G.O.P.: R.I.P.

So there it stands: a naked, pigeon-chested old man, random strands of white hair on its boney shoulders; its swollen-knuckled hands clasped over its dead genitals, looking at once forlorn and menacing, shivering with self-loathing and xenophobia, raging pathetically at its timely and appropriate defeat at the hands of Reason.

Ladies and gentlemen: The Republican Party.

With every passing day, the people who stubbornly, maddeningly cling to an obsolete ideal and who stand in the way of the cultural advancement of this country, this America, spew the base reality of their caustic ideology into the air.

The Republican Party is like a dying tyrant, mad with syphilis, ironically like that very Stalin they would accuse their enemies of associating with. How else to account for their desperation to resurrect the wraith of Joseph McCarthy; the hammy and baffling utterances from high level party officials like Boehner and McConnell; the blatant desire on their part to let the country fail out of sheer resentment; the wanton sedition of Conservative shit-stirrers ranging from the quasi Madame Defarge Michele Bachmann to the porcine, pill-popping porcine propagandist Rush Limbaugh?

It is an all out assault on reason, on progress, on truth. What is the difference between the Republican Party and, say, the Taliban? A rogue by any other name would smell as rank. Their frantic accusations all churned out in a futile effort to explain their current pariah status is as pathetic and draconian as stoning a woman in the street.

I feel I must apologize for my own particularly febrile anger. It's unseemly and ugly. But finally, the enemy is clearly outlined. We can see it for what it is and what it always has been. It exists not in myth but in a reality which has plagued humanity for millennia: utter, hateful ignorance born from a fear of truth, indeed a fear of life itself; a mad and impotent pursuit of some long-forgotten ecstasy having spawned generations of paranoid power addicts who chase the past at the expense of the future, cloaking their real intentions in perfumed patriotism and the seductive swoon of religion.

It's so fitting that we are living in an age where beheadings, torture, piracy and now unbridled power mongering are all common place. Perhaps that element of humanity is going back into hibernation and is snapping at any and everything before its eyes finally close. In our lifetime the choice has never been so stark.

Don't be intimidated by that naked, pigeon-chested old man. His party's over.

Comments

[Texas Aggie]

It's not good to hold back your anger. You should come out and say what you really mean.

[hortonhearsawho2]

pigeon is good eating this neck of the woods...

[conlawprize]

"Did you know that in 1990, people making over $1M earned less than .8% (that would be less than 1%) of all incomes paid in the US but last year that group earned 5% of the total? Or that the number of people earning over $1M increased 12 times faster than the total number of workers increased?"
***********

i love how liberals throw these statistics around as if they think that instead of being "earned", there is some pie of yearly wealth out there that can be divied up arbitrary.

fact is, the poor are not poor because the rich are rich

[ConfuciusSay-]

Tell me again about how the AIG guys "earned " their bonuses?
How about the Citibank guys?
Umm.. How about the Sandford chap?
How about Bernie Madoff & his wife?

[Isis N]

Great response!

[hortonhearsawho2]

ahh, the poor pr*y harder for it, sure...

[lynettema]

Yeah, tell me how 40 hrs put in by the rich are really any different than the 40 hrs put in by the fellow who actually did the work.

[ChristianEcon.com]

"fact is, the poor are not poor because the rich are rich"

Oh GW, how're things on the ranch? I love how you and your ideology posits this mystical belief in wealth outside the pie of wealth. Calling it a "fact" is simply priceless. You learned nothing the last 8 years; the belief-based church staggers on to exact more damage....

[ProfessorPeg]

Conservatism, by definition, is antithetical to the laws of the universe. Everything must evolve, physically and spiritually. It is impossible to be a conservative - to want things to stay the same. If we preserve what we are and have "today," by tomorrow that will be what we had and were yesterday. In other words, we must be reactionaries because we now are trying to hang on to the past.
Thanks heavens, the American "conservative" movement has rendered itself irrelevant and obsolete.
I will not mourn its passing.

