Thursday, October 21, 2010

Presenting the Republican Party of the 21st Century

This upcoming election could prove to be the most important one since, um, I don’t know . . . ever? It could define who we are as a Nation. And given many of the recent polls, who we are as a nation is beginning to look scary.

The current Republican Party has really recreated itself during the past two years:

Leadership – we have a shadowy field of putative leaders, with currently no clear winner. Michael Steele remains as the defacto chair of the party, but he seems to have been muzzled and is now on a very short leash by the shadow leadership. Karl Rove operates as he always does, in the shadows, but pulling the strings of his various puppets, as he raises money from the carefully hidden corporate donor base made possible by the republican justices on the Supreme Court. John Boehner continues to make noises within the government as he pretends to Congressional leadership, while answering only to his corporate donor base to which he is tightly tethered. John McCain is, well he remains old, very old.

It is tempting to make either too much or too little of Sarah Palin. She always seems to be striving for leadership, but mainly she continues to strive for billionaire status.

The true shadow party, and the wannabee shadow government, again thanks to the Supremes, is a hidden cast of corporate CEOs. We know about Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers who are at least out front about their attempts to return this nation to the early 18th century. We don’t know about the other corporate types who are currently pouring money into the congressional races, and will certainly pour even more money into the 2012 presidential campaign.

The Tea Party has taken on the look and feel of the party’s attack dog system—perhaps they are the Roman Legions of the Republican Party, willing to do anything, say anything, and promise anything to get back into power.

The Party has its own propaganda mechanism in the form of the Faux News Network, Mr. Murdoch’s personal PR machine for the party.

And then we have its brand new 18th century policy agenda. The Republicans have decided apparently, that almost everything enacted into law over the past 150 years is simply unconstitutional. So, they may well attempt to eliminate:

Social Security – privatize it, thereby giving control of all that money to the folks who brought us the Great Depression II in 2007. Alternatively, the newly formed “tenthers” within the party want to give over Social Security to the states—making it a state option to provide, or not to provide.

Similarly, Medicare will be up for elimination or turned over to the states.

All Department of Education programs will be eliminated, including things like student loan assistance, Title I grants to poor school districts, Pell Grants, and other current assistance to states and localities.

Sarah’s friend Joe Miller up in Alaska wants to eliminate child labor laws, as well as the federal minimum wage law, and unemployment insurance. Rand Paul wants to eliminate laws against wage discrimination, and other bans on segregation. Remember the whites only lunch counters? They were fun, weren't they?

Finally, although they have not yet proposed it, I am wondering whether the Republican Party of the 21st century would also consider reinstating slavery as a state’s issue. It could happen . . .

And this is the party of God, American Patriotism and freedom for everyone. Perhaps they have learned too much from observing Afghanistan’s inability to build a national government. And perhaps the Taliban-controlled system of warlords and strict sharia laws that existed before we intervened is their model for a system of (Christian) religious-based laws and local control.

Maybe Fox News will be the first network to bring you a real live stoning.

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