Reaping and Sowing: The incompetence of today's GOP was a long time coming

[malaise]

http://weaselweek.com/reaping_and_sowing.htm
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Unfortunately, this patently dishonest concept demonstrated great success. And why wouldn't it? The people it appealed to most had made it a practice to keep people down on weekdays, while praising God in full voice on Sunday. As a result of its great electoral success, this dishonest strategy spread to all sorts of issues, and was tailored to appeal to different groups. Essentially, the entire "movement" was based on a wink and a nod to extremists, and before long, these people became the Republican Party's base of support. Prior to Goldwater's numbing defeat, most of these extremists had been relegated to the fringes of the Democratic Party; in this new incarnation of the Republican Party, the "Party of Lincoln" had found a home, where their practice of creating and using "code words" was suddenly considered a crucial strategy for electoral success. This strategy of lies, half-truths and euphemism in order to appeal to the average voter, and make themselves seem reasonable, long practiced by racists in the Jim Crow South, was now the key to the Republican Party's resurgence.



Take a look at some of the terminology these people use for a clue. To the average "conservative" in this day and age, the terms "states' rights" and "federalism" are synonymous, which is absolutely absurd, since the terms are actually opposites. The Federalist Society, for example, uses Alexander Hamilton as a figurehead, but preaches the exact opposite of Hamilton's vision of a strong, centralized federal government. They talk about "fiscal responsibility" as they shrug at enormous budget deficits and throw billions of dollars in tax cuts at the rich and huge corporate donors. They talk about "personal responsibility," but don't enforce it when one of their own does something wrong. They use the word "quotas" when discussing affirmative action, despite the fact that quotas were outlawed in the late 1970s. When they discuss "welfare," they invariably invoke an image of a fat black woman living in a tenement with a dozen kids, and scoff when anyone mentions the legislative subsidies routinely given to corporations that are already worth billions of dollars.



In other words, the current "conservative" movement (which is in no way conservative, but that's another column for another time.) was built on lies and deceit, and has only achieved its current success through more lies and more deceit. And there's a problem when you build a political "movement" on something that doesn't match your true intentions. At some point, if your message is appealing enough, you will find electoral success, as the Republican Party has today, and then you have to perform.



And that is why we find ourselves in the current predicament; a government that is completely incompetent, and is unable to function in a public service capacity. The far right now has exactly what they wanted, and they have demonstrated themselves to be completely incapable of governing, in part because their lust for power has been all about gaining power, in part because what they actually believe in is in direct conflict with what the United States Constitution has always been about, but most of all because the "conservative" movement has populated itself with people who have no problem lying and being deceitful to get what they want. If anyone is surprised by a president that doesn't think the Constitution should apply to him, and a Congress whose leadership is populated by criminals, they shouldn't be.
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good read

[juno jones]

1. Bingo.

The far right now has exactly what they wanted, and they have demonstrated themselves to be completely incapable of governing, in part because their lust for power has been all about gaining power

That's why they are always trying to start the next election as soon as the last one is over. Because they have no idea how to govern once they get into power. They only know how to milk the system and run a 24/7 popularity contest. No wonder we're in the shit.

Thus our current predicament.