[ConfuciusSay-]

The Laws of the Universe are fixed and the same, or they're not worth spit as Laws. If you can identify solid principles that can regularly be applied to changing circumstances and get a good outcome, you don't need to change these ideas. That's the basis of the argument for conservatism.

(whether the specific ideas they offer actually meet the criterion of a "good outcome" is another matter altogether­.)

[FatherWolf]

Not even close.

The application of solid principles -- like equal opportunity for all people and good stewardship of the Earth -- to new circumstances, is the province of liberals.

Conservatives cling to the old ways as long as they can, until it just becomes untenable to do so. You'll never see a conservative at the forefront of any change such as expanding legal rights to victims of discrimination. Conservatives will fight as long as they can, wait a few years, and then pretend they've always been in favor of women's right to vote or whatever. They've given up on trying to keep women in the home or trying to make divorce difficult; they're in the process of giving up on gay rights and no longer scoff at fears of environmental pollution. Eighty years from now conservatives will no longer make a big deal of same-sex marriage.

[FatherWolf]

BTW - what are some of these immutable Laws of the Universe that remain forever unchanged? I'm not talking about the inverse-square law of gravitation, but laws that have to do with how people should live and treat each other.

[HarryPumpkin]

Conservatism is somewhat of a misnomer for describing the philosophies of modern-day conservatives. Their philosophies are more aligned with classical liberalism.

Don't be fooled by the name. There are a lot of things that conservatives have no interest in conserving. Among the changes they want: overhauling the Ponzi scheme that is social security, implementing school vouchers to improve education, particularly for minority children, tax reform, tort reform, easing FDA restrictions on drug testing, allowing people to purchase health insurance across state lines, and decreasing federal government spending (something which has not happened since the end of WWII). Disagree with these changes as you may. The point is that conservatives are in fact for "change" and some of their desired change is rather drastic. The difference between modern liberals and conservatives is not the amount of change they want. It's the particulars.

[billw8017]

Almost everything in this post is some kind of lie. The size of the government was cut under Clinton. National companies sell insurance. The FDA lets the drug industry do its own testing and put out killer drugs. Tort reform means to cut ordinary people off from the courts; corporations sue with happy abandon. Tax reform means to cancel all taxes. Vouchers undermine funding to improve education for some belief in "competiti­on." Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme but a self amortizing pension that consistently produces a profit for the government. Projections of its bankruptcy assume a average growth of GDP of about 1.8%, the worst case scenario since it is less than what we had during the 1930s.

[HaloGuy]

This post is so complacent its maddening. This is exactly the beginning of the indolence that will cause red states to rear their ugly heads once more.

As another poster indicates, never doubt the stupidity of Americans - there are far too many out there.

[conlawprize]

"With every passing day, the people who stubbornly, maddeningly cling to an obsolete ideal and who stand in the way of the cultural advancement of this country, this America, spew the base reality of their caustic ideology into the air. "
*********

"cultural advancement"? are we trying to create the ubermensch here or something?

very creepy

[BruceHNV]

Uhhmmm, no. Trying to create a society that cares for its own better.

[SOLERSO68]

i cant get the image of naked old men and TEABAGS out of my head now. thanks a lot.

[roudy]

Unfortunately, true evil is never banished from the earth. It may be defeated, but will always return. So the Republican party will be back, and the struggle between good and evil will continue.

[carpdd]

I LOVE YOU MAN!!!

[mad1nola]

gotta love his alliterations

[rudyinbama]

Hilarious post.
Of course you know, blood-sucking vampires never really die - some fool always finds a way to revive them for a sequel.

[georgiaR]

WHY I CAN"T BE A LIBERAL

1. I do not believe in sticking it to the rich. I think they all ready pay "their share" of the tax burden.
2. The government is so wasteful with our tax dollars why should we give them anymore money to waste.
3. I hate rich liberals - If they are so concerned about the poor people why don't they give up their lavish lifestyles and give all their money to the poor. And how about the liberals that are all for higher taxes and then don't pay their own taxes - hypocrites!!!

