Without irony, it really is sad to see what's become of the Grand Old Party.

It was bad enough when they were just wrong. Now they're crazy and wrong.

They wandered off the path decades ago, it's true, still you hate to see an old friend go completely off the deep end.

From Ronald Reagan, through Ollie North, Tom Delay, D ick Armory, Newt Gingrich, George Bush, D ick Cheney, John McCain and Sarah Palin, there has been an uninterrupted string of Christian radicals, right-wing extremists and just plain nonsensical fools coming to the surface of the so-called "Conservative Movement". The weird thing is, there are still a rather significant minority of Americans who are far enough out of touch with reality that they follow along.

What happened to plain old conservative Americans who supported their government and were happy to pay their taxes?

Now, it seems, that a total lack of alternative ideas (cutting taxes is not an alternative idea when taxes have already been cut) and leadership has led the Republicans to this. Tea Parties.

Really? That's it? Street corner circus?

Rupert Murdoch's FOX "News" organizes a bunch of Fascist-leaning millionaires to put together these ridiculous Tea Parties across the country, and the loonies show up.

These are people who deny they lost the election, people who don't believe in evolution, people who still think civil rights should be restricted to straight white men, survivalists, end-timers, and people who think reality is something you see on TV.

It is not only sad, it's bad for the country.

We could really use some fresh ideas, and someone to raise legitimate concerns with the current administration, but the Republican Party has collapsed in on itself, the only thing emanating from the debris is hate.

The only thing more tragic would be if they had won the election.

 

The Republicans are just about out of minorities to throw on the fire.

The latest sacrifice to the burned out ideology of Ronald Reagan was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, is by all accounts a very smart guy. I wouldn't say that the Republicans are trying to convince Americans that they are not a just bunch of cranky old white guys, but if they had someone - anyone - who could serve as a national spokesperson for their party other than Jindal, perhaps putting him forward wouldn't look so pathetically obvious.

Unfortunately for Jindal his poor oratory in the Republicans' response to Obama's address to Congress last night came immediately after Obama, who is a world-class speaker, had both sides of the aisle out of their seats more than in.

But Jindal's poor delivery was not the problem. It was his message.

Incredibly, the Republicans are still trying to ride Reagan's horse even though it is lying dead on the ground.

"We don't need no stinking government" is not exactly what the American people want to hear right now.

I find it impossible to believe that what is left of the Republican Party is oblivious to the fact that the American people blame them for the current global economic crisis. They have to know this.

These are the explanations that come to mind.

1.) The Republican ideological core actually believes that trickle-down economics never got a fair trial. These folks will happily go down with the ship - martyrs to the cause of radical capitalism.

2.) They think that we are stupid enough to continue to idolize the rich, and dream of someday having our shot to swindle the taxpayers, the shareholders and the middle-class suckers out of millions of dollars, too.

3.) They actually believe that if Obama fails to pull the economy from the flames, that they will be embraced by the American people and rewarded for their righteousness by being swept back into government - the government that they hate.

Or -

4. They are preparing for a coup, like they tried to do during the last depression.

 

There's an interestingly weird poll out today by Harris Interactive.

Apparently more people hold up President Barrack Obama as their personal hero than do Jesus Christ. (Hat tip to John Lennon.)

At least more people among the 2,634 adults Harris surveyed online from Jan. 12-19.

Jesus, formerly number one, had to settle for runner-up.

Ranking behind Obama and Jesus, in order, were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and two ex-presidents: Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Wow. I really don't know what to make of that.

Abraham Lincoln in sixth place? - behind Bush, who was recently ranked by eminent historians as the seventh worst president in the history of the republic?

Respondents were asked to write in their personal heroes, with no list to choose from.

Obama, Jesus, Dr. King, Reagan. Bush, Lincoln.

While this finding is a perfect example of a non-scientific survey masquerading as a poll, I think it does expose the crack that runs right down the middle of America's skull.

