So far, there are three serious GOP Presidential contenders: Two, Perry and Bachmann, are totally bat-shit crazy lunatics who will lie about ANYTHING at the drop of a dime, and are engaged daily in what Clinton called 'The Politics of Personal Destruction" and the third is Romney, who engaged in the politics of Corporate Destruction during his time at Bain Capital, cratering companies and tossing people out of work so he could make his millions, and make sure he created fat-cat buddies who would pump a million bucks apiece into this campaign coffers (as long as they could remain anonymous)!
It's time to realize that these candidates exist because the GOP is devoid of ANY ideas save one - "we were cheated out of our rightful place in the White House, and we need to get "that one" (Obama- per Sen. McCain) out of office by any means necessary".
Ever since Reagan was elected, the GOP has been steadily trying to dismantle any shred of regulation that stands in the way of their corporate overlords' profits, and constantly tilt the playing field in favor of the rich.
But at least Reagan annd House Speaker Tip O'Neill appeared to have a modicum of "comity" and could share a drink after 6 PM business hours.
Sadly, NO remnant of "comity" exists any more in Washington. What IS clear is that since Rove and Bush appeared on the scene the GOP no longer has any interest in providing real solutions. Their SOLE purpose is to complete the destruction of the middle class, and to do so they have invented "bizarro" legislation whose names ("No Child Left Behind") sound good on TV sound bites, but in actuality perform totally the opposite of what they claim to do.
In addition, lying, cheating (election fraud), and re-inventing history have become standard tools in the GOP arsenal, and they have their trusted propaganda masters Murdoch (and Ailes) under the guise of "Fair and Balanced" Fox Noise to put their deceptive seductions on the air 24/7 aided by an army of well-coiffed prevaricators like Hannity and O'Reilly, and a harem of ruby-lipped, leggy blonde newsreaders whose sole purpose seems to be to stupefy all the low information voters into becoming NO-information voters by appealing to the reptilian part of the male brain, and hopefully shutting down the inherent bullshit filter most humans have (except when they are watching Fox).
In addition, these Fox-addled low-info voters actually ELECTED the 87 intransigent Tea Party legislative jihadists who are currently blockading ANY needed revenue solutions because they and most other non-TP Republicans have pledged their fealty to Grover Norquist OVER their loyalty to the Nation and the Constitution!
So - which saviors do the TeaPublicans put forth to "reclaim the gubmint" from evil interloper Obama? Let's look:
Former Governor Willard "Mitt" Romney is that most interesting political species - "flip-flop-a-saurus" - he constantly seems to forget that there is this new technology called "video recording" that can bring back all of his prior ludicrous comments to be reviewed side-by-side with this campaign's current ludicrous comments.
In an ordinary year, he might stand half a chance, but this year, the lunatics are in charge of the asylum, full force.
For proof of that, I present Rep. Michelle Bachmann, the Minnesota "Rage Queen" who never fails to emit one verbal gaffe after another every time she opens her mouth. One one hand she rails against government spending, while on the other hand, she and her opportunistic "husband" are actively soliciting government funding for their questionable therapy practice, as well as other dubious ventures.
Repeatedly shreiking '"One. Term. President!!!" at the top of her lungs every chance she gets, she appears to believe that the decibel level of her campaign rhetoric is a substitute for sound governmental policy. It isn't
Which brings us to the most insidious of them all: Governor "Good Hair" Rick Perry from Texas represents the most stomach-churning of these candidates, because while he is slinging massive personal attacks, he's just barely presentable enough to be thought as "the reasonable choice" by those same completely deluded right-wing masses who elected the Tea Party freshmen.
He's also a first class prevaricator, AND he is regurgitating a huge reservoir of racist feelings on the right, bringing the level of GOP campaign discourse down from it's previous low standard (defined by Limbaugh and other right-wing blowhards) to downright gutter talk.
Threatening ANY elected official (like Fed Chairman Bernanke today), even in a "veiled" manner is NOT where this nation needs to be - but sadly, it is quite clear that the non-stop hate rhetoric coming from the right wing since President Obama's inauguration has coarsened the political dialog in this nation, and turned GOP campaigns into neo-KKK rallies.
There is some hope, however. This year, the GOP has managed to tip its hand, not only by the proposed Ryan budget, but also by their abject failure to rein in their unruly tea party upstarts, and in so doing, causing the first EVER downgrade of America's AAA credit rating. Of course, they had a LOT of right-wing help - just refer to this fine diary from rollotomasi about how McGraw-Hill (Standard and Poor's corporate parent) could reasonably be believed to be pursuing a political agenda by this downgrade.
Little by little, we can hope that ordinary Americans are finally understanding exactly what the GOP/T is all about - they are NOT your friends, working-class citizens - they exist SOLELY to increase the wealth of their campaign contributors, and to take America back to what it was in the Gilded Age - when you had to have power and money to be part of society, and tie rich and super rich ran everything unfettered by regulation or control.
The KEY to Democratic election success this time out is GET MAD and ORGANIZE.
IF you don't like where we are headed (and who does other than a rich republican), then GET ON THE PHONE and raise a ruckus with Republican Congressmen and Senators!
Organize and elect GREAT Progressive Democrats to office (not Blue Dogs), and let's get rid of the Republican taint on this nation for the forseeable future.
And while we are organizing to elect Progressive voices to replace the GOP, take a minute and make your displeasure known to a GOP Senator in YOUR state (if you are so unfortunate)
Here's the list of Senate Republicans - select a Senator and it will link you to their website.
and... don't let the House escape your scrutiny... since that's where most of the Tea Party loonies are...
Here's the list of Republicans in Congress
Their phone numbers are listed, but you can also linik to their website and send a pithy (but polite) email telling them you remember it was BUSH and a willing GOP COngress who caused this recession, and it was the Tea Party freshmen in the House who are directly responsible for S&P's downgrade. They broke it, make them own it.
Have fun!