does the kansas gop hate me?
Look. I’m a secular conservative and a non-combatant in the “culture war”. I think we (my readers and I) can all agree on that.
You already chased me off with this unhealthy fixation on gay marriage and this “intelligent design” crap. I’m not really a “joiner” to begin with, but you together with the national GOP really made it easy on me.
It looks like you’re ready to pick a state party chairman. Your choices are… Phill Kline, Kris Kobach, and Tim Huelskamp.
Seriously, what did we ever do to you?
01.06.2007 @ 11:42
Kansas Republicans used to be classic moderates. James Pearson, Nancy Kassebaum, Bob Bennett… were icons of common-sense moderation. Then the Republic Party got radical. Even Bob Dole in 1996 turned out to be “too liberal” for the Republic cons. Bob Dole.
Lee Atwater and his heir Karl Rove developed a strategy based on their awareness that, by definition, fifty percent of the American people are below-average in intelligence. If they could capture the Stupid vote, and team them up with the Corrupt vote, they’d have themselves a powerful electoral majority. Republic Cons pander to racists and xenophobes by juggling the “English as the official language” movement with corporate greed that provided the only reason undocumented aliens come to the United States.
There are enough laws already on the books that could stem the flow of illegal workers into the US, if only they were enforced. Problem is, the natural consequence of enforcement of those laws would mean the Wal-Mart Board of Directors would have to meet in the cafeteria at Leavenworth Federal Prison. And broccoli would cost a nickle-a-pound more.
Corrupt corporations paid the freight and stupid people traipsed to the polls to vote Republic on such fringe issues as gay marriage and late-term abortions. And Exxon-Mobil’s $4- or 5-Million dollar campaign contributions to the Republics assured billions and billions of record-breaking profits.
Read the official Kansas report on abortions, for example. Turns out, the number of abortions performed on women aged 15 or younger amounted to one-half of one percent of abortions perfomed in Kansas. You can’t get much more fringe on an issue when it involves one-half of 1%.
The Kansas Republic Party is, every day, becoming less and less of a political organization as it becomes more and more a religious movement. It might be able to pull in faith offerings and pack mega-churches, but it seems to be hell-bent (heaven-bent?) to become the 21st Century version of the Kansas United Dry Forces.
Kansans may not like abortion, but they’re reasonable and realistic and find safe, legal, and rare (remember that one-half on 1% statistic?) preferable to women being butchered in back alleys. Dr. Bill Roy (a retired OB/GYN practitioner and former Kansas congressman) has noted that it was far easier to get an abortion in Topeka back when the procedure was illegal than it is today. If you’re against abortion, that should qualify as progress. But it doesn’t, of course. Because the Republic Party loves the issue much more than they want a resolution.
The last successful presidency in the United States was Bill Clinton’s 8 years of moderation. The Republic Party screamed that he was a “liberal,” but anyone who knows any liberals knows better. The Republic Party’s majority (stupid plus corrupt) tags anything that’s not on *their* agenda as “liberal.”
Once the stupid and the corrupt gained power in America, terrorists attacked, and a (highly profitable for Halliburton, et al) non-provoked war sent more than 3,000 Americans to their deaths and 10,000 or more Americans to the mercy of a depleated Veterans Administration. The only upside, I guess, is that tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of innocent Iraqis are with Allah now. Thanks to the Republic Party.
This is a pretty good country. It’s a country where everyone can and should expect certain basic rights. We should expect clean water and a working sewer system and access to books and information and the right to vote and laws that apply equally to all (regardless of sexual orientation) and the soveriegnty of one’s body and essential health care and access to education and the opportunity to succeed (even if your ideas run counter to the power of Microsoft) even if you haven’t been born twice.
The Republic Party doesn’t seem to get this. The tail is wagging the dog. Part of the GOP’s bargain was to pander to the slim demographic of Evangelical “Christians” who put them over the top in the voting booth. To the Republics, the National Debt doesn’t matter because “Jesus is coming soon.” To the Republics, Global Warming doesn’t matter because “we’ll all be in Heaven.” To the Republics, inheriting wealth is just God’s way of telling you you’re responsible for picking the wrong parents.
What’s amazing to me is that there are still members of the Republic Party who think these ideas are a viable political strategy.
01.08.2007 @ 07:51
JD, I am overjoyed at your recent epiphany.
It seems that the GOP requires that you check your brain at the door when registering with them.