What Else Could Explain This Type of Insanity?
The Republican Party has come undone. They have overreached in nearly every area of law in our country. From outlawing collective bargaining in several states to passing voter suppression laws in over 30 states, and their current nationwide and unrelenting efforts to deny women any freedom or access to reproductive choice, this party of old men seeks to villianize almost every segment of our society, including their own party members. They are on a zealous crusade to create a new country. Some say they are insane; still others have decided that they are possessed by demons. I suggest that neither explanation is completely valid, but that both explanations are true. The demon that possesses them is the insatiable need for power and the insanity is simply the methods by which they are pursuing that need for power.
What will a vote for ANY Republican get you? Not just for President, but a vote for any Republican nominee for any elected office will result in more erosion of rights, including those for workers, the middle class, women, minorities, students and seniors. The GOP has staked its play for power grabbing on the premise that if the American electorate is divided and the blame for all of the country's problems can be squarely leveled against one or more segments of society, they can achieve their goals. By successfully pitting one segment of the population against others, they will win their most coveted prize.
Scapegoating has historically worked, not just in the United States, but in other countries as well, most notably in Germany during the last century.
The GOP Agenda Is not Small Government, It is Big Intrusion And Assault By Legislative Bullies!
The GOP talks about jobs and the economy, but since the elections of 2010, their agenda has been highighted by the things they failed to discuss prior to their elections. Some have called it their closet agenda. They came out of the closet almost immediately after being sworn into office and began to enact, throughout the states, their real agenda.
Now we know that the real enemy of American prosperity is every cop, firefighter and teacher.
The first item on the list was villianizing unions and American workers; to blame them for the excesses in spending and the crash of 2008. They clearly redefined the symptoms of senile dementia by forgetting that it was the excesses of banks and the greed on Wall Street that caused the Great Recession, it was so much easier to bully workers. What the hell is wrong with America's workers? They want jobs, good pay, benefits AND a pension? How dare they? So, the GOP went after unions, destroying collective bargaining in several states. Teachers, police and firefighters just have it way too easy...At the same time that most Republican governors cut the pay and benefits of workers, they gave huge tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations, justifying them by insisting that the wealthy and the corporations would in turn, create jobs. At the rate they have cut the taxes of the 'job creators', why then do I have to ask, "Where are the jobs?"
The jobs that have been created are here with no help from the Republican party. In fact, the Republican party nationwide has done everything in its power to prevent Americans from getting jobs, but more than that, the GOP has stood united against people who have lost their jobs. They have fought every bill that would help unemployed workers in even minimal ways. Their philosophy has been that unemployment benefits make people lazy. So lazy, in fact, that this reward for being unemployed is so generous that millions are happy to stay out of the workforce. How many times have you heard Republicans say, "If we stop unemployment benefits, these lazy people will have to find jobs." Of course they never carry that philosophy the step further: there are still five applicants for every one job out there.
Colors And GOP Fear Of The Dark!
The second agenda item was designed to villianize immigrants, both legal, and undocumented. In fact, it is an agenda that seeks to turn anyone, even U.S citizens who might be a shade darker than lily white into someone suspect. The Republicans are so afraid of the darker pigments that some have mentioned enacting laws that would require Crayola to lose a few of their crayons! Some colors are just not acceptable...to the GOP...It, simply put, is a way of saying, "If you are light brown, brown or darker, you are not one of us!"
This aversion to color has led to "The Dream Act" being renamed by the very political party that originally championed it to "The Not On Your Life Nightmare Act."
The color of skin has also been a great motivator in over thirty states that have sought to restrict and limit voting. Many 'non-lily white' people do not vote for Republicans, so why let them vote at all? Tea Party President, Judson Phillips, went even further in 2010 when he said:
"The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners."
I am a little bit frightened that Republicans in 2012 and after, will force us all to provide, not just state-issued ID's, a carry permit and my 'papers, please' when going to the polls, but a notarized deed of trust. Hopefully, they do not restrict it further by insisting that the property be mortgage free!
In A GOP Run Country, Sperm Are People And Women Aren't!
