What The GOP Looks Like In The 21st Century

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Is there a single member of the former guy’s inner circle who isn’t in deep legal doo-doo?  First, there’s Giuliani whose home and office were raided by the FBI last week and who is in more than one pot of boiling water.  Then there’s Jared Kusher whose apartment company has been charged with repeatedly violating state consumer protection laws by collecting debts without required licenses, charging tenants improper fees and misrepresenting the condition of rental units.  Former Attorney General William Barr is being investigated for a possible conflict of interest in the case against heavy-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc., and the list goes on.  Hopefully, at the end of the day, charges and indictments come down against the former guy himself, for he is undoubtedly at the helm of most of these issues.  It is my fondest hope to see the former guy in an orange jumpsuit and behind bars for the rest of his life.

And yet, the GOP goes on, producing more, nastier criminal types like Kevin McCarthy, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Margie Greene, Matt Gaetz and more.  In my mind, I can almost hear Richard Nixon loudly asserting that, “I am not a crook!”  In truth, Nixon was no more a crook than some 90% of today’s GOP … but he paid the price, while today’s lot are applauded.  The difference?  Probably the likes of Fox ‘News’, the New York Post, and other Murdoch-owned outlets that wouldn’t recognize truth if it hit them in the patootie, and the influence of social media.  Compared to Nixon in 1973, today’s liars and crooks have nearly unlimited coverage ‘round the clock … Twitter, Fox, Newsmax, Facebook … they are all complicit in giving voice to the lies, to giving the crooks a megaphone with which to make their meritless case.  To be a star on Twitter or Facebook, you needn’t be honest or intelligent … you only need to have a huge number of followers, which you can get by being off-the-wall outrageous.  Integrity?  Not necessary.  Honesty?  Not a requisite.

You’ll hear, from many on all sides of the fence, that “both sides do it”.  No, my friends.  While the Democrats are not beyond party loyalty, and while no doubt they tell a lie or two here and there, they are in no way the accomplished Pinocchios that today’s GOP is home to.  One single example:  The GOP and its right-wing media arm have put out the completely baseless lie that Joe Biden is “coming to take your beef burger”!  Biden has never, to the best of my knowledge, even mentioned cutting beef consumption, and he’s a smart enough man to know he’d find his head on the chopping block if he did.  Now personally … my family and I eat beef maybe once a month, so I really don’t care if the powers that be stop slaughtering cows, but that’s just me.

But you’ll hear it on Fox, you’ll hear it out of the mouths of the Republican fools … and there is not a single element of basis in fact for that outright lie.  It bears as much merit as if the Democrats put out the lie that Republicans are going to force every person over the age of 18 to own a gun.  But see, we don’t need to make up lies about the Republicans, for they make themselves look bad every day without our help!  They think we sit around trying to find ways to make them look like idiots, but they’ve done that job for us!

But let us talk about substance … if the Republicans don’t like President Biden’s ideas, why don’t they come up with alternate policy proposals, meet at the table, and give a little, take a little, ending with a compromise that benefits the nation?  Why don’t they propose ways to ensure that everyone, regardless of employment, gender, ethnicity, or religion has affordable health care?  Why don’t they give us their ideas for how to repair the damage done to the Earth’s environment by humans?  Why don’t they propose ways to meet the challenges that face us in the 21st century?  Why?  Because they have none, because they are too busy being the party of racism, of negativity, of conspiracy theories, to actually propose meaningful, useful, legislation.  Does anybody doubt that they have spent more time promoting the Big Lie than thinking about how to help the people of this nation?

Republican Representative Anthony Gonzalez, when asked about the beating of Representative Liz Cheney by other Republicans because she stood by her beliefs in voting to impeach the former guy, replied …

“If a prerequisite for leading our conference is continuing to lie to our voters, then Liz is not the best fit. Liz isn’t going to lie to people. Liz is going to say what she believes. She’s going to stand on principle. And if that’s going to be distracting for folks, she’s not the best fit. I wish that weren’t the case.”

And that, folks, sums it up in a nutshell … if you have a conscience, if you are honest and a person of integrity, then you are “not the best fit” for today’s Republican Party.  Need I say more?

