Weekly Issue #4 - 8/20/2011 - When the Lunatics Take Over the Asylum

Watching the current political prospects of the Republican party, I only see three different categories of politician:

1. The Insane: (Bachmann, Santorum)
2. The Corrupt: (Romney, Perry)
3. The Irrelevant: (Paul, Huntsman)

To be completely fair, I am biased against the Republican party (in case you didn't read the title of my blog), but what happened to the all of the "moderate" Republicans and "Compassionate Conservatives" that previously dominated the party. Even the patron saint of the tax break, Reagan, would look at the current Republicans with distaste, probably while they boo him for being too liberal. 

The Insane

There has been a distilling of the crazy elements of the right wing which has led to the dominance of the religious right and the Ayn Randian factions of the right wing to dominate the politics of the Republicans. Bachmann is the perfect example of a religious conservative that represents the crazy right wing, while Ryan is a good example of the crazy libertarian fringe of the right wing.

I find it particularly ironic that the religious right and the extreme free market Ayn Randians have coalesced into a single, extreme faction because they should be diametrically opposed. The free marketers are obsessed with maintaining their rights and not having any social obligations to the point that we start to resemble Somalia.  The religious extremist elements of the right wing wish to impose their rights on the rest of us through restricting action that they deem immoral. The Republican party can hold these factions together due to the fact that they don't have control over anything in the government.

The Republican party currently has control over no branches of government (maybe the Supreme court but they are more corporate than partisan) and thus has the luxury of not actually doing any governing. Whether their agenda is religious or extreme free market, the Republicans in power now are unable to actually push anything through the legislature, thus they can promise everything and deliver nothing. The two diametrically opposed elements of their extreme constituency have vastly different views on the role of government, but until  the Republicans have to jettison one side of their ideology by pushing the other' ideology, they can get support from both sides. One side WILL get screwed over by the politicians when there is a time where the Republicans must pick whether they want to push for an anarchic, minimalist government ruled by the free market, or a theocratic autocracy where the state pushes their views into everybody else's lives.

I fear for the country when these extremist candidates push their fact-free policy onto the country. Any religion or belief system which completely disregards the rules of cause and effect should simply stay out of politics.

News link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/rick-perry-evolution-video_n_930802.html

The Corrupt

In addition to the insane elements of the Republican party, there is a group of corrupt politicians that have risen in the ranks to leadership positions. Politicians have great power to affect change in order to improve the good of many, but in some cases, our politicians use their office for public gain. Romney and Perry are great examples of how corrupt politicians can work their way up to positions of power through leveraging their office for gain. Perry has literally sold public contracts and policy positions for campaign cash and has used his government connections to make a fortune. The use of public service to enrich oneself is not a Republican trait but from what I can see, the current Republicans have embraced corruption to a degree never seen before in the USA. The pervasive influence of the Koch brothers and right wing think tanks funded by billionaires has, in my opinion, led to the wholesale buying of the Republicans by the interest groups. Half of our country's political system has been perverted by money to serve the interests of the rich few. 

Corruption in any form should not be tolerated in our system and the goal of governing should not be to get rich. The blatant corruption of the Republican party eclipses even the worst corruption of the past Republicans or Democrats.

News link

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/us/politics/21donate.html?_r=1&ref=politics

The Irrelevant

There are several candidates who simply have no chance and only serve to muddle the waters. Paul, Huntsman, Trump, Cain, and their ilk all fall into this category. These candidates are serving as distractions from the actual race and are only seen as relevant by the national media.

The Sarcastic Liberal