct insider trading and ask the government for help. I'm pretty sure that even if I paid my bills on time, gave tithing, and donated organs, if I default on my student loans, no one is going to write me a check. And I like to think I'm a good guy.
Individual freedoms have to be sacrificed for "the good of the country." Oh, and let me not mention the fact that if I talk bad about the President, I'm not a patriot.
Wait a minute, how is it that us Liberals were Anti-government for talking about how idiotic our Not-Even Elected President was, and we were the bane of America, but we now have Republicans in the media nitpicking over Obama not wanting to give up his Blackberry?
And they say
we're the ones who don't love our country.
The 22nd Amendment has also succeeded in establishing the 2nd term of a Presidency as a "lame duck," bearing the fact that once a President is re-elected, the country only needs to patiently wait out 4 years. (Case in point, President Bush).
People might also not really recall how they called the 2nd New Deal "socialism," nor how they believe that Supreme Court Justices wield their power too boldly, and that Judicial Restraint is not, in their eyes, merely a suggestion.
This is the party that believes that America can act by itself. This is the party that would just as quick say "fuck off, rest of the world", and not be precocious of their actions. The 2001 War in Afghanistan and the 2003 War in Iraq are, as of this moment, yet to be concluded.
This is the party that essentially knew that they couldn't win a 2008 election, so they decided to turn to in-fighting and dirty tactics. Building on ignorant fear of Obama "being a Muslim," and, more recently, "being Arab." Claims that his idealogy will be "the downfall of America," and that "socialism never works."
The funny thing is that Canada, Denmark, Sweden and Great Britian are socialist democracies, and those countries seem to be working just fine. As a matter of fact, we never hear about them having problems in the news. In fact, their citizens seem to be pleased as punch. Oh my, and they all have Universal Health Care.
Uncanny.
This is the party that put a national hero and a stalwart lifelong defender of America on the cross to suffer for their bad decisions, knowing that they needed a scapegoat. They even threw in a ditsy air-head to insult women, going along and pleasing their Evangelical base.
The party that gave us Nixon, Reaganomics, BOTH Bush's and decided to push for creationism and intelligent design in classrooms, and were UPSET over the Pledge of Allegience in Schools (then a few months later, they were insulted at the lack thereof).
They also hate abortion, gay marriage and think that Stem Cell research is evil. :( Why does the Republican party not want Christopher Reeve to walk!?. Did I mention that they wanted an Amendment in 2004 that would specifically define marriage as between a man and a woman?
I shit you not.
This is the Republican party.
I swear, they can't get their shit together. They claimed that Obama wasn't President, because of the goof on the Oath. For a bunch of strict interpretation asswads, they missed the ordinance that states that regardless of whether he took the oath or not, the President-Elect becomes president at noon on Inaugeration day.
Missles could have fell from the sky at 12:05 during the preceding speeches, and Obama would have been the Commander-In-Chief. Point blank, period.
They think it's cool to ride rode-hogs, wear white hoods, make fun of Europeans and shoot wolves and small birds from Helicopters. With high-powered rifles.
The made a 90 year old man campaign with a woman who could have been his daughter (but his wife is smoking hot. I'd do ungodly things to Cindy McCain and her sweet Apple-Pie cooking ass). His party then decided to surround him with the rebirth of neo-nazism, and brought on our favorite DINOSAUR (Democrat In Name Only, Sorry Ass Undercover Republican)- Joe Liberman; President of the "Commitee for the Liberation of Iraq", Paid Lobbyist of Georgia, National Aide to Trent Lott and Advisor to Defense Secretary Donald - Rumsfeld Randy Scheunemann; and There-Is-Too-Much-Shit-To-Name-Because-This-Nonsense-Writes-Itself Neoconservative Elliot Abrams.
The same people who decided to forgo foreign affairs and ensure that the rest of the globe hated America.
For all their rants and raves, the Republican Party decided that they would instead be facists, and went ahead with the Patriot Act. "The true test of a society is how it treats its prisoners." The ungodly acts in Guantanamo need to be controlled, and it's UnAmerican to release those prisoners.
Nay, the Republicans say, Obama wants to Release the 9/11 Attackers upon the masses!! They'll be eating in diners, RIGHT NEXT TO US! Hating us for our freedom.
Stealing our delicious hamburgers and french fries.
Infringing on our rights to peaceful heart attacks at the age of 35.
Eric Margolis of the Toronto Sun says it best:
"When I hear "Republican" these days, the words that come to my mind are:
Arrogance, ignorance, and just plain dumb. And now, add economic disaster caused
by Enron-style fraud and allowing crooks to run the nation's finances.
Two of today's most regressive political movements, far right American
Christian conservatives -- the Rush Limbaugh crowd -- and supporters of Israel's
far right expansionist parties, joined forces to become the bedrock of the Bush
presidency. Today, 44-50% of Republican voters call themselves born-again
Christian fundamentalists who believe every word of the Bible is true.
The Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan has been hijacked
by America's rural heartland and the Southern Bible Belt -- what we nasty New
Yorkers call "hicks and holy rollers."
McCain's choice of an evangelical
ultra conservative, Gov. Sarah Palin, a woman of stunning vulgarity and
ignorance, is testimony to the dumbing down of the party and its transformation
into a populist religious movement.
LURCH TO THE RIGHT
I haven't
changed my politics and remain firmly in the centre. But the Republican Party
has lurched so far to the right that the old centre looks like the left to many
Republicans.
Barack Obama is wrong to propose raising taxes but he is no
socialist, as Palin charges. Nationalizing the nation's banks is socialist.
Urging world domination is National Socialist.
Republicans disgraced
the nation by endorsing torture, assassinations, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, secret
prisons, kidnapping, kangaroo courts, spying on U.S. citizens and undermining
America's Constitution. Too many cowardly Democrats joined this lynch mob.
[Rentip: Bolded for awesomeness].
Republicans now speak for rich fat
cats, military-industrial-petroleum complex, the financial industry and some of
the least educated, most backwards, most prejudiced Americans.
McCain
and Palin have shamelessly stoked anti-black, anti-Muslim and anti-foreign
hatred and fear among them during this campaign. So did Hillary Clinton...
...Gen. Colin Powell did the right thing by breaking with John McCain,
denouncing racism and Islamophobia, and warning of the party's lurch to the far
right. Powell commands my attention. I was always disappointed this fine man and
soldier did not run for president.
America desperately needs a reborn,
moderate Republican Party freed from narrow-minded religious ideology and
ruralism that will return the nation to its former democratic values and
decency.
This was the United States the world used to respect. When it
happens, I will return to the fold."
This has been a Renaldo Johnson post, and I would like to state that I greatly dislike the Republican Party. They need to get their shit together and stop trying to fucking divide the country.