One comforting note; Captain "Sully" Chesley Sullenberger finished 12 spots ahead of Sarah "Barracuda" Palin.

What a country. God bless our pointy little heads.

The smug, mocking remarks about grassroots American politics – community organizing - at the Republican National Convention by Rudolph Guliani and Sarah Palin now ring like music in the ears of the multitude of us who have organized an end to the era of Ronald Reagan and the divisive politics of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.

The arrogance, and the mean spirit of those remarks established the tone of the McCain campaign, which spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars trying to divide this country along economic, social and, yes, racial lines.

Sorry, but I’m not feeling very conciliatory yet.

John McCain’s concession speech was all very gracious, but it cannot erase the disgrace that was his campaign.

Yesterday, the Republicans would have had you believe that the next President of the United States is a supporter of terrorism, a racist, and hates the country that elected him.

They impugned, through innuendo, every person of the Islamic faith.

They mocked the American idea of a common good, and sought to turn the greedy and self-righteous against their less-affluent fellow Americans.
 
They challenged the right of many Americans - particularly African-Americans - to vote, suggesting that their rights, won through two centuries of struggle, were fraudulent.

They threw around racism in code, and then protested that there was no malice in their remarks.

Those of us who do not support the Republican Party were told that we are not “real Americans”.

My celebration of this historic moment for all Americans is tempered with the knowledge that so many were willing to bring down this fine American, Barack Hussein Obama, by promoting fear and hate.

I hope I’ll feel more conciliatory tomorrow. Maybe this afternoon.

This morning, I would hope that all Republicans feel shame at the way they have questioned the character, loyalty and decency of their fellow Americans, especially Barack Obama.

You and I, the American taxpayers, and our children, and their children are about to play our part as the suckers in the largest transfer of wealth in the world's history.

What we are watching right now is the final step in Ronald Reagan's "trickle down" game of economics. Now that all the little drips that were allowed to trickle down to the ordinary people have been sucked back up through the oil companies, the real con is going down.

Raise your taxes? That's for stupid Democrats! The Republicans don't need to raise your taxes! They already have all your money!

You gave it to them by putting into "investments". They told you it was the best way to secure your future and your childrens' future, and you went along, dutifully socking away those dollars into your 401K, IRA, Money Markets, Stocks and Bonds. Right where they wanted it.

Now, they are seizing it and telling you that the alternative to giving it them is another Great Depression.

The proposed "bail out" plan is nothing less that the rape of the American taxpayer by the Republicans who control this administration and are backing John McCain.

They are about to seize not only everything you have, but everything that you will earn for years to come, and steal your childrens' wages before they get their first jobs.

At this point, I would rather take my chances with "total economic collapse" than give these thieves everything I will earn for the rest of my life. Let's try that.

I'll be damned if I am going to sit by while Bush and Cheney shock the American people into giving them greater power to rig the financial system in favor of themselves and the ruling class.

I urge you to immediately contact your representatives. The Congress must demand that the representatives of the people have oversight and authority over this process.

Only by electing Barack Obama in a few weeks do we have any chance at all in preventing a future where we all work for the same giant corporation, whose board of directors also writes the laws.

 

 

I have refrained from writing about John McCain’s pastor problem.

I really resented the way so many people used Rev. Wright as an excuse to unleash their racism and guiltlessly attack Barack Obama for being black – and worse – attack the institution of the black church, which has provided hope and inspiration for African Americans during centuries of slavery and oppression.

Also, I think that mixing religion and politics is just a really bad idea.

Politicians should keep their religion to themselves. As always, Bush provides us a perfect example of how not to lead.

If, in fact, the President of the United States is a born again Christian, this means that he believes that for God’s will to be fulfilled, and for Jesus Christ to return, there needs first to be an Armageddon.

I have wondered if one the factors motivating George Bush, who claims such beliefs, and has also stated that he believes that God selected him to be president, to attack Iraq is that he believes it is his Biblical providence to lead us into the cataclysmic battle between God and Satan.

