The Republican Party once stood for limited government, a
strong national defense, equal opportunity, faith in the Constitution, and personal
and fiscal responsibility. All laudable positions.
Then something happened.
The party went off the rails. Instead of being the party of shared American
values and common sense, they became the party of radical “Christian” values
that make a mockery of what Christianity – as I know it – teaches, and of extreme
fundamentalists that deny science based on a literal reading of the Bible.
Now I’m having an increasingly hard time liking the
Republican Party.
For the record, I am a Republican. I am a mainstream Christian – a pretty
generic Protestant. No church I ever
attended preached Armageddon, the Apocalypse or the handling of snakes to prove
your faith. Nor did they emphasize the scary,
often vengeful Old Testament God who covered Job in boils, stuck Jonah in the whale,
or asked Abraham to kill his son, just to test their fealty.
Instead, they taught us to be compassionate to the plight of
others, to help those in need, and to pave our way to salvation through doing
good deeds on Earth. To this day, I
still believe that.
I didn’t used to see a conflict between my faith and being a
Republican. I’m starting to.
I simply can’t abide the religious fanatics and flat-earthers
who seem to have a disproportionate influence on the Republican Party. I don’t like the attacks on science and knowledge,
or the general “meanness” and intolerance toward others.
Maybe I expect too much from the Republican Party. I’d like to see them show more dignity and also
more respect for all their constituents.
Not everybody is a white, right-wing Pentecostal or extreme Catholic out
here; just understand that and stop pandering.
Realize that far more Americans couldn’t care less about what their fellow
citizens are doing as consenting adults.
Comprehend that you can’t legislate your own version of morality, or
force people to accept your religion above all others.
I suspect there a lot of other people like me; people who
want the party to return to its core values and leave all the lunacy
behind. We’re educated, we know the
difference between right and wrong, we understand economics, and we don’t necessarily
hate our government or live in fear of it.
We all know enough history and science, and religion, to understand
that despite what some literalists believe scientists have proven the Earth is in
fact more than a few thousand years old; evolution is not merely an “alternative”
theory to the Creation story, either. And also that many scriptural passages in the Bible
reflect the time in which they were written, the living conditions back then, and
the knowledge available at that time; we’ve learned a lot since. The world today is not the same as a few millennia
ago.
So please step off that Creationist platform and stop taking
the Bible so literally. It makes the
Republican Party appear small-minded, aggressively ignorant, and completely out
of touch with reality.
But this moral absolutism and religious fundamentalist view
seems to be coloring practically everything today’s Republican Party
proposes. Whatever happened to just trying
to run the country efficiently and effectively and upholding the Constitution? For a party that believed in limited
government, why continue to propose legislation that increases the role of
government in our private lives?
It’s insane.
Overall, I’m finding it difficult to believe the Republican
Party is really looking out for the interests of the country as a whole, which
is now more diverse than ever before. I
don’t like their intolerance of anyone who doesn’t believe what they do. I don’t
like their views on many social issues. I
don’t like the constant bitching and moaning over every little thing that doesn’t
go their way. Then there are the
venomous attacks instead of reasoned arguments and the dominance of emotion
over substance.
And I’m frankly weary of their almost psychotic obsession
with Obama.
Maybe the fundamentalists in their fold have convinced the
Party leaders Obama’s the Antichrist. Who knows … but I can tell you the general
public isn’t buying that. Most of the
public believes he’s not the devil, he’s not a communist, nor does he want to
destroy America. I’m with them on
that.
He is, however, a ruthless demagogue who has tried to turn
the Presidency into a virtual monarchy, and the Republican Party does have an
obligation to ensure that Constitutional protections against that are
enforced. There’s no denying that he’s also
a great politician; but way down deep he’s shallow. You can only con people so long before you
get caught overreaching – remember Nixon.
Obama’s doing that now with the sequester issue. In a month or so, he’ll be up against the fiscal
wall again.
Despite the polls showing him riding high, he’s on a
tightrope right now. If he misses a
step, or overreaches on his dire predictions of doom and gloom if he doesn’t
get his way, he falls. Republicans don’t
need to be badgering him from below like hyenas; not only is that unseemly but he’s
perfectly capable of falling on his own.
Stand back and let it happen.
Gravity and hubris will bring him down. Don’t get in the way.
Despite the real issues that need to be resolved, the
Republican Party keeps drifting more and more into extraneous crap that has
absolutely nothing to do with efficiently running the country and protecting
the rights and safety of its citizens.
They seem to be having an identity crisis – torn between continuing
their trek to becoming the American Taliban, or becoming much more moderate –
maybe like moderate Democrats but with a lot more fiscal discipline.
Right now, they are leaning toward the Taliban.
That’s too bad. Because
there are damn few moderate Democrats with the fiscal sense God gave a chicken
anymore, there’s an open space for socially moderate Republicans with strong
fiscal responsibility credentials. Look
at Christie in New Jersey – a popular Republican in a blue state.
The problem is, most Republican Party primaries – held hostage
by the extremists – chew these people up.
If they aren’t in favor of banning abortion, same-sex marriage,
restrictions on prayer in public schools, and don’t support deporting all
illegal immigrants, or any number of other red-meat issues that have absolutely
nothing to do with running the country, they’ll be defeated. They’ll never make it to a general election
where more rational Republicans, independents and disaffected Democrats could
easily elect them.
I’m convinced that Jon Huntsman could have won easily over
Obama in the last election; he had the government experience, the intelligence,
and the financial wherewithal to win. Except
he wasn’t conservative enough on the red meat issues, and had supported legalizing
pot in the past, so he couldn’t win the primaries.
Mitt Romney should also have won, but by trying to brush up
his conservative creds, he alienated independents, and extreme conservatives –
the so-called “Evangelicals” – didn’t come out and vote for him anyway. Which proved again you can’t please
everybody.
So we have Obama.
Now, many might be wondering if my lack of enthusiasm for today’s
Republican Party means I might switch and become a Democrat.
Quite simply, no way.
I’d rather have hot pokers stuck in my eyes.
As off target as the Republican Party is today, and as
disappointed as I am in them, the Democrats are far worse. I think they must still be tripping on some
bad acid from the 60s; there’s no other explanation for how disconnected from
the reality of our current financial situation they are. They must be sitting around at night munching
on hash-laden brownies to dream up such incredibly stupid ideas.
So, no.
But if a Constitution Party were to arise …
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