Commentary On A Dying Party

Since the 2010 red tide, that allowed Republicans to capture the House of Representatives, and several state houses nationwide, there has been a definite sense of urgency driving these elected officials. Despite the claims that brought them to power regarding fiscal discipline, and job creation, what they have actually pursued is quite different. As if driven by the sound of a ticking clock, Republicans have concentrated their collective fire on the state and national level, on social issues. The very first thing they did when they took control of the House wasn't jobs legislation, it was abortion legislation. House Bills (HB)1, 2 and 3, all were attacks on abortion, and women's rights.


In states like Wisconsin, Ohio, and New Jersey Republican governors went after collective bargaining rights, and anti-union legislation. They pushed voter ID Laws meant to target students, the elderly, and the poor, not to correct voter fraud (which was their premise), but as an attempt to disenfranchise voters who overwhelmingly vote Democratic. In Virginia, a new bill was introduced that said women seeking an abortion, must be mandated to have a trans-vaginal ultra-sound. A procedure which is not only invasive, but medically unnecessary.

Presidential candidates have launched a full fledged attack on individual liberties, under the guise of protecting religious freedom. In debates, their audiences cheer letting people die if they don't have insurance, cheer touts of having executed 235 people, boo active duty soldiers who put their lives on the line for our country because they are gay, and boo questions that demand their views on contraception, when they are the ones making it an issue?

The one overwhelming constant in their messages is their inability to give any hope to Americans. It is always in terms of what will happen "If". It is consistently negative, consistently divisive, consistently fearful, consistently pitting one group against another. Whether it's immigrants, unions, the rich, the poor, minorities, gays, the elderly, and now even women. These are called wedge issues for most people, but for Republicans they ARE the issues. You can almost smell the panic of a party that has gone to far to the Right, and knows in a relatively short period of time, for most Americans, this kind of derisive politics isn't going to resonate much longer. The party has become to old, to white, to entrenched in the past, and hopelessly incapable of attracting new members in a rapidly changing and diverse America, that rejects their reactionary ideals outright. To Republicans I can only issue this warning, "That your party, your hate, and your fear, will die... with you.