The 2012 Clown Car Race

"It was while watching the debates last night that it finally hit me: This is justice. What we have here are chickens coming home to roost. It's as if all of the American public's bad habits and perverse obsessions are all coming back to haunt Republican voters in this race: The lack of attention span, the constant demand for instant gratification, the abject hunger for negativity, the utter lack of backbone or constancy (we change our loyalties at the drop of a hat, all it takes is a clever TV ad): these things are all major factors in the spiraling Republican disaster."

Matt Taibbi
From this week's Rolling Stone

When Hunter Thompson passed away five years ago, I remember saying that no one would ever take his place - and no one has. But Matt Taibbi comes pretty damned close. It rarely gets as good as this guy. Hats off to him.

On the morning of June 6, 2006 I received a nice e-mail from a woman in Missouri whose name I have since lost. Shame on me. I owe her so much. She had been reading my comments for a couple of years on the deliciously subversive website AlterNet. "You're not a half bad writer" said she, "You should start your own blog." Not being as computer-savvy as my nieces or nephews (I'm still not), I asked her how the heck that would be possible for a non-geek/geek like myself. "Just go to blogger.com" was her reply, "It's easy. They'll walk you right though it."
It really was easy. So easy, in fact, that within a half hour, not only did I have The Rant up-and-running, I had published my first article. It was a short piece - nothing much, only four paragraphs. But I ended it with somewhat of a bold prediction:

"George W. Bush will be remembered in history, primarily, as the first (pray last) former chief executive to go to federal prison. Sound crazy? Stay tuned."

As we all know by now, that never happened. And it looks as though it never will. The right wing craziness that today runs rampant throughout Washington would probably make such an action politically impossible anyhow. If Dubya is ever to be prosecuted for his crimes against the human race, it won't be in this country. That's why he and Rumsfeld and Cheney don't do too much traveling abroad since they left the White House three years ago. Why risk it? But another eye-opening prophecy I made that morning was in the title of that first piece:
"George W. Bush - The Last Republican President"

At the time I was just thinking wishfully as it were. Now I'm not too sure that it was as bold an idea as I had believed it to be at the time. In fact I am now almost certain that it wasn't. If that party doesn't exorcise from its spirit the kooks, criminals and halfwits who have hijacked it - George W. Bush will be remembered as the last Republican president.

They have spent the last thirty years trying to appeal to the kind of people who historically were not too interested in the political process: insanity junkies. And all of their efforts have payed off quite well for them - a little too well as it turns out. The "party of Abraham Lincoln" has devolved into the party of Uncle Fester. That demographic that the political scientists refer to as "moderates" (I call them "purple agitators" myself) have taken a good look at what the GOP has become and they're headin' for the hills. And many of the so-called "Reagan Democrats" are disillusioned to say the least. It's almost as if they got all decked-up for that dream date with Marilyn Monroe, but when the door opened, standing there to greet them was Typhoid Mary in her loveliest party dress.

And now the invisible movers and shakers within the gland (No, that wasn't a typo) old party are desperate for a moderate who will lead them out of this wilderness and into the Candyland of their most twisted fantasies. Are you ready for the punch line?

THERE ARE NO MODERATES ANY LONGER! THEY WERE ALL DRIVEN OUT OF THE PARTY YEARS AGO! ISN'T THAT A HOOT???

I am reminded of my old congressman, Benjamin Gilman. For thirty years he represented the district where I reside. A real gent of a man and the picture of moderation - a bit conservative on this issue, a bit liberal on that issue - in other words, the type of Republican that is now extinct. I always voted for Ben in spite of the fact that he would at times drive me crazy with his Hamlet-like indecision. Whenever my fellow Democrats (I used to be a Democrat) would ask me how I could vote for a Republican, my answer was always the same, "As soon as the Dems nominate someone better than Gilman, I'll vote for him." They never did.

Here is yet another example of that idiotic party cutting off their hideous noses to spite their clueless faces. Gilman was never one to tote the extremist, party line. As the 2002 midterms were getting near, the GOP had had enough of the kind of "Republicanism" that was personified in the figure of Ben Gilman. In a move that was cooked up by Dick Cheney and then-New York Governor George Pataki, they arranged for the congressman's congressional seat to be gerrymandered out of existence. The result was the end of Gilman's career - and two new Democratic congressmen! Between the November election and the swearing in of the new congress in January of 2003, the Republicans treated this good and decent man like dirt. They kicked him out of his office and placed him and his staff in a virtual closet in the basement of the capital building. How's that for class?

Ben Gilman was the last Republican I ever cast my ballot for. I will never again trust a political party that would allow itself to seep so far down into the ideological cesspool.

The Republicans
1856-2012

That epitaph is not as farfetched as you might think. The wounds that the Republicans have inflicted upon themselves could very well prove to be mortal. When they created and then embraced the so-called Tea party three years ago, it was akin to French-kissing a viper. The lethal venom has been slowly circulating through their system ever since. The GOP is now paralyzed and barely clinging to life. It is only a matter of time before it closes its eyes forever and the agony is no more.What we are now in the process of gleefully witnessing are the death throes of the party where Theodore Roosevelt once made his political home. He wouldn't recognize it today - much in the same way that his distant cousin Franklin would not recognize the Democrats. The two-party system in this country needs to be done away with, Not overhauled, mind you - completely destroyed. It's not supposed to be about political parties, boys and girls. It's supposed to be about....

"....government of the people, by the people, for the people."

It's not about the people any longer. It's all about the Republican and Democratic parties. Fuck the parties. Power to the people. That's the way it was meant to be. I'm just sayin'.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:

Spank the Donkey
by Matt Taibbi

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Just for old time's sake, here is a link to the first piece I wrote six years ago on this electronic cesspool of bad taste and commie propaganda:

http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/2006/06/george-w-bush-last-republican.html

Those were the days, my friend....Which reminds me!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KODZtjOIPg

Love that tune!