34 thoughts on “What The GOP Looks Like In The 21st Century”

  2. That’s summed it up what used to be the Republican Party, now operating as The Reactionary Party of Privilege
    We can but hope it will fracture, splinter, crash and burn and something more practical arises. It is certainly of no use to the USA as a nation.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Reactionary Party of Privilege … RPP … close enough to RIP! I like it! I keep thinking it will fracture, splinter, crash and burn, but … it seems as if they have brainwashed a large enough portion of the people in this country that … they keep on keeping on. The Big Lie is believed by some 70% of those who identify as Republicans … fools and idiots!!!

      Liked by 1 person

      • Check out this from Wikipedia entry Big Lie:
        U.S. psychological profile of Hitler
        The phrase “big lie” was also used in a report prepared during the war by the United States Office of Strategic Services in describing Hitler’s psychological profile:[12]

        His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it. (CIA)[13]

        The above quote appears in the report, A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler: His Life and Legend, by Walter C. Langer,[13][14] which is available from the US National Archives.[15] A somewhat similar quote appears in Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler: With Predictions of His Future Behaviour and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After Germany’s Surrender, by Henry A. Murray, October 1943:[16]

        Never to admit a fault or wrong; never to accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time; blame that enemy for everything that goes wrong; take advantage of every opportunity to raise a political whirlwind.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Jill, well done. Quite simply, when a group of people, any group, belittles the truth tellers and celebrates those who lie, it is not a good path forward. I was thinking about a conversation I want to have with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. My point would be – Mr. McCarthy, I know you are lying, your staff knows you are lying, and even you know you are lying and yet you still lie to defend the deceitful story of the former president, who by the way, put you in harms’ way. You should know people who fly to close to the former president have tended to get burned. Is that how you want you legacy to be? Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • Thanks, Keith. Sometimes I get something stuck in my head, and the fingertips just pound the keyboard without me really thinking or planning it. I wish … oh how I wish … that you could have that conversation with Kevin McCarthy! Me, I’d probably threaten to bash him upside the head with a rolling pin and ask him what the Sam Hell he was thinking, but you have the ability to remain calm, to be professional, and to initiate a dialog without rancor. I like to think that those like McCarthy, Greene, Gaetz, Hawley, McConnell … have dug their own grave and that the democratic principles, the people of this nation, will rise above the crap they are trying to pull. But, sometimes when I’m lying awake at night, I wonder if they are, in fact, the future of this nation. If so, I don’t want to stick around to see it. Sigh.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Jill, as I mentioned in a comment on my blog, conservative pundit David Brooks said on PBS Newshour last night, “To be a leader in the Republican Party, you have to lie.” He was referencing supporting the election fraud claims of the former president. This, of course, dovetails the comment made by conservative pundit Michael Gerson that to be in leadership of the Republican Party, one has to be a “sucker or a liar.” Keith

        Liked by 1 person

        • If you pair Gerson’s remark with Lindsey Graham saying that the party cannot move forward or grow without Trump, it becomes obvious that from this point forward, nothing that any republican says can be taken at face value. What a sad statement to have to make.

          Liked by 1 person

          • Jill, true. To me, it is better to pair Graham’s remark with the piece on Liz Cheney in the The Washington Post. It notes the RNC folks have been lying to Republican official running for office by not telling them how underwater the former president is in key districts. It is reported that the continued the lie under direct questioning. This is the Wizard of Oz telling the four heroes not to look at the man behind the curtain. I would like to add that the former president being banned from Facebook is actually helpful to him in one respect – it gives him fewer chances to say inane things. Keith

            Liked by 1 person

            • Good point, Keith! If you put all the pieces into the jigsaw puzzle, what you have is a picture of a Republican Party that is crumbling from within, that knows they cannot win anything honestly, so rather than try to clean their house, develop a platform and ideology that people want and need, they are hellbent and determined to cheat to win. My best hope is that this strategy falls apart, crumbles into shreds before the 2022 mid-terms.

              Like

  5. No Jill, you said enough and said it well. Te Democrats have policies, vision and hope. The GOP have a wish to be the ruling party but as bought people, which means that all that they see for the future is giving the ones that finance them what they want. But that doesn’t include the ordinary people who also pay them via the Government since many of them will be disenfranchised in order to increase the GOP’s chances. That includes some GOP voters.
    Cwtch

    Liked by 2 people

    • Thank you, David. I question what the ideology of the right actually is, or if in fact they even have one. Certainly they don’t believe they owe any fealty to the people who pay their salaries, but only to those whose wealth they either share or envy. Sigh.
      Cwtch

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.