In one of their first legislative acts after sweeping the U.S. House of Representatives in the elections of 2010, the GOP attempted to change the definition of rape. No, you did not miss that part of their campaigns for office, but you should have known that the attempt alone was just the beginning of an all out war on women. Republicans insisted that only 'forcible rape' is rape. I suppose that if you are a Republican male, that makes perfect sense. If, however, you are not brain dead and you do not believe that sperm are people, rape is rape.
But we are talking about Republicans, and they believe that sperm ARE people and any woman who seeks to block any sperm from reaching full potential is a danger to the exceptionalism of America. These women are less than people and must be regulated, vaginally probed and denied contraception, if at all possible. In the words of Pennsylvania's Republican Governor, Tom Corbett, women just "have to close their eyes".
In 1990, the Republican candidate for Texas Governor, Clayton Corbett, made a similar statement, which at the time was considered shocking, but today might make him a real contender in the Republican party. The New York Times reports that he made the remarks while preparing for a cattle roundup at his West Texas ranch. He compared the cold, foggy weather spoiling the event to a rape, telling ranch hands, campaign workers and reporters around a campfire, ''If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.''
Seeking to minimize the horror of rape, standing in the way of a woman's right to family planning services, preventive health care and contraception, and in the state of Wisconsin presenting legislation that forces that state's version of Child Protective Services to presume that single (divorced, widowed or never married) parents, mostly women, are abusive to their children tells us that women are to be villianized and controlled by government.
I will not even begin to tell you about Senator Debbie Lesko, the Republican puppet of ALEC in Arizona. Let me just say that this state Senator has betrayed her own gender with her brazen bill, HB 2625. Lesko doesn't have to worry about becoming a victim of her own legislation. She has state insurance coverage and the full financial backing of the American Legislative Exchange Council, so for her, victimizing her own gender is a win win.
Those Damn Old People! It's GOP, Not DOP!
Medicare beneficiaries and recipients of Social Security, do not think for a moment that your age protects you from victimization by the GOP. Paul Ryan has his eyes on you! Lest you forget, every Republican member of the House voted to adopt the Paul Ryan budget, which is laughingly called "The Path To Prosperity". The GOP has not lost any love for Ryan's subterfuge. You can be sure that voting Republican will insure passage of an even bolder plan! And remember, bolder does not equal better.
Ryan wants to cut taxes to the wealhtiest of corporations and individuals by $4.2 Trillion dollars.
Ryan pays for the tax cuts by cutting programs for the poor and middle class by $4.5 Trillion dollars.
Ryan's Path will have seniors shouldering 68% of their Medicare costs. But not today's seniors. Ryan's plan is so great that he wants to save it for anyone currently under 55! So, if you are a senior now and have yours, don't worry about anyone else. Your 40 year old kids can fend for themselves. Your grandkids --well, you won't be around to watch them suffer in their old age, so it's all good!
If you are a senior and you are thinking about voting for Mitt Romney, remember, the one thing that he knows for sure is that he supports the Ryan plan, all of it.
The Day After The GOP Bombs Iran!
Think about it, America! What happens the day after the Mitt Romney bombs Iran? The GOP speaks of war as if it is a board game with no consequences. Clearly, Romney, who has been so casually threatening Iran during his campaigns may think that he and the rest of his party speak to God on a daily basis, but they have little foresight. America is a powerful country, true, but most of these blowhards have never even served in the military. War with Iran may eventually become a reality, but have we learned nothing in the past 10 years? If thoughts of bombing more countries in the Middle East make Americans feel safe and powerful, we are truly brain-damaged as a people.
No consequences? All of the bravado in the GOP world cannot prepare us or shield us from the inevitable consequences. War with Iran will be far different than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The consequences of Iraq and Afghanistan have been unfairly borne by our military men and women and their families, but the ramifications of war with Iran will be shared by all Americans, and it will in no way resemble profit sharing.
And having Mitt Romney negotiate anything with these countries? The man can't even talk to the American people on the campaign trail without appearing to be a bumbling idiot. Imagine how embarrassing his gaffes will be when he is dealing with foreign leaders. They will most certainly consider him 'exceptional', but not the kind of exceptional that we are really looking for in a leader...
Possession Or Insanity?
The Republican party has come undone. Voting for any Republican in 2012 is a vote for continued scapegoating, justice for few and a country that stands for the Orwellian concept that, "All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others."