Personally, I don’t want to see a nuclear war so that the born-agains can get their reward of sitting at Jesus’ hand. Any more than I want to get blown apart by a Muslim fundamentalist so that he can get to his own version of heaven.

I think I’d rather have a clear-eyed atheist with his finger on the button, thank you.

John McCain, who has famously criticized leaders of the religious right as "agents of intolerance", nonetheless has spent the last year currying favor with these same televangelist preachers in order to pander to the religious right, a core constituency of the Republican Party since the days of Ronald Reagan.

Among those is the Pastor John Hagee, who is about as whacked out (or as prophetic) as a preacher can get.

Among his other bizarre statements, Hagee has excused Adolph Hitler for annihilating millions of Jews, claiming that Hitler was acting on God’s behalf, driving the Jews back to Israel so that Armageddon could occur and Christ could come back.

He blames the Jews for the Holocaust. And gays for Katrina. And your sins for 9-11.

John McCain has said that he is “proud” to have this sociopath as a spiritual advisor.

Today, McCain tossed Hagee under the bus. Like the four lobbyists who were his key advisors, but became a liability to his ambitions by being, well, lobbyists.

Considering the endless looping of a 5 second clip of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s most inflammatory remarks over a period of at least a month, and the inference that Barack Obama shared those sentiments, it will be interesting to see how long the media’s attention remains focused on the anti-Semitic rantings of Pastor Hagee.

My guess: one news cycle.

 

I have been putting off writing about Iraq, but my guilt has been assuaged by the election, and the immediacy of that event.

 

Anyone who knows me or has read my letters to various editors going back to 2001 knows that I was part of the stillborn movement that tried to stop the War on Iraq (and I use that label very deliberately) before it began. I consider the war to be illegal, immoral and a watershed change for the worse in American policy. And, yes, I do hold George W. Bush accountable.

 

I grew up thinking that WWII was the model for war, in many ways, a “good” war, bracketed neatly by the Japanese “sneak attack” on Pearl Harbor and the final, war-ending, world-changing atomic blast over Hiroshima, with beating the *** [see note below] and liberating the death camps in between. I pored over my Grandpa’s collection of era LIFE magazines, and have seen countless movies about reluctantly heroic kids from the farmlands of the Midwest and boroughs of New York making the ultimate sacrifice in battles to liberate France and save Mother England. Only within the last few months did I learn that the U.S. might have come into the war on the side of Hitler and the axis. But, on towards Iraq.

 

In between of course was the “forgotten war”, the “conflict” in Korea, which in many ways was perfectly symbolic of the early struggle of Capitalism vs. Communism.  With no official end, it leaves a people divided into two repressive societies, one not even capable of feeding its people and the other with an upper class grown fat and corrupt and a working class producing cheap electronics and cars, primarily for the American and European markets.

 

They say the War on Vietnam defines my generation, and while I was just young enough, and lucky enough, to escape the draft lottery, the scars of this war are worn by every American over the age of 50. For those men who were forced into combat, 18 or 19 years old, the experience remains part of their everyday lives. I can’t even begin to talk about this in a few sentences, but suffice to say that this war divided our own country in ways that have influenced our politics and culture ever since. And, by the way, killed some four million Vietnamese civilians, the survivors living in a Communist state, which has since evolved into a Capitalist one. If you want to witness firsthand the emotional effects of this war, spend an hour watching visitors to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C.

 

Of course, there were still more wars, like Reagan’s barely remembered war (Operation: Urgent Fury!) on the tiny island of Grenada, which believe it or not, some people consider to be the final, victorious, battle of the Cold War. Seriously. And the first Gulf War – Dessert Storm! – that famously ended in the decision of Bush I not to enter Baghdad and take out Saddam, requiring his oldest son to come back and do the job right. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[Interestingly, and disturbingly, the blogging software used for this site, apparently will not display the common word for Hitler's National Socialist German Workers Party.]