Grow Up, Repubicans

The modern Republican party seems like a college fraternity being run by eighth-graders.  They are in an endless party loop.  They don't do their homework, and haven't learned anything.  Ever.  They are, in fact, proud of their know-nothing status and enjoy hazing the eggheads.  They believe the most ridiculous nonsense. 

And they are sponsored by a group of billionaires and corporations who act like Richie Rich's mommy and daddy (Richard and Regina Rich - I looked it up).  They buy their lazy drunken fraternity boy a new Ferrari - every time he totals the old one.  And he seems to total the thing every time he drives.  Never mind - there are lots of Ferraris out there. 

None of this is new - we all know that today's Republicans are lazy and irresponsible.  But why?  I mean, look at US history.  There have always been right wing extremists.  But the new breed seem qualitatively different.  The crazy is just so crazy today.  The denial of obvious fact is so brazen and bizarre. 

And it's so dangerous.  Americans are not, by and large, deep political thinkers.  Many don't follow the issues at all until an election.  And they believe the people they are raised to believe.  As a consequence, many Americans don't know that the crazy train left town years ago.  When rightists talk about the failure of an Obamacare program that is a huge success, they believe it.  When the climate deniers are in power, their constituents don't believe - don't want to believe - that those they trust are hucksters. 

And the budgets that are put forward - cartoonish grabs at money from the mouths of the poors to give away outlandish largesse for the rich and corporations.  People who empirically study this stuff laugh at it.  But most voters don't know how badly they're being shafted by these children in expensive suits. 

I have one theory of why.  I think the end of the Cold War has a lot to do with it.  During the period of the ongoing ideological and military rivalry with the Soviet bloc, leaders in both parties had to be deadly serious.  Denial of obvious fact could lead to a devastating war, or to the loss of allied countries in areas like the Middle East and Southeast Asia.  American leadership had to inpire the 'free world' or risk losing it.

One of the differences between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War was that in Vietnam, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all believed that the fight against world communism would be won or lost in proxy fights like the one in Vietnam.  They believed I the 'domino theory' - that if one country fell to communism it would lead to communist victories in the next and then the next country. 

It was a mistake, clearly, but one made in the firm belief that it was a necessary fight to preserve freedom. 

Iraq, on the other hand, was simply a war of choice by the frat brothers.  They lied to everyone, they executed badly and left a huge mess.  And they never believed anything.  They wanted to give giant contracts like their no-bid gift to the Vice President's old employer, Halliburton.  The president clearly was manipulated by Cheney and his own daddy issues.  He wanted to prove that he could take down Saddam - his daddy couldn't!

Iraq was started and executed under the worst of American impulses - greed.  The US government was used to create a wholesale fabrication to the citizens of the country and the world. 

But in the post-Cold War era, there is no larger consequence.  There is no rival to American power which could use the catastrophic Iraqi failure against them.  There have been consequences - there is no better recruiting poster for terrorists than Iraq.  The ISIS group was founded by and is run by displaced former Iraqi security and intelligence officers. 

But having the world see the US as violent blunderers is no longer a fatal error.  With no rival to their power, Americans are no longer tied to acting responsibly.  So they don't.  The rightists cavort as though nothing they say or do has any meaning.  They put people like Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan on presidential tickets.  The roster of presidential 'hopefuls' on the right looks like a Looney Tunes intro.  Their Senators and Congress people are beneath contempt.  They stopped every bit of sane, grown-up legislation they could for eight years and now are running on the fact that Democrats didn't get anything done.

They're running on the childish notion that people don't have a right to health care.  Kids don't think they need doctors and nurses.  And thankfully most don't.  But grown-ups  know better. 

The right has let their id off the leash and they think it doesn't matter.  But as we look at the news and watch the world burn in violence and drown in rising sea levels, we know this stuff does matter.  It matters more than the greedy whims of an idiotic fraternity.

Rightists have been getting used to stealing the answers to the test rather than studying.  They gerrymandered the House to steal it.  They are instituting voter suppression laws in states around the country.  And their Bro's in the Supreme Court have gutted the Voting Right Act so they can get away with it.

Let's start calling them on it.  No more cheating to 'win' elections.  No more fact-free legislation of any kind, and no more science denial.

Enough is enough.  Let's make them grow the fuck up.