The American summer of 2009 has been an illuminating season for the Republican Party. The Astroturf thuggery of Town Halls, the overt racism of the right wing talk radio echo chamber, Fox News regurgitating GOP talking points, Birthers, Birchers and Deathers, all shining a glaring light on what has become the rump Republican Party.
The Republican tailspin has been a slow devolution over the past few years, but there was an exponential gain in speed since 2008 caused by loss due to incompetence, economic collapse and pandering to the worst elements on their fringes. The GOP has shed its rational, intellectual, and honest membership, leaving the rotting hulk we see doing all they can to prove to themselves that they have never been wrong. Those who for lack of self control and circumspection are going completely berserk because they can no longer have it their way.
As I see it there are three main groups that have brought the GOP to its knees:
1. The Autocrats – These are the war-mongering followers of Dick Cheney and his ilk. Those who have very small penises and an uncontrollable urge to prove their penises are not really small by stomping all over those who might pose a challenge to the United States; any type of challenge. They insist that the U.S. must be Number One in everything, or else. They are the Party of Perpetual War. They are pathologically compelled to control all others at any cost. Liberty, the rule of law, human rights all may be sacrificed to achieve their goal of proving to the world that they do not have small penises.
2. The Theocrats – These are the powerful religious leaders and their followers whose Limbic Brain synapses are over firing. In their twisted, over electrically stimulated, primitive minds they insist their Christian deity is the only correct way to the preferred afterlife and to insure this they will force the non-compliant into an untimely afterlife if that’s what it takes. They believe their God commands they must convert the U.S. to a Christian fundamentalist theocracy by stealthily attaining the reins of government until enough power is accumulated that a radical conversion can commence, by force if necessary. For further frightening details one only has to look into the Dominionist movement and their determination to hasten their version of the End Times.
3. The Kleptocrats – These are the ethically bankrupt, the morally repugnant, the Karl Roves of the GOP. Those who hold no real ideology of any sort and only worship power and the mighty dollar. They will lie, cheat, backstab, and twist with the political winds to say or do anything politically expedient at the time. If that means telling a lie today they then contradict tomorrow, it does not matter because the goal is to swamp the opposition with lies to the point where no one can keep track of the truth any longer. In this way they cater to giant, bloated corporations, filling their pockets with cash and influence. Kleptocrats who hold political office, the deregulators of industry, are setting as their future goal lucrative jobs as lobbyists where the real money and power can be found. The less charismatic, but more diabolically talented at telling the Big Lie, like Rove, just pull the strings of power from behind the curtain while cashing in on book deals and scraps thrown to them by those who they have made powerful and wealthy.
Most often a member of one of these groups will have a foot in another, but their true nature is generally tied to just one. An important aspect they do all share is exclusion of minorities. They may cynically place an African-American in a token ceremonial leadership position, but the demographics of the GOP cannot be mistaken. It’s no wonder minorities loath to join a party where leaders and self appointed spokespeople make veiled, and sometimes blatant, racist remarks in their attempts to smear dissenters. The result is an absence of diversity that only fuels a lack of empathy for minority concerns, and in some cases becomes overt intolerance. This entrenched racism, xenophobia, and homophobia is self perpetuating and rooted in religious bigotry and the white wealthy Republican elite’s unwillingness to share their spoils with those who they perceive as not working hard enough to be worthy of reward.
Why are true Republican colors so blatantly exposed now? As I mentioned before, their failings have driven the reasonable from their ranks. They are the unhinged rump, completely resistant to change and prone to panic attacks when shown proof they’re wrong. Those remaining have an internal mental mechanism that just turns off reason rather than deal with an unpleasant circumspect reality. They lost all subtlety. The Republican pond began to evaporate into mentally deranged conspiracy theorists, gun-toting militia groups, white supremists, and those who unapologetically justify violence to achieve their goals, i.e. the supporters of those who murder abortion providers. Reasonable, sane Americans just can’t help but to notice.
