Republicans, Wherefore Art Thou?

This blog springs from a life-long enjoyment of writing and a growing need to express myself, or maybe just vent, coupled with an increasingly intense interest in things political. I'd begun to think that I was becoming more liberal with the passage of time, but upon further reflection I'm persuaded that the Right has simply move further right. And, frankly, I'm not certain even that's true: it's debatable whether what we now call "Republican" or "Conservative" or "Right" has anything at all in common with what was once the Republican Party. And overtly liberal though I am, I think that's unfortunate. Anyway, I intend to explore that and related subjects here, and probably ask more questions than I'll ever answer. And, since this is my blog, I'll probably digress into wholly unrelated areas on occasion (someone even more famous than me once observed that "consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," or words to that effect, and I certainly don't want one of those).

I've been thinking of the tongue-lashing Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida delivered to both sides of the isle last Thursday. He suggested that if President Obama achieved world peace, Republicans would blame him for destroying our defense industry. If he solved world hunger, they'd blame him for overpopulation. If he had a BLT one day, they'd be trying to ban bacon the next. Rep. Grayson's mildly facetious remarks were right on the money, and that's a problem for both the Republican Party and the nation. The Republican response to virtually any administration proposal is to say "no" or offer up something diametrically opposite. The health care "debate" is a case in point. Despite periodic promises to the contrary, they have failed to offer anything like a proposal of their own. After a summer recess devoted to repeating bizarre lies about "death panels" and such, they returned to D.C. saying "we need to start over." Start what over? How do you start "over" if you haven't started at all? Their only contribution to the "debate" has been lies and fear mongering (boy, is that another subject), yet they whine about being excluded.

What is this all about? Do they really believe the nation somehow benefits from their obstructionism? Are they unaware that we confront real problems? Why does their leadership remain silent in the face of the most outlandish rhetoric from the likes of Glenn Limbaugh, Rush Beck, Bill Hannity, Sean O'Reilly, et al.? A shameless band of ethically interchangeable "commentators" consciously spews sewage to the benefit of their own wallets, without regard to the damage they do, while party leadership transparently awaits political gain from the fear these charlatans instill in their ill-informed, gullible listeners. If somehow roles were reversed, I've no doubt all of these opportunists would be screaming "treason" at the top of their disingenuous lungs. (Don't believe me? Check out the previous administration in general, Karl Rove in particular, McCain, Palin, Boehner, Cantor and on and on.)

So much for the loyal opposition. The Republicans have knowingly, even deliberately marginalized themselves, narrowing their appeal to a shrinking minority for whom fear and hatred (intimately related emotions) are a way of life. Much as they claim to hate government, they seek any victory at any cost because they lust after power. Much as they claim to hate Big Government, government can never be too big when it's doling out favors to their pals. Real, lasting, legitimate power arises from the quality of governance, but quality governance is something of which the current Republican Party is manifestly incapable. It is to be hoped that eventually a sense of integrity will find its way back into the GOP, and the GOP will find its way back into the mainstream. It and the nation will be the better for it.