July 17, 2011 5:27 AM

The GOP: Dragging America kicking and screaming back to the 1930s

Michele Bachmann says that if she’s elected, she’ll ban pornography. We have multiple wars, skyrocketing debts, a recession, unemployment…. Yeah, let’s ban pornography.

-David Letterman

OK, so let me see if I have this straight. We’re fighting two wars that are costing us…well, I’m not quite sure how much, but I do know that the word “trillion” roughly translates as “a whole lot of money.” Our infrastructure (road, bridges, sewers, electrical grid, etc.) is crumbling. Our health care delivery system would shame your average Third World country. Our edumication system is having trouble keeping up with Sierra Leone, much less Japan, China, and South Korea. And there was something else….

Wait, wait…don’t tell me. I’ll remember it in just a second….

Oh, yeah, I remember now…our economy’s circling the drain.

And, not to pee in anyone’s sandbox or anything, but things appear as if they’re destined to get much worse before they get better. Yeah, I know; not exactly Sister Mary Sunshine today, am I??

So with all this Sturm und Drang roiling around us, you’d think that Republicans, like most Americans, would be all over the idea of getting our economy back on track. Then they’d probably tackle infrastructure, health care, education, and our two never-ending wars…right? Well, not exactly. You might think they’d see all these things as priorities, but you’d be sadly mistaken if you did. No, they’ve decided that the pressing issue of the day is…

…wait for it…

saving the incandescent light bulb from federally-mandated obsolescence. Yes, you have my permission to have a quiet, personal face palm moment. Lord knows I am.

The bill in the Republican-led House, which may be voted on next week, would block provisions in a 2007 energy law that effectively ban the 100-watt incandescent bulb next year and other versions subsequently. Representative Joe Barton of Texas is among Republicans who say the standards are government overreach akin to President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul.

Supporters said the energy law, signed by Republican President George W. Bush, will reduce air pollution by eliminating the need for 33 power plants while saving homes and businesses money. “Clearly, consumers, the economy and the environment will suffer if these standards are repealed,” Jim Presswood, federal energy policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.

That a Republican signed the original legislation seems lost on the Teapublicans and the Right-wing partisans who see the demise of the incandescent light bulb as evidence of the creeping hand of socialism…and Lord knows that’s a road that ends at the front door of the Obama White House. I suppose you can just chalk this up as another example of the incipient hand of the Nanny State inserting itself into more and more aspects of our lives. Today, light bulbs. Tomorrow, they’ll be inspecting our meat and checking our workplaces. Oh, wait….

It would be nice to think that Republicans- and Congresscritters in general- could recognize a crisis when it kicks them in the crotch…and actually exercise the leadership, selflessness, and foresight necessary to take something resembling positive action. After all, we elect them to steer the ship of state and lead in times of crisis, right? Then again, most of the Congresscritters we’ve elect have the moral compass of a snake oil salesman and the intellectual agility of a damp sponge. Yep, it would appear that we have EXACTLY the quality of leadership we deserve, eh?

It would also be nice to think that we could elect people capable of doing the job they were elected to do instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator. Then again, we did elect these maroons.

All this time, I’d been thinking that Idiocracy was just a movie. Turns out it’s a documentary about American democracy, and it’s closer to the truth than any of us might have thought.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 17, 2011 5:27 AM.

The GOP Survival Suit: Reliable protection from evil, toxic Librul ideas was the previous entry in this blog.

I was thinking it might be the Rapture, but then I remembered this is L.A. we're talking about is the next entry in this blog.

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