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The Republican Party he knew is gone
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Why I am ashamed to have been a Republican? Like my father and his father before him, I have been a lifelong republican. I have always supported the party's candidates and positions, from Barry Goldwater in 1964 to George W. Bush (twice). But something has happened.
Over the last several years the tone of the party has changed and has reached a deafening crescendo in the last few months. Loyal opposition and civility have disappeared, replaced by rhetoric that is poisonous, irrational, and unencumbered by facts.
Consider these examples. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R- North Carolina), speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives concerning the proposed hate crime legislation called the "Matthew Shepard" bill, suggested that Shepard was merely the victim of a robbery, and that suggestions that he was targeted because he was gay were all a part of "a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills." Even a cursory check of the facts shows that the crime was an anti-gay crime. By the way, Matthew's mom was in the House gallery at the time.
Or how about U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R- Georgia), who was on C-SPAN'S "Washington Journal" discussing the swine flu outbreak. Broun was a logical choice. Not only is the congressman a physician, he sits on the House Homeland Security Committee. This is what he said: "Of course, it's sad to see a 23-month-old child die from this disease. We don't have any specifics. I tried to find out this morning specifics about this child that has died — whether it was someone who is from Mexico, possibly an illegal immigrant who has been brought into this country." He apparently didn't try very hard since TV, radio, and Internet sources had all reported the fact that the child and his family were legally visiting the U. S. at the time the child became ill. Instead, he chose to make his inflammatory anti-Mexican insinuation at the expense of a dead baby.
And then there's Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who described the overwhelming scientific consensus that carbon dioxide is contributing to climate change as "comical" during an appearance on ABC's "This Week," also noting that cow flatulence contributes CO2 to the environment all the time. The Ohio Republican said this about carbon dioxide emissions: "The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know when they do what they do you've got more carbon dioxide." Boehner's reasoning is wrong in so many ways, that it would be funny, if his startling lack of scientific knowledge weren't so serious. For one thing, it's another Greenhouse Gas that is produced from the business-end of those Cows, he points to — methane.
I could go on and on: Michael Steele, RNC chairman, agreeing this week that President Obama is, indeed,"Barack the Magic Negro," two conservative groups already criticizing the credentials of President Obama's pick to replace Justice Souter and promising to fight confirmation (Obama hasn't named a nominee yet); Republican Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), who said in 2005 that filibustering a presidential appointee was not only inappropriate but "very likely unconstitutional" and yet who announced he will filibuster the president's supreme court justice nominee (yes, the one the president hasn't picked yet). There are, of course, the teabaggers, who accused the president of being a socialist, a fascist, and a Marxist all at the same time. That's like saying an animal is a cat, a dog, and a parrot all at the same time. Maybe they should look up the meanings of words before they throw them around. And then there is Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-Minnesota). I can't even list the nearly unending inflammatory, inaccurate, and insensitive things she has said, and continues to say nearly every day. It seems lately that every time a member of Congress makes a ridiculously ignorant, inflammatory, or pathetically ill thought out comment, you can count on there being an "R" after his or her name. This is not the Republican Party I grew up with; the party of Dwight Eisenhower, Everett Dirksen, Gerald Ford, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan (to name just a few).
Sadly, it has become the mouthpiece of the lunatic fringe. That is a great loss to our republic. The loss of a civil public exchange among informed people holding opposing views is a great loss indeed. I am ashamed of my former party; ashamed of its obstructionism and fetish for vitriol, ashamed of its exclusionism and willful ignorance; ashamed of its abandonment of reason for reactionism. The Republican Party I knew is gone. I shall miss it.
Dr. David Maleham