Something terrible has happened to the soul of the Republican Party. We’ve gone beyond bad economic doctrine. We’ve even gone beyond selfishness and special interests. At this point we’re talking about a state of mind that takes positive glee in inflicting further suffering on the already miserable.
It’s doesn’t take a Ph.D. with a bloodhound and a metal detector to find examples that illustrate just how mean-spirited and corrupt today’s GOP really is. If you pay attention to what’s happening in Congress and legislatures around the country, you know that examples of Republicans perfidy are legion. The party of “JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!” has become the party of Voter ID laws, Stand Your Ground, an impossible to explain (much less understand) war on women, and a burning desire to shred the social contract. Much of America is governed by people who believe the poor are to blame for their circumstances, women are the property of men, and the world is by rights the property of wealthy, Conservative, and Christian White men.
If you think I’m engaging in just so much partisan hyperbole, all you need do is to take a look at what went down down with the recent passage of the massive (and I do mean massive) farm bill. Look at the bill, and it becomes clear where the priorities of Republicans lie (Hint: it’s not with the poor and needy). No reasonable person could look at what Republicans are doing without concluding that, in addition to waging a (senseless) war on women, they’ve also gone to war against the poor. A cynical observer might conclude that they’re deliberately trying to create a two-tier society where the poor and middle class exist only to serve the interests of the 1% and have no shot at elevating themselves into better economic circumstances.
For decades, farm bills have had two major pieces. One piece offers subsidies to farmers; the other offers nutritional aid to Americans in distress, mainly in the form of food stamps (these days officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP).
Long ago, when subsidies helped many poor farmers, you could defend the whole package as a form of support for those in need. Over the years, however, the two pieces diverged. Farm subsidies became a fraud-ridden program that mainly benefits corporations and wealthy individuals. Meanwhile food stamps became a crucial part of the social safety net.
So House Republicans voted to maintain farm subsidies — at a higher level than either the Senate or the White House proposed — while completely eliminating food stamps from the bill.
It took not time at all for me to conclude that today’s GOP really is engaged in such a coordinated and mean-spirited campaign against women…and now minorities, the poor, and the middle class. Surely, I thought, there’s NO WAY compassionate Americans could engage in such a cynical and just plain evil campaign against those not fortunate enough to be born with a penis, white skin, and a trust fund.
I can be SO naive sometimes.
What makes it all even harder to understand is that the people responsible for engaging in such barely concealed evil were ELECTED. Americans- you and I (well, not me)- voted these heartless zealots into office. It may be difficult to wrap one’s head around the seemingly never-ending descent into evil and mean-spiritedness, but this is happening because Americans voted for a party steeped in evil, self-interest, corruption, and a pronounced lack of compassion.
I’d like to think we’re better than this, but when you consider that the people now working to dismantle the social contract, disenfranchise minorities, and legislate women back to being the property of men were elected…well, clearly we’re not. We have exactly the quality of leadership we deserve. Americans who voted for Republicans have no right to complain about what Republicans are now attempting to do. You voted for them, you put them in office, and you bear responsibility for the atmosphere of evil, mean-spiritedness, and lack of compassion extant in America today.
This is who Republicans are…and this is what you voted for.
Nice work, America….
