Thursday, June 30, 2011

2012 Republican Political Survival Suit

The article is pretty straight forward political analysis, but the graphic is priceless satire . . . and sarcasm. There is no love lost between me and many of our so-called Democratic leaders, but the Republican party has surely gone off the ideological deep end and is quickly morphing into a well-off, red, white, and blue version of the Taliban. This seems to me a very creative version of a unisex burqa.

Amplify’d from www.stltoday.com
Editorial: Eight myths to chill an old-school Republican soul

Editorial: Eight myths to chill an old-school Republican soul






By the Editorial Board

STLtoday.com |




Posted: Sunday, June 26, 2011 12:00 am



| (233) Comments


immersion

When Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and House Majority
Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.,
quit
the (no longer) bipartisan deficit-reduction talks last
week, it was not exactly a
"Profiles in Courage"
moment.

Serious deficit reduction can't be — and shouldn't be —
accomplished without tax increases and broad elimination of tax
expenditures, which would have the effect of raising taxes. The
National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform last year

acknowledged
that.

But tax increases, in whatever guise, fail the current
Republican purity laws. Mr. Cantor, who will be running for
reelection next year, understands that very well. So does Mr. Kyl,
who won't seek reelection in 2012 — though he's generously
offered himself
as a vice presidential nominee.

It's sad to see what has happened to the Party of Lincoln, and
for that matter, the party of lesser mortals like George H.W. Bush
of Texas, Bob Dole of Kansas and Jack Danforth of Missouri. No one
ever would mistake them for liberals, but they were statesmen who
put country before party.

Today we have the spectacle of smart, patriotic men and women
putting their brains and integrity on ice to please a party
dominated by anti-intellectual social Darwinists and the plutocrats
who finance and mislead them.

Consider the mythology that makes up GOP
orthodoxy today. Imagine the contortions that cramp the brains and
souls of men and women of intelligence and compassion who seek
state and national office under the Republican banner.

• They must believe, despite the evidence of the 2008 financial
collapse, that unregulated — or at most, lightly regulated —
financial markets are good for America and the world.

• They must believe in the brilliantly cast conceit known as the
"pro-growth agenda," in which economic growth can be attained only
by reducing corporate and individual tax rates, especially among
the investor class, and by freeing business from environmental
rules that have cleaned up America's air and water and labor
regulations that helped create America's middle class.

• Though rising health care costs are pillaging the economy, and
even though health care in America is now a matter of what you can
afford, Republican candidates for office must deny that health care
is a basic right and resist a real attempt to change and improve
the system.

• GOP candidates must scoff at scientific consensus about global
warming. Blame it on human activity? Bad.
Cite Noah's Ark
as evidence? Good. They must express at least
some doubt about the science of evolution.

• They must insist, statistics and evidence to the contrary,
that most of the nation's energy needs can be met safely with more
domestic oil drilling, "clean-coal" technology and greater reliance
on perfectly safe nuclear power plants.

• They must believe that all 11.2 million undocumented
immigrants living in the United States can be rounded up, detained,
tried, repatriated and kept from returning at a reasonable
cost.

• Even though there are more than four unemployed persons for
every available job, GOP candidates should at least hint that
unemployment benefits keep people from seeking jobs.

• They must believe that the Founding Fathers wanted to
guarantee individuals the absolute right to own high-capacity,
rapid-fire weapons that did not exist in the late 18th century.

By no means is this list complete. It almost makes you feel
sorry for the people who pretend to believe this stuff. Almost.


Posted in
The-platform

on

Sunday, June 26, 2011 12:00 am

Updated: 10:32 am.



| Tags:


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Deficit Reduction,



Republic Myths,



Litmus Test,



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