Still More on Republicans

Three years and 10 days ago, I posted this on my old, obscure Tumbler blog.  Rereading it now, I find nothing to disagree with, other than my wistful self-identification as a conservative.  It explains why I have so much hostility toward the Republican party.

American history for well over a hundred years has been following a great arc of expanionistic imperialism - irrespective of who is in Congress or the White House.  The main drivers for imperialism are ego and the desire to take other people’s stuff: wealth, goods, trade routes, natural resources. The beneficiaries of American Imperialism have been corporations - formerly American, now International.  Repugnicants and Damorats are two branches of the same Corporatocracy.  The Repugnicants are worse, and the only thing the Damorats have going for them is that they are not Repugnicants.

Back in 1963 my father told me that every once in a while, if a crumb falls off the plate, the Dems might let you keep it.  The Reps won’t even do that.  At the time, I had no idea what he was talking about; but it stayed with me, and, by God, he was right.   I loath the Damorats, but dammit, they’re all we have.


People who think that they are conservative think that I’m a Liberal, but I’m not sure that’s true.  I believe the Repugnicants have so corrupted political discourse with their agenda of the unitary President, American Imperialism and hegemony, and their war on the middle class; along with their use of hot-button, but ultimately politically meaningless non-issues like gay marriage, abortion, and “family values” (whatever that is supposed to mean) that very few people have noticed that they no longer represent any valid platform of political principles that make sense in a republic or democracy.

The last real conservative in American politics was Barry Goldwater, and he evicted Nixon from the White House.  By current standards, he would be a flaming Liberal.  The Reps lost their soul under Nixon, and their mind under the vacuous Ronald (trickle down economics, government is the problem) Reagan.  This set the stage for the souless, mindless George W. Bush.  Note the thread of political actors going back to Nixon.  Karl Rove learned all his dirty tricks at Lee Atwater’s knee.  Cheney and Rumsfeld go back through Reagan to Nixon.

In this political swamp, the old labels of “liberal” and “conservative” don’t mean much, and, in fact, can be horribly mis-leading, relative to political parties.  Under cover of darkness, the Repugnicants have sailed off any political map that is recognizable to thinking Americans, into the region of authoritarian despotism, with a rich-take-all, international-corporatist mentality that has at its end-game either European medieval feudalism or South American banana-republic-style dictatorship.

Since their allegiance is to multi-national corporations, not the citizens of the U.S. (remember, we the people?) they are traitors.  Clearly, they don’t believe in democracy (which requires a strong middle class) separation of church and state, the bill of rights, or any of the Constitutionally guaranteed liberties. They are bad at government, because they do not believe in governance.  If you don’t believe me, just ask Grover Norquist.

I believe in real family values (including education, health care, a living wage and old age security) progressive taxation, liberty, justice, and the U.S. Constitution — You know, the same as Thomas Jefferson.  I think I am the real conservative, and the Repugnicants and their fellow travelers are mainly (and often unwittingly) proto-fascists.

There are many good, honest ordinary people in this country who are legitimate conservatives.  But, alas, there are among them many who are thoughtless dupes, poor saps who follow anyone who claims to be a “conservative” (frex: Rush Limbaugh) right into perdition.

Don’t be that guy.