Sore Losers

Wisconsin man upset with
the waxy buildup on his car
attacks car washer with hammer.

Man, oh man, I’ve heard of sore losers before, but have you ever seen any as bad as these Republicans? You are probably aware of the racial comments uttered at a number of our Black Congresspersons, and the homophobic slurs thrown at Congressman Barney Franks, and the fact that one Black Congressman was actually spat on. There were also bricks thrown through the windows of Democratic headquarters in New York, and no doubt more problems that were not reported at all. It would be easy to say this was merely a few isolated cases of inappropriate behavior, but when you realize that in some cases Republican Congresspersons were themselves involved, as one from Texas who shouted out “baby killers” during the deliberations, and few, if any of them, spoke out against these abuses, it is difficult to conclude this is not at least implicitly being sanctioned by the Republican Party itself. When you add to this the intemperate and virtually out-of-control vituperation of Boehner, and the usual absurd remarks by McCain and others, you begin to wonder if anyone ever in their lives said “no” to these spoiled jerks. It was a democratic contest, you lost, you might at least lose gracefully, but there is nothing graceful about our contemporary Republican Party of no, no, no, a thousand times no, no matter what the issue is.

The Republicans have been totally opposed to health care reform from the beginning and they have done everything in their power to keep it from happening. There is every reason to believe they will keep on resisting until the bitter end. This is not at all surprising. Republicans have been opposed to every reform designed to help ordinary working people from the very beginning. They were opposed to the 40 hour work week, and 8 hour working day, paid vacations, minimum wages, and everything ever proposed to alleviate unpleasant conditions for working people. One conclusion you might draw from this record, especially relevant to the moment, is that Republicans actually would prefer you to suffer and die rather than give you a single nickel of help. If you are an ordinary working American the Republican Party is not merely an opposition party, it is your mortal enemy. It wants you to work for the least wages possible, to live in slums, to lack health care, and, presumably, to go hungry because it will motivate you to work merely to survive rather than thrive. While it is difficult to speak for history, it is obvious their behavior at the moment, at least, is motivated solely by politics. They want to recover power and they do not care what means they have to employ to get it. In other words, they don’t care if you starve or die of untreated medical conditions, or if your children have to go without health care, or if you die prematurely, have rotten teeth, cancer, or the plague, they want to recover their power to continue fleecing you from whatever little monies you might have left. You don’t think so? Where is any Republican health care proposal that addresses the problems of health care in America? Where is any attempt by Republicans to better the lot of working Americans in any aspect of life whatsoever? When have you ever heard anything from Republicans other than “lower taxes,” and “less government?” Apparently they are made to repeat these phrases one thousand times a day throughout their entire childhood: meaningless , useless, mindless, repetitions that blind them from any reality outside of their own childish selfishness. Tragically, I suspect they come to actually believe this simple-minded nonsense.

Now that the health care bill has passed they are swearing to repeal it. This confirms for me what I have suspected for a long time, Republicans have absolutely no conception of reality, especially as it has to do with the ordinary lives of ordinary people. Now that the Democrats have finally achieved something that has eluded government for almost a hundred years, and passed a semi-universal health care bill with many fine provisions, a bill, for example, that makes it illegal for children to be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and also illegal to stop someone’s insurance because they finally became ill, a bill that also allows some 32 million people who did not have health care to have it, Republicans are going to campaign to repeal it? This is, in my opinion, so ridiculous an idea as to make me question their sanity. I guess this is somehow related to their claim the American Public was/is opposed to health care reform and, now that they have it, will be willing to vote to repeal it. This suggests to me that not only are they out of touch, they are downright delusional. This idea of repealing the health care bill is not held merely by a bunch of tea party loonies who think Barack Obama is a socialist, greed is a virtue, Ronald Reagan was a saint, and Moby Dick is a venereal disease, but by the major leaders of the party, McCain, Romney, Cantor, Boehner, Huckabee, and others.

There is an old saying about gambling that I think may be pertinent here, “If you can’t afford to lose, don’t play.” Far be it from me to offer advice to Republicans, but they will surely lose if they try to repeal health care. And they can’t afford to lose any more than they already have. Their strategy of just saying “no” to anything and everything Obama tries to do in order to destroy his Presidency (and our nation along with him) verges on treason. As it is presently constituted the Republican Party has no redeeming social virtues, is actually preventing our government from functioning as it should, and is causing far more harm than good (indeed, it is impossible to perceive any “good” in it at all). Personally, I hope they will campaign on repealing health care, and I hope they run Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann, along with the slogan “Up with the skirts, down with the pants.” They can’t self-destruct too soon to suit me.

LKBIQ:
The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
H. L. Mencken

TILT:
Wildebeest can live for up to 20 years.