A Most Curious Inversion

You have no doubt at some time heard someone say, “I’d rather be right than President,” or “I’d sooner die than give in,” or some such claim, indicating they are persons of principle and will not compromise their beliefs for any reason whatsoever.

Republicans seem to have inverted this to suggest they would rather be “wrong” than be President (or succeed in some way). I suppose there may be a few of the most rabid dogmatic Tea Partiers, perhaps a few other screwballs somewhere in the world, who might actually believe that what they have been doing is “right,” but surely some Republicans, perhaps even a majority, must know that what they are doing is clearly “wrong.” Can they, for example, truly believe that shutting down Planned Parenthood, thus putting millions of women’s lives in danger, is the right thing to do? Similarly, can they actually believe that it is either necessary or desirable to take food out of the mouths of children by taking away their meager food stamps? How about forcing women to undergo unnecessary vaginal probes, or forcing them to carry the fetuses of rapists to term? Do they believe that voting against background checks that are supported by 90% of the public is the right thing to do? Ignore for the moment the facts that they are also opposed to a minimum wage, unions, increased taxes on the obscenely wealthy and corporations making record profits, environmental protections, global warming, and etc., and wonder if, most importantly of all, they think it is right to effectively shut down the government, all of the people’s business, for several years, in spite of the urgency of it all, simply to prevent a Black President from achieving any success?

Many, if not most Republicans, must know that what they have been doing to the President and the nation is wrong, but they have doggedly, even obsessively, been doing these wrong things for years. They simply have to know that attacking women and women’s rights over and over again is not only morally wrong but politically wrong as well. And they certainly know that blocking immigration reform will hurt them as well, but that is what they are trying to do. Not only that, they are attacking the most basic tenet of our (presumed democracy), the right to vote. This is, in the terms we have been taught to believe, clearly wrong. The fact they are doing it for political reasons does not make it right.

When they continue to allow the most moronic among them to speak for them, Backmann, Gohmert, Perry, King, Inhofe, Palin, and others, and do not disclaim their basically insane rants and claims, they again are doing wrong. When you consider the more despicable hate merchants that speak for the party, like Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, and they do not disclaim them, whether out of fear or not, they are constantly sinking further and further into the depths of Rovian slime and disgracing themselves even more, and I have not even mentioned the Evangelical wing of the Goofy Old Party, like Robertson, Huckabee, Warren, Colson, and such. And do not forget their current champion and pretender to the role of Joe McCarthy, the dishonorable Darrell Issa, who has not only lost all credibility, proven himself to be an outrageous liar by making assertions that lack any basis in fact whatsoever, and continues his irresponsible behavior with no regard whatsoever for truth and justice.  

As they must know their behavior will keep them from the next Presidency, and may even ultimately destroy their party entirely, I conclude they must believe they would rather be wrong than win, a most curious inversion indeed. They cannot all be so completely out of touch with reality, but if the sane ones among them remain silent, as they have for so long, they are just as much a part of the same revolting circus that now tries to pretend to be a serious political party.

"Who knows what goes on in the minds of baboons?”
My neighbor, quoting an unknown logger.

My neighbor, quoting an unknown logger.