[lauram]

That's ok. We're doing jeeesss fine w/o you.

[Mannock]

Well la-de-f#@&ing-da.

[wesinohio]

Look into it. You'll find that the top tax rates were the highest at the most profoundly successful periods of our history. Much higher than now. It's just a fact. Look it up.

[pfrogger]

why I can't be an far-right conservative extremist nut job:

1. I believe that evidence and facts are my friends, and that if I use them, my plans will show actual progress for the betterment of all
2. I believe that we are all stronger when we come together for a common goal and the betterment of all, and not just greed for the benefit of the few
3. I don't believe in believe in some mythical being who is undoubtedly "the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." (Richard Dawkins)
This is just a guess, but I think the creator of the universe is more compassionate, caring, and loving to all of his children, even the "heathens", "infidels", and homosexuals. I also care about life after it's been born and not just before. SCHIP.
4. I think that the rich should pull their weight more so than the poor, considering how good they have it in this country. I'm not "sticking it" to them. The poor are the ones that get wrong end of any deal. The rich, in general, are the ones who own businesses and use their influence for their benefit. I think the poor, via their numbers, should do the same and the elected officials should represent their constituents, which are mostly middle and lower class.

[SOLERSO68]

very clearly and well said. i agree

[awckid3]

beautiful

[ProgressiveVoice]

Really? Have you studied any history? Did you know that when implemented, the income tax was directed exclusively at the wealthy? Did you know that in 1990, people making over $1M earned less than .8% (that would be less than 1%) of all incomes paid in the US but last year that group earned 5% of the total? Or that the number of people earning over $1M increased 12 times faster than the total number of workers increased?

Did you know that in 2007 1/3 of workers earned less than $15,000? Or that more than 75% of workers earned less than $50,000? Did you know that for the last 30 years, tax policy in this country has shifted the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class? That those making $50 - 75 K pay the same share of their income as people making over $87M? Or, if you are ONLY making $10 M, your taxes were less, as a percentage of income, than people making between $100K and $200K?

Perhaps you'll do us the favor of pointing out how, exactly, the wealthy are already paying their fair share?

[JonBen]

I'll lay odds of ten to one you don't get an answer from georgiaR. Thanks for an excellent post!

[WhereToStart]

It would be good if these right wing nuts were really dying... or at least if a more useful and really decent opposition were born out of it. But I still think the old saying : 'never underestimate the stupidity of the American people'. They are a minority but a loud one. And they have been proving they won't stop at nothing to regain power. This is the party that justify torture. Values and principles will not be on their way.

[leftyhater]

'never underestimate the stupidity of the American people'.

Precisely correct. After all, we just elected a guy who has ZERO real world experience outside of feeding homeless people. Based on that, my grandmother should have been president.

[cplKlyde]

Sorry Steven but the Greedy Old Perverts are more like a wounded rat pushed into a corner. And that is why they are so dangerous.

[huffingt]

My friend. The party is dead.
The fun-eral tea b-a-g procession is ready in 2010.

[Primus51]

If the GOP like you belive what are the reasons for it. They spent money like crazy,thats not an GOP policy, and they tried to solve every problem by throwing money at it, thats not an GOP policy,. Yes there is more reasons than that but the point I'm making is they were acting more like liberals. Obama will be the on responsible for the GOP comeback but he will win his second term. All those seats that were picked up in the house and senate by democrats in 06,08 were won by bluedogs. The bluedogs will have a had time selling all the spending to their districts. This downturn better be over or the GOP will take back the house by 2012. Having said that I don't think the downturn is as bad as were hearing.

[WowJones]

As much as I wish it were so, it's naive to believe they are de ad. The two parties traditionally ebb and flow.