Most voters are at least aware that progressives (and most Democrats these days) seek to make government help most people, particularly those with the least in the way of alternative resources. Far too few voters are fully aware of how radically different—how anti-American in fact—the other main side of the political contest now is and of how deeply ingrained and long-standing their anti-American, anti-populist, and even anti-life orientation has become over decades. Almost every piece and aspect of this phenomenon has been called out, but are not generally seen as an integrated whole, so the magnitude of the contrast and crisis are not adequately recognized.
Once upon a time there was a Republican Party that generally strove to limit government action, to keep it efficient and cheap, and to allow entrenched but not-clearly-governmental economic and social power to dominate responses to new situations. In a nation with a huge number of small farms and farmers, each owner being a “boss,” they could claim that the views of small-town bankers and new financiers were in line with the long-term interests of “most people.” Politicians who now call themselves Republican still prioritize giving benefits to financiers but all other continuities beyond the name have been destroyed.
The change essentially began with the drive to get all “conservatives” into the Republican fold and to push all others out so what once were called “liberal” or “Rockefeller” Republicans (like Barack Obama) had to become Democrats to seek political success. This drive followed and was augmented by a decades-long quest to destroy the national consensus that had emerged out of the experiences of the Depression, the Second World War, and the early cold war. An alliance of fanatical ideologues (mostly neo-fascist with a few so-called libertarians) essentially offered a grand bargain to the nation’s super-rich: bankroll their propaganda and political campaigns and they would steadily shovel more and more of the national wealth into the mansions and coffers of the plutocrats. The ideologues get power and status while the super-rich become even moreso; together they try to make sure that the system is rigged so it can’t be reversed. That is the core theme running through the history of the Republicans from 1960 to the present.
It is crucial to understand that the ideology held by the fanatics is not just superficial right-wing “conservatism” but includes a deeper orientation that really is a religious dimension. These people are completely committed to the view that humans are almost totally driven just by greed and fear and they believe (however illogically) that this necessarily means that the only stable basis for a country must be an authoritarian plutocracy. This is how they connect with the worldviews of most American evangelicals. Both are foundationally committed to the notion that people in general are not just “no damn good” but fundamentally rotten (i.e. tainted by “original sin”) and must for their own good be ruled and regimented by an elite. Because of present cultural conditions however that rule needs to have a superficial appearance of popularity. Their goal, thus, is for what we can recognize as plebiscitory and plutocratic autocracy or dictatorship – a pattern they see and can resonate with in much of the wider world. In the American version of this the elite of course are bound only superficially by the “moral” assertions of the evangelicals, but everyone else must be restricted. This orientation has been enough to drive large number of supposed “Christians” to the polls to vote for the criminal shell of the former Republican Party.
Enlisting these evangelical supposed Christians has not been enough alone to give electoral victories to the fanatic-super-rich alliance, and ever since the Goldwater fiasco they have known that telling the truth about their plans and goals is a losing proposition. Therefore they play upon any cause that allows them to attract additional low-information, non-analytic voters to their side, whether they care about that cause or not. Thus they embrace the residual racism endemic in the culture even though many plutocrats know they could make more money in a non-racist society. They embrace anti-abortion extremism as long as they can be sure that no restrictions will in any way impede the reproductive freedom of the super-rich. They embrace xenophobia even though many would prefer to encourage immigration. All that really matters to this alliance is their own continued power and continued increases in the flow of wealth into the mansions of the super-rich.
Naturally these people are aided by the purely opportunistic “party” hacks who will reverse any pro or con position on anything in an instant as long as they think it helps them against those who threaten their political power. And of course they rely upon the voting habits of not-very-engaged people who grew up in families and environments in which there was once some meaning to the words “Republican” and “conservative” beyond just whatever serves the plutocrats. One may still reasonably say that there are some “good people” on the “Republican” side and some others who are not deliberately evil. But this does not change the foundational fact of the essential criminality of what now presents itself as the Republican Party.
The Republican organization has been totally committed at its core for decades to a profound fraud. They have constantly claimed that giving more and more to the wealthiest people would produce ever-greater prosperity for all. Once upon a time that may have been a believable possibility but it has been an obvious falsehood for decades, and the more obvious the lie, the more fierce the Republican and “conservative” claims for it. Whatever has been done on other points, they have steadily worked to use taxing and spending and regulatory means to direct more and more money from the middle of the population, as well as from the poorest, to the wealthiest. They have been lying to the public while taking money from them and failing to deliver their promised outcomes. That is theft by fraud on a massive scale since they know that their promises are false and what the real effects are. Furthermore, they knew that this would hurt the lives of millions of Americans and they not only did not care, they believed that this is right and good since in their world nobody but the mega-millionaires deserve anything good. They actively believe that if a rich person can make an extra buck or two by poisoning the air, water, or food of thousands of non-rich people, then that that should be encouraged.
The politicians in question have thus become conmen. There is thus good reason supporting those who now refer to “Rethuglicons” or “Repugnicons” and since ripping off the public is their specialty we could call them with fairness “Rip-cons” instead of Republicans. The point is not, however, the repulsiveness of their behavior and character but the basic criminality at its core.
The brain-decayed coward presently in the presidency has added new layers of criminality to all this, but we must constantly emphasize that he is not the primary problem! He saw that that former political party had become a confederacy of conmen and realized that, being a professional conman on a larger scale, he had a good chance to out-con them and take over. Since then almost every single representative and senator in the “Republican” party has become a constant accomplice and/or accessory after the fact to each and every one of the major crimes.
They have added eager support for mass kidnapping and child abuse to their earlier support for mass poisoning of the public. They eagerly support mass murder by seeking to take away life-preserving healthcare from people who would lose it through their efforts to destroy the Affordable Care Act. It isn’t just a policy disagreement when what you are proposing (and giddily celebrating) is the inevitable death of tens of thousands of people. That is blatantly open “conspiracy” for mass murder and the Republicans have worked for it year after year. To this one can add the Republican eager support for corruption both massive and blatant.
And there is public extortion and treason – all supported by Republicans. And this does not even consider their widespread support of illegal efforts to deny voting rights to as many likely opponents as they think they can manage.
So let it be clear: the organized criminal alliance called the Republican Party is now and has been for decades the real threat to this country and to the chances for improving the lives of the vast majority of Americans.