I have been in the mood to read old literature and I just finished re-reading Animal Farm by George Orwell. Now I know this piece of literature is a comedy based off of the Russian Revolution but I can not help but find similarities in the Republican Party of today and it’s base. The party leaders and the wealthy are the pigs and the base are the other farm animals.
The leaders of the Republican Party including those members behind the scenes have massive amounts of wealth and live in luxury. There is great disparity between the have and have not’s in this society and it seems many in the Republican base have less and less as the years pass. It as very much become a party of “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal then others.” The Republican leaders seem to have perfected this idea and sold it to their base.
The base of the republican party seems to lack critical thinking skills which allows the elected leaders to spoon fed skewed knowledge, morality, and what it means to be free. The leaders have convinced the base living under anything other then what they outline as acceptable is a horrific life and a great injustice. The party is constantly changing their stance on many issues becoming more extreme in ideology and are some how able to convince the base to follow along with it while forgetting what they originally stood for on a verity of issues. I believe the base is not capable of critical thinking. I think the base is not able to use critical thinking skills because of a combination of lack of solid education, laziness, and fear of retribution in the after life.
Being part of a military family gives me a great opportunity to meet many different kinds of people from many different backgrounds. However one thing has remains constant when meeting a republican: their inability to think based on logic. They are spoon fed what to think and they never question deeper then the superficial; never thinking for themselves. I do not know how many times I have sat and listen to them ramble off the Republican rhetoric: end the social safety net, rollback Obamacare, end federal funding of public schools, do not regulate the bankers, let the government strip away women’s rights, and always live in fear of going to hell. I can not help but think these are the same people that are currently on WIC, have been on food stamps or Medicaid at some point, and all have Tri-care (closest thing to socialized medicine this country has and it works). Each time they go to the polls they vote against their own freedoms and economic interests with this dump witted belief if they work harder, do not question, pay higher taxes then the wealthy, and live good moral lives in the end they will be rewarded.
At the end of Animal Farm the other animals realize what the pigs had become. I am wounding if a time will come the Republican base will realize what their party has become and how the party has taken advantage of their ignorance.