The GOP’s body snatchers

[highplainsdem]

From Politico:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/opinion-scot-faulkner-jonathan-riehl-the-gop-body-snatchers-97102.html

In the classic 1956 sci-fi film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, an alien race comes to Earth and begins turning humans into “pod people.” Their bodies are left intact, but their minds are regrown, rending them humanoid robots under the aliens’ command. Unrecognizable to neighbors, the pod people take over until nothing is left of human society.

At the time of its release, the film was seen as a metaphor either for communist takeover (according to conservatives) or an ironic criticism of the irrational fears of communist takeover (according to liberals). Today, we think the body snatchers conceit perfectly fits another trend: the takeover of the responsible conservative movement — or least what is left of it. A small faction-within-a-faction — government-decrying, religious-fanatic, anti-science — have turned thinking Republicans into pod people.

-snip-

The TheoCons used their time in waiting to methodically take control of the Republican Party at the county and state levels. Their fervor for biblical policies and evangelical beliefs easily overwhelmed the waning legions of GOP Cold Warriors and independent libertarians. This is not a criticism of the Tea Party movement alone; the TheoCons poach from this camp as well as a separate cohort of religiously driven conservatives who have been part of the conservative coalition since the late 1970s.

Fast forward to 2012, and the Republican Party of the 21st century looks more like 16th-century Europe, when doctrinaire Catholicism and fervent Protestantism were literally fighting over hearts and souls amid the Reformation. Science and medicine were locked in the realm of superstition. Absolute dictators ruled everywhere. It would take another 100 years before the beginnings of rational thought, scientific inquiry, and liberal democracy took root.

-snip-

[Mnemosyne]

1. K&R nt

[highplainsdem]

2. Thanks!

[Mnemosyne]

3. VW. Interesting article. nt

[Scurrilous]

4. Thanks.

K & R