GOP - National Security Threat And Cancer On Democracy

The Republican Party was once the loyal opposition. They loved this country as much as Democrats, but just had a different idea of what was good for it (especially economically).

Sadly, that is no longer true. Today's Republican Party only cares about one thing -- getting and then retaining power. They no longer have any beliefs. And they are willing to lie, cheat, and steal elections to stay in power.

They are a menace to our society and our democracy.

The following is part of a great op-ed by Charles M. Blow in The New York Times:

What do you call members of a party who, from top to bottom, from elected officials to voters, largely believe a lie and a liar determined to undermine, corrupt and even destroy our democracy? What do you call a party whose leaders use that lie as a pretext to suppress the votes and voices of Americans with whom they disagree? What do you call a party slavishly devoted to a cult over the stability and prosperity of a country?

What do you call a party where many of its members have worked against a lifesaving, society-freeing vaccine in the middle of a pandemic, exposing many of their own followers to the deadly virus, all for the sake of being contrarian, anti-establishment and anti-science?

I call that party a national security threat and a cancer on our democracy. . . .

No time in American politics has been perfect and without strife and drama. This is not the first time that the country has been gravely rived. We fought a Civil War, for Pete’s sake. We had Jim Crow that robbed most Southern Blacks of the right to vote for three-quarters of a century.

America has seen the darkest of seasons.

But we should also not underplay or sugarcoat the darkness of the current season.

I don’t see how we continue to pretend that this is politics as usual, that it’s normal squabbling between ideological opposites. No, something is deeply, dangerously wrong here. This is not the same as it has always been.

This Republican Party is a menace to society. That must be said. That is the truth.

And when one of the country’s two major parties is so close to the brink of the falls, it threatens to pull the entire country over.

So I have no intention of treating this Republican Party the way I treated it just 10 years or 20 years ago. That party doesn’t exist anymore. It died. This thing we have now is its zombie. Zombies can’t be reasoned with.

We have to stop making people who call this Republican Party out for what it is feel like extremists, reactionaries and alarmists, rather than truth tellers. It is not extreme to tell the truth, but it is delusional to twist yourself into a knot to not tell the unvarnished truth because you believe your tone of conciliation will lead to rehabilitation.

If you are reminiscing about another time, one of more comity and gentility, one in which differences between the parties seemed bridgeable over a beer or in a locker room, you are longing for a time when the white racist patriarchy reigned supreme and women, minorities and L.G.B.T. people weren’t also in the halls of Congress.

The Republican Party is rebelling against change as much as anything else and Donald Trump is the apotheosis of their anger and irrationality.