I’m a great believer in karma, and the vengeance that it serves up to those who are deliberately mean is generally enough for me.
- Beth Ditto
Karma comes after everyone eventually. You can’t get away with screwing people over your whole life, I don’t care who you are. What goes around comes around. That’s how it works. Sooner or later the universe will serve you the revenge that you deserve.”
- Jessica Brody, The Karma Club
Beginning with Barry Goldwater in 1964, the Republican Party has had an implicit deal with the Devil. The party has catered to those on the farthest Right edge of the political spectrum, paying lip service to those who traffic in anger, hatred, religious zealotry, and the desire to oppress those not like them. The election of Ronald Reagan brought the unhinged wing of the GOP out into the open, in part because the Gipper had assiduously courted them- not because he was one of them, but he understood their support was necessary in order for him to win the White House.
In 1980, an evangelical Christian who taught Sunday School and honestly endeavored to lead a Christ-like life ran for President. His name was Jimmy Carter, the Democratic incumbent. Even with Carter’s well-known strong Christian beliefs, Evangelicals went heavily for Ronald Reagan- not because they admired his Christian faith- which was situational at best- but because he projected what they perceived as strength and leadership. Evangelicals tossed out one of their own in favor of a secular Republican who talked tough and affected an air of someone willing to be tough when events called for toughness. Turns out that for Evangelicals, like any other group, it’s first and foremost about political power; theology takes a back seat when it comes to practical politics.
The reality was then, as it is today, that the politics of the Radical Christian Right- or, more accurately, the American Taliban- has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The American Taliban and the rest of the Far Right demand fealty to a political agenda based on hatred, exclusion, and intolerance…Christianity is important only insofar as it helps them feel justified in their righteousness. Their America is and by rights must be a place ruled exclusively by good, God-fearing, patriotic, Conservative White Christians. No others need apply…because no others matter.
The contrasts between the Democratic and Republican parties couldn’t be more sharply defined. Republicans since 1980 have advanced an increasingly exclusionary and discriminatory agenda- denying a collective responsibility to care for our fellow human beings in favor of elevating the interests of the individual above all else. Government isn’t defined as an instrument of compassion and assistance, rather one designed to show strength, project American power, and enforce a dog-eat-dog worldview bent on shredding the social contract.
Democrats by contrast, while not necessarily knights in shining armor, understood that one of the most important roles assumed by government was that of ensuring that we look after those down on their luck. Government was not held to be primarily an instrument for projecting power and influence, but rather one of protecting and in some cases expanding our commitment to the social contract.
Republicans over the past three-plus decades have stood as the party of exclusion, denial, and intolerance. Those outside the Conservative White power structure- minorities, refugees, the poor, the unemployed, etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum- have been defined as “less than” and unworthy of the benefits which by rights should accrue only to REAL Americans. The GOP harbors a cohort which would happily dismantle the Constitution in favor of a theocracy ruled by “Biblical principles”…that they themselves would get to define. To their way of thinking, the separation of Church and State is an artificial construct. America is by rights a Christian nation, ordained by God. Other religions- Islam in particular- are unwelcome and deemed to be heretical and a threat to the Homeland.
For more than 50 years, and in particular since the advent of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have assiduously courted those on the Far Right unwilling to tolerate expressions of political and religious beliefs outside their own. They’ve carved out space for those steeped in hatred, intolerance, and exclusion. They’ve created an environment in which candidates like Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio not only thrive (and in which culture warrior John Kasich can be, with no trace of irony, labeled a “moderate”), but become dominant forces. The GOP has made no effort to reign in those who endeavor to appeal to the hatred, fear, and prejudice of “low information” voters…and now the bill has come due.
After years of courting and massaging the Radical Right, thinking that they could be kept under control, Republicans have awakened to the realization that not only do they no longer have control, the inmates are now running the asylum- poorly. Faced with the reality that the bill for their deal with the Devil has come to, Republicans are panicking. They trotted out Mitt Romney to make the case against the current GOP frontrunner, who responded in character with crude personal insults and inappropriate sexual innuendo.
Stay classy, eh?
Such is the bed Republicans have made, and they’re discovering that lying in it can be exceedingly uncomfortable and unpleasant. Party leaders thought they could control the ignorant, hateful, and intolerant under their roof. They thought it would fall reliably into line when instructed to do so, only to learn that ignorance and hatred, once loosed, is very often impossible to influence, much less control.
There’s been much speculation that what we’re witnessing is nothing less than the death throes of the Republican Party. While not exactly saddened by that prospect, I do fear what might replace it. I fear for the future of my country, which seems headed down a path leading inevitably to the intersection of theocracy and idiocracy.
Congratulation, Republicans. After decades of sowing the wind, you’re now reaping the whirlwind. Your ability to exert anything resembling influence and/or control seems negligible at best and nonexistent at worst. You chose to lie down with dogs…and you’ve awakened with fleas. Worst of all, you have only yourselves to blame.
