The problem with Republicans …

(As promised, equal time.)

Rush Limbaugh once said most Americans naturally identify with Democrats. Republicans only get elected when Democrats screw up so bad the voting public wants to punish them. Once things get back to normal the public feels comfortable enough to vote Democrats back in.

I don’t always agree with Rush, but on this I think he’s on to something. 

Democrats have done a better job of positioning from a marketing standpoint. They are the “fun” party; the anything-goes party where you can do pretty much whatever you want as long as you don’t physically harm someone else – and no one ever judges you. It’s like having perpetually indulgent grandparents who always have a gift for you and never tell you “no.”

What’s not to like?  Sure, there’s a lot of weird stuff Democrats are up to but as long as it doesn’t affect you personally, who cares?  Plus, they always have a gift for you.

Compared to the Democrats, Republicans are pinch-faced party poopers. Republicans are the neighbors who call the cops on you for making too much noise and having too much fun. 

Well, of course Republicans aren’t all like that. 

But enough of them are to make those descriptions stick. And we can thank the far right wing of the Republican Party for that.

While the Democrats have managed to keep their far-left loons under relative control and still supporting the Party, Republicans seem unable to rein in their crazies.  Now part of that is because the media likes to focus on the far-right nut jobs disproportionally but it’s also because Republican Party mavens are afraid to confront the far right and the evangelical blocs. 

Consequently, Democrats stand for good times; Republicans stand for intolerant redneck Bible thumpers. Sorry, but that’s what the Republicans have devolved to as a political party.   

Democrats don’t claim to be for anything or anyone but the working class. The average Joe and Jane. The mental image is of a hard-working, lower or middle-class family, a couple of kids, in a decent neighborhood where everybody barbeques. The reality of who the Democrats represent is quite different, yet that’s the image they successfully deploy.    

The Republicans claim to be for the working class and small businesses. However, the mental image they convey is as shills for the ultra-religious, ultraconservative, creationist / anti-science fundamentalists who believe the Earth is only 6000 years old, that women should be subservient to men, and that homosexuality is an abomination to God punishable by an eternity in Hell.   

Who would you rather hang out with?  It’s a wonder Democrats don’t win every single election.

That’s not an accurate representation of Republicans, any more than it is of Democrats. But perception equals reality.

Every time the Republicans’ far-right crazies get on their soapbox, it leaves a mark.

All it takes is some Republican male running for office to say rape rarely leads to pregnancy because it’s not God’s will.  Or, some Republican getting a bunch of other Republicans to support legislation to address a “threat” that isn’t one – such as defining gender based on anatomy at birth, or marriage as only being between a man and a woman. It always seems to be Republicans pushing for laws enabling businesses to discriminate based on the owners’ religious beliefs, or allowing elected public officials to refuse to do their jobs for personal religious reasons.   

The Republican Party’s far right and religious right never know when to simply STFU. 

And Republican Party leaders aren’t willing to kick the party’s looney tunes to the curb.  Or put a leash on them. There are a lot of far-left nutcases in the Democrat Party for sure but Democrats at least have the common sense to realize you can’t let the loons be the public face of the party.

Worse, when some ill-informed Republican struts his or her far-right or religious-right creds – and basic ignorance of science, or even the Constitution – far too many other Republicans defend whatever nutso thing they said.

When elected Kentucky official Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples because of her personal religious beliefs – even though the law said she had to – a number of “leading” Republicans leapt to her defense.  Why?  

She was wrong.  She violated her oath of office. There’s really no other possible interpretation of the circumstances. But the champions of the religious and social far right – like Huckabee and that pandering horse’s ass Ted Cruz – tried to make this Bible-thumping bigot into some kind of hero for religious liberty. Exactly whose religious liberty? 

There’s an Uncle Remus and the Tar Baby sense about Republicans as well.  They can’t resist getting sucked into the traps set by the Democrats. Then they flail about making themselves so wedded to a losing issue they look even more ridiculous.  And there’s no way out.

Some city in North Carolina passes an ordinance that all public restrooms need to be gender neutral. It’s a silly ordinance that’s wildly impractical. But leave it to Republicans to escalate this into a scenario where young girls would be forced to shower with adult men, and young boys with pedophiles – at least according to Huckabee and Cruz.

Democrats had a field day with that. They used that as evidence that Republicans hated the transgendered, the new politically favored victims du jour (less than one-tenth of one percent of the population), which in turn meant Republicans hated the entire LGBTQ community.

And that’s exactly how it looked.      

Holy Mother of God.  When will Republicans learn to stop rising to the bait?

Here’s the really, really weird part about Republicans:  Just about every single Republican I know personally – and I know a lot of them – is appalled by the current Republican Party, especially the far right and religious right factions holding it hostage. 

Yet they are equally appalled at the Republican Party establishment, which seems more and more like Democrat-lite. Republicans have had control of both houses of Congress for a long time and have done absolutely nothing except spend as wildly as the Democrats they criticize. Government continues to grow. More regulations are passed every day.  The debt keeps increasing.  Republicans seem impotent to stop the madness. 

Republicans have no solutions for anything. If the Democrats are the party of bad ideas, then the Republicans are the party of no ideas. 

In essence, my Republican friends increasingly find themselves voting against Democrats rather than for Republicans.  Republicans don’t seem to offer anything different or new except that they aren’t as bad as the Democrats. 

Based on their performance over the past few years, the jury’s still out on that.     

Now they have Trump, who beat the Republican Establishment while also beating the far-right and religious-right candidates, to win the nomination of the party. 

He's the wake-up call to the Republican Party. I wonder if they'll listen.