Republicans Enter The Wilderness

Barring the return of Jesus Christ raining thunderbolts upon the Democrats, the Republican era will draw to a close today. Ordinarily a long period in the wilderness would be a good thing for a party that has lost its roots and in dire need of a long rehabilitation. The Republican party, formerly regarded as the Grown Up Party once believed in a small well-run government that kept out of the daily lives of its citizens. They had strong libertarian roots exemplified by Barry Goldwater one of the father's of the conservative movement. They were the bulwark that prevented the well-intentioned but often disastrous instincts of the Democrats from being fulfilled.

In today's Republican party Barry Goldwater would be derided as a libertine and a godless man. Here is how Goldwater saw the religious right:

"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. . .

"And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.'"

Today, this man would have resigned from the Republican party in an instant. This is the bitter fruit that Jerry Falwell has bequeath upon the Republican party - no longer anchored in the fundamentals of business sense and good limited government it is now a caricature of its former self - a sectional, Christian religious party made up almost entirely of white men in a country that is growing more diverse every day. This is a party going nowhere fast.

As the party of Lincoln the sectional flavors recently added to the Republican party are especially troubling. Pandering to "the Base" (note that Al Qaeda also means "the Base"), they deride the Northeast and the West Coast and claim moral superiority for the "heartland". Their rhetoric borrows heavily from that of the old Confederacy which incessantly raised many of the same issues against the North and Yankees in particular.

In this new Republican party, people are broken down into the good Americans and the godless ones. They would like to decide many things on your behalf including your reproductive choices, end of life decisions, how you raise your children, what books they read in school while introducing religion to your kid's science classes. This was formerly the party of limited government!

It makes sense that with their primary focus shifting towards religion the former virtue of prudence in finance and restraint in goverance finance leaving Americans to live free and independent lives would lose favor. Religion demands conformity and obedience.

In an ideal world, the Republicans would lose big time today, go into the wilderness to regroup and retool. They would atone for their sins and come back after the Democrats inexorably run the country further into the ground. This time it appears to be different. The Republicans dying by the sword today are the more rational and palatable ones in the party. New England appears about to be completely sterilized of Republicans. The safe Republican seats remain in the "heartland". Thus, after this fiasco the Republican party is more likely to be even more puritanical and less likely to be a successful counterweight to the Democrats.

For years our elected representatives have been sacrificing the future for the benefit of their re-election. We have dug our country into a deep hole. Check out this link. With looming liabilities of over $52 Trillion dollars we face a steep decline in our standard of living over the next few decades. Are the Democrats the ones to solve these problems? History says no they are not.

Without a decent alternative to the Democratic Party we are all screwed. Perhaps we have to start a new party. How about the name Federalists?