The Fortnightly Rant for August 13, 2010, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 254, No. 23, posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011.
We have seen fit, from time to time, to criticize many aspects of the Republican Party. Its leaders, their methods, and their alleged principles have all been bludgeoned regularly in these pages. In fact, we have found it necessary to rail against the GOP on a non-stop basis since we first took over this venerable newspaper more than twenty years ago.
Republicans would no doubt argue that our record reflects an innate bias, a preference for the Democratic Party. That is not just inaccurate, it is an insult. We do admire some individual Democrats. We take fervent umbrage, though, at the suggestion that we respect a party unable to thrash the living bejeesus out of an opponent as obviously immoral, corrupt and depraved as today’s Republicans.
If anything, we have been too easy on the racket now operating under the guise of the Republican Party. To cite just one reason, we happen to believe deeply in something to which they give only lip service — our form of Constitutional government. We will grant that in its current condition our Federal government is far from perfect. It needs a lot of work, mostly to repair damage done by the GOP. But you don’t burn down a fine old house just because it’s drafty and the roof leaks.
The Republicans, though, after half a century spent drifting steadily from their moorings, now call openly for the dismantlement of that crowning achievement of the Founding Fathers they so loudly claim to love. And, just to add insult to cacophony, they’ll throw a hissy fit if you dare to suggest that they’re anything less than über-patriots.
Ah, The Good Old Days
Many of today’s prominent “conservative” Republicans — e.g. Newt Gingrich, Patrick Buchanan, and Sean Hannity — love to wax nostalgic about the Fifties. It was a time, they say, when America was as it should be.
Which Fifties are they talking about? The early Fifties, when Senator Joe McCarthy (C2H5OH—WI) was terrorizing the nation with his rabid red-baiting (and being supported by New Hampshire’s own Sen. Styles Bridges)? Or the late Fifties, after McCarthy was condemned by a Senate fed up with his booze-fueled, conspiratorial fantasies?
The Birch Test reveals the answer. Robert Welch founded the John Birch Society in 1958. He claimed that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a “conscious, dedicated agent” of the USSR. By that time, flat-out derangement was widely frowned upon, and party elders in the GOP recoiled in horror from Welch and his Birchers, lumping them in with snake-handlers and Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party.
These days, though, the GOP embraces Glenn Beck who embraces the John Birch Society; the John Birch Society sponsors GOP events; and the GOP accepts their support. It’s a kumbaya moment — as long as you’re white, Right, and paranoid.
Alms for the Rich
Nineteen months ago, at Noon on January 20th, 2009, to be precise, as President Obama was taking the Oath of Office, the GOP suddenly discovered a desperate need to reduce slash the Federal budget deficit.
In their panic to correct this awful problem, Republicans seem to have forgotten that they created it. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has made this inconvenient truth about the deficit graphically clear (see the chart, below) using figures from the Congressional Budget Office. Without the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush-era tax cuts, and the Great Recession spawned by Republican doctrine, the deficit would barely exist.
President Obama, in yet another futile effort to appease Republicans, has formed a National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to deal with the deficit they created. Thanks to its probable effect on the future dietary habits of Social Security recipients, it instantly earned the moniker “The Catfood Commission.”
The Catfood Commission will inevitably have to accommodate the GOP’s unique negotiating style, which can be summed up in two sentences: “Be reasonable. Do our my way.” When it comes to reducing the deficit, their way is two-fold: 1) stop collecting taxes from people with money, and 2) stop spending money on people without money.
To save the nation, the GOP’s talking heads all agree, the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy must be renewed. True, Saint Ronald Reagan’s very own Budget Director, David Stockman, now says, “We can’t afford the Bush tax cuts.” But his disagreement on this point demonstrates, prima facie, that he’s lost his mind.
Sticking It To the Troops
So how, then, are we to balance the Federal budget? The only option left is to be brave and cut wasteful spending. Brian Beutler, writing for TalkingPointsMemo.com on August 5th, provided a clue on where that wasteful spending might be found. He wrote, “[Honeywell CEO David] Cote and other members, including the commission’s co-chair Alan Simpson, are focusing … on “freezing military pay, making military people pay for their health care.”
Whither the Republic?
Pundits say the GOP will pick up a slew of new Congressional seats this November. If that happens it won’t be because they deserve them.
If the Republicans get what they deserve, it will be the Democrats that pick up more seats.
And, once again, if that happens it won’t be because they deserve them.