Paul Krugman has an excellent column in today’s New York
Times where he says that the GOP has gone insane. He points out how the
Republicans refuse to participate in government because they don’t want to hand
President Obama any credit, even in areas where Obama’s position is to the
right of what the GOP proposes.
Now, I have friends who are Republicans, and they are not
insane. But Krugman is right – their party leadership is batshit crazy. Just
like the children who marched to their oblivion after being led and herded by
the Pied Piper of Hamelin, today’s Republicans are being led and herded by
demagogues and crazies toward the destruction of America.
Krugman also correctly points out that it’s our fault for
letting them do this. Poll after poll shows that the American people are
against tax cuts for the wealthy, against the endless wars which were started
by a Republican president, and against the co-opting of democracy by the
corporate power brokers. Yet a combination of apathy, prejudice, voter
repression, and a feeling of powerlessness have allowed the extreme radical
wing of the Republican Party to occupy the mainstream seat.
The culpability of the left is also apparent. With only a
few exceptions like in Wisconsin, where is the rage? Where are the demonstrations
against an unpopular war like there were in the sixties? Where are the massive marches
for equal rights for gays, lesbians, and immigrants akin to the civil rights
movement for African-Americans?
The insane, radical, and extreme right has already taken
over one branch of Federal government – the Supreme Court. They hold one of the
two houses of Congress and exert undue and unrepresentative control over the
other. And they have moved a smart but weak president too far to the right. We
are one election away from enabling them to gain complete control of our
government, and if we allow that to happen, our fate will be the same as that
of the unfortunate children of Hamelin.
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