April 24, 2011 8:36 AM

And you wonder why Americans don't respect politicians?

What is more frightening than any particular policy or ideology is the widespread habit of disregarding facts.

  • Thomas Sowell

OK, so I’m a Liberal Democrat who wouldn’t vote Republican if you hooked a car battery up to my testicles. I’m certainly not the most objective observer when it comes to the 2012 GOP gaggle of Presidential contenders…but even I have to confess amazement at how low Republican standards seem to have become. It’s as if the party of Ronald Reagan has become the party of cheap slapstick. Man, when Republicans are disappointed with their own collection of Presidential timbre, you have to know that things are getting rough. Then again, if you look at those who are announced (and/or seriously rumored to be) candidates, it’s not difficult to understand why Republicans are so underwhelmed. If we take stock of the candidates, a few recurring themes seem to appear. Among the candidates, you have

  • rank ideologues who ignore and/or deny anything that doesn’t match with the narrow ideology of their Conservative base,
  • cowards who, when the Tea Party says “JUMP!”, ask “HOW HIGH??”
  • an adulterer so lacking in self-awareness that he can’t hold himself to the same high standard he holds Democrats,
  • a Right-wing zealot so undeniably crazy that she makes Caribou Barbie seem positively sane,
  • an unreconstructed racist who seems to think that Mississippi in the 1960s represented the pinnacle of racial harmony,
  • a former Minnesota governor with a growing taste for the KoolAid being served by the Far Right,
  • talking heads incapable of voicing a thought or policy position that hasn’t been polled or focus grouped among Conservative White Christians to within an inch of its life,
  • an oligarch and former Governor who championed universal health care in his own state…only to discover that he’d have to disavow himself and his considerable achievement in order to run for President,
  • a former US Senator and the only Republican politician whose surname is synonymous with the mixture of bodily fluids resulting from anal sex,
  • panderers willing to do or say anything that they think will fire up the Conservative base,
  • zealots who think that questioning the President’s birthplace is a pressing and legitimate issue,
  • and more than a few calculating pols willing to sell their souls in order to continue to elevate the interests of the wealthy above any and all other considerations.

I’d love to hear some legitimate ideas that Americans could debate. I’d really like to know what the GOP platform for 2012 is- other than saying or doing whatever it takes to get elected. Properly constituted, I think that Republicans could play a significant role in helping move this country forward. I may not necessarily agree with much (or anything) that they have to say, but America needs ideas. We need to discuss serious, workable ideas with an eye towards getting this country out of the mess it’s in…and some of those ideas should come from people who don’t think like I do. What we’re get instead is an undeniable lack of seriousness. How else do you explain demands from the Right that we reduce the deficit by defunding Planned Parenthood and NPR…while simultaneously demanding that we extend the Bush tax cuts and not cut defense spending?

I don’t know about you, but I can’t help looking at the field of 2012 GOP Presidential contenders with an impending sense of doom…and it’s not merely because I detest what Republicans stand for. From where I sit, I don’t think this collection of panderers and ideologues could lead a group of hungry Cub Scouts into a Burger King. None of these folks should be allowed to manage a Dairy Queen…much less the most powerful country in the world.

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid…because if this is the best the GOP has to offer, the book on the 2012 GOP Primary campaign will be called “The Race to Mediocrity.”

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on April 24, 2011 8:36 AM.

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