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RIP GOP
04/29/2009
President Obama got an astonishing gift yesterday to celebrate his "First 100 Days."
Republican Senator Arlen Spector switched parties and became the 60th Democrat in the Senate (providing Al Franken is seated) making it impossible for Republicans to filibuster legislation. We may thus see during the Obama administration the confirmation of one or more liberal Supreme Court Justices, universal health care, a modest increase in taxes on the wealthy and a modest reduction in taxes on the middle class, regulations on banks and large corporations, and the strengthening of unions.
Without the ability to filibuster in the Senate, which is the only remaining power they had after the 2008 election, the Republicans are toothless, silent, and irrelevant.
The Republican Party, as far as governing goes, is dead. Actually, the Republican Party isn't just dead; it committed suicide. It killed itself by insisting on ideological purity, by disallowing any dissent from the radical right wing economic and social issues that have come to define it, by pushing out moderates and compromisers, by being so stubborn that it did what mothers everywhere warn their children not to do. It cut off its nose to spite its face.
Today, a Republican cannot be for taxes of any kind. A Republican cannot be for government spending, even to avoid a second Great Depression. A Republican cannot be for any kind of gun control, even a ban on assault weapons which have no place in any civilized society. A Republican cannot be tolerant of gays or accept the inevitability of gay marriage. A Republican cannot be opposed to the criminalization of abortion or be "pro-choice." A Republican cannot cooperate with a Democratic president.
To be in good standing in the Republican Party today, one must be pro-gun (even guns created only to kill humans), anti-abortion (but not pro-child), anti-gay marriage (though it is heterosexuals who have nearly destroyed the institution of marriage), anti-taxes (and tea bags, apparently), anti-entitlement (even though they created a huge drug entitlement), anti-regulation of business (though that is what brought on this gigantic financial crisis), anti-Communist (even the ones they have created in their own minds), and above all, anti-Obama. Thus sayeth Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and all the other uneducated, empty headed bloviators who fire up the so-called base of the party.
And so the latest poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal shows that only 21% of Americans identify with the Republican Party. The Republican Party has become a tribe of white, largely Southern, and self-identified Christians who have found nothing about the 21st Century that appeals to them except for the fantasy of Armageddon which they await, hoping to say "I told you so" to all those heathen Democrats who actually cared about making the world a better place rather than praying for its end.
I vacillate between celebrating the demise of the Republican Party and mourning it. No party deserves death more than the party of Bush, Rove, Cheney, DeLay, Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and Beck. No party deserves it more than the party that started a war on false premises, killing hundreds of thousands, and tortured people suspected of wrongdoing while refusing to grant them a trial where they could at least defend themselves.
Yet, in order to govern well, the Democrats have traditionally needed the Republicans to be a loyal and intelligent opposition party. They don't need opposition from a stupid party, a paranoid party, a silly party, an ideologically stubborn party, which is what the GOP is now. What they need is an intelligent party that will prevent them from going off the deep end in the exact opposite direction the Republicans are now going. They need a party to balance their ideology and keep the country on a sensible track.
That is not to say that I am afraid that the proposals put forward by the Democrats are dangerous. I approve of raising taxes on the wealthiest citizens, but I have no concern that they are going to tax the American people into oblivion. I approve of new regulations on corporations and banks, but I have no fear that Obama will destroy the free market system. I approve of ending the war in Iraq, but I think it highly unlikely that Obama will allow Iraq to become a new haven for al Qaeda that will allow them to attack us again. I want abortion to remain legal, for reasons having nothing to do with what I believe about the morality of abortion, but I am certain Obama is not going to make abortion into a sacrament. In fact, if Obama is like other Democratic presidents, the number of abortions will go down (once the economy recovers) because of programs to help the poor with birth control and financial aid to support children they cannot afford to raise.
Nevertheless, a one party country can quickly become a country out of balance, a country with too narrow a perspective and I do not want to see that happen. I want our government to represent all the people, even those whose views I vehemently oppose.
In my opinion, the only way to resurrect the Republican Party is for strong and sensible moderates to speak up and say "enough" to the evangelical Christian Taliban, the gun nuts, and the radical greedy free marketers who currently control it.
Good governing requires compromise. During six years of the Bush administration, there was no compromise on the part of Republicans, and they pushed through an unnecessary and immoral war, tax cuts for the wealthy, a Medicare prescription drug plan that rewards pharmaceutical companies, and deregulation of banks that got us to the current economic mess, all the while trying to make the United States into a "Christian nation." (Since when do Christian principles include waging wars against countries on false pretenses? And if my knowledge of history is correct, the last time torture was a Christian principle was more than five centuries ago during the infamous Inquisition.)
On the other hand, one party rule may not be so bad. With the addition of Arlen Specter, and the inclusion of pro-life politicians like Bob Casey, the Democratic Party is becoming a bigger and bigger tent, while the Republican tent is shrinking. So maybe the conversation about different ideas will take place within one big party.
Still, I'd really like to see Republicans get their act together and behave more like elected officials rather than stubborn, ideological purists, even though I disagree with almost all of their policies, because I do believe in putting all ideas on the table in order to find a solution all can live with.
I am, hopefully, old enough and wise enough to know that my views are simply my perspective, what I see through my eyes. Others have different perspectives which should also be heard. My views are not the truth. Neither are the views of others. No one – NO ONE – has the truth. The best we have are guesses, hopefully educated ones, as to what will best serve the nation and the people.
So I do hope the Republican Party comes back some day.
I wouldn't, however, mind seeing them wander in the wilderness for a sufficient amount of time to regain some humility and common sense.
All content © 2005 outragedcitizen.com
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