The Death of the Republican Party

I began speculating, around the aftermath of the 2004 elections, that we might see the end of the Republican Party in my lifetime. Since then, the idea has gained a bit more credibility as the Republicans lost power and popularity. I still think the party may very well be on the verge of becoming a third party and eventually getting squeezed out altogther.

What I saw at that time was that the Republican Party literally had nothing to offer anymore. Everything the Bush Administration was doing was based on lies, misinformation, secrecy, and anything they could do to hold onto power. When you pulled back the curtain, it was hard to see where they had any plan to lead the country; their whole effort was focused on fooling people and staying in office.

The Iraq War was based on falsehoods. The administration painted themselves as the victims of bad intelligence even though it was clear that they were the beneficiaries. They helped spread the lies by planting stories in the press and then the next day saying "Look, it's not me, it's the New York Times saying this!" Yes, they really did. They paid media personnel for positive coverage. They created their own media pieces and passed them off as news. They redefined the word "torture" and insisted on calling their massive illegal electronic eavesdropping program a "terrorist surveillance program." The Republican congress failed to investigate any type of wrongdoing, and George Bush accused those who wanted to know the truth of trying to rewrite history.

Even the budget was based on lie after lie. The cost of the war was not included. The tax cuts went only ten years in order to hide the real cost. The administration never took any responsibility for the deficits it created.

I think the victory over Al Gore may have gone to their heads. They were fortunate enough to win the 2000 election, in large part because they painted Gore as a serial exaggerator. It was a right-wing columnist who said Al Gore invented the Internet, not Gore, but the lie worked. It worked so well that they tried it again with John Kerry, in a political campaign that was the most un-American, unpatriotic thing I have ever seen. They questioned the medals of a heroic American soldier, a man who volunteered and risked his life for his country. It worked again, so they kept at it, but it also laid bare the fact that they had no principles whatsoever.

Today's Republicans are no better. Moderates and reasonable people have been pushed out of the party. What is left is people who are irrational, who are delusional enough to believe despite all evidence that Barack Obama was not born in the US, that health care reform means death panels, and that Democrats are Socialists, Communists, Nazis, or whatever.

The battle over health care reform shows what we can expect from the Republicans as they are currently constructed. The battle is about confronting their lies, not about policy or philosophy. Their reasons for opposing the bill are strictly about political gain rather than any attempt at good governance. Their tactics -- having their stupidest followers disrupt discussions and then claiming it is a popular uprising -- are pathetic and disgusting, and as always aimed at misinforming the public rather than informing.

There will always be a few people who will be fooled over and over again and will continue to follow the party, but in the end, if their politics are based on lies and nonsense, there won't be many. Right now the Republican Party is in a downward spiral, and I don't see how it can recover.