The Forty-Year Hissy Fit (Why “Republicanism” is doomed) [View all]

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http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/the-forty-year-hissy-fit-why-republicanism-is-doomed/

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When your Cranky Correspondent was a wee lad, there were Republicans (without quotes) with a sane, sensible platform that mentioned equality, living wages, economic sanity, and lots of reasonable ideals like that. And had the Republican Party remained sane, this writer might still be one (he was raised to be, after all). But then came Kent State and Watergate, and the GOP got spanked. Hard. So the Elephants got angry. Really angry.

That anger is the core of the modern “Republican” party, and once you understand that, everything about their behavior makes sense:

“Why do Repubs seem irrational?” Angry people aren’t rational.

“Why are so many Repubs trying to steal elections?” Because in their irrational anger, they see themselves as victims who are trying to take back what they think is rightfully theirs, never mind the law.

“Why do so many Repubs steal?”
See previous answer.

“Why do Repubs hate minorities, gays, foreigners, and other non-Repubs?” Because they see themselves as a uniquely and horribly wronged people, and if you aren’t one of them, you are the enemy.

“Why do Repubs want to destroy the Constitution as we know it?” Because that Constitution is what Nixon and the Republicans tried to subvert, and it was what was used to thwart their crime spree. Show me a crook who likes the rule of law. Good luck finding one: crooks hate laws.

The problem is, anger by itself is pretty limiting. Repubs have no agenda, only a raging, vindictive, spiteful urge to lash out at the rest of the nation (note: that “rest of” is in fact the majority). And no matter how much damage they inflict, how much wealth they amass, how much power they grasp, it will never be enough. Because all they have is anger. All they can do with that anger is attack.

And eventually, that pathological hatred and rage will be turned upon themselves (indeed, that has already started), eventually destroying the party and perhaps the country as a whole.

It’s too bad that Ford ruled out further spankings of Nixon and his cronies: perhaps that punishment would have taught the Repubs a lesson, but that ship has long since sailed. No, we are stuck with a petulant, spoiled, perpetually angry party that hates us all and is bent on punishing US in return for the slap on the wrist it got.

A forty- year Hissy Fit. A four-decade temper tantrum. And it doesn’t look like ending soon.