THE GOP: UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED...

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The GOP: Unsafe at any Speed…

"This is the beginning of a serious conversation. We won't be taking questions today.”  - The National Rifle Association’s president David Keene

By J.M. Hamilton  (12-25-12)

Publishing in 1965, Unsafe At Any Speed documented severe defects in General Motor’s (G.M.) products, especially the Corvair.  The book describes the life threatening defects, and short cuts made by G.M., from roll over potential to deliberately ignoring safety, so as to enhance marketing and the bottom line.  The immediate reaction from Detroit was denial, anger, and finally, acknowledgement and reform; but not before attempting to vilify the author, Mr. Nader, tapping his phone lines, and keeping him under surveillance, et al. 

Like the G.M. in the middle part of the last century, today’s GOP is reactionary to its core, and basically, fighting a guerilla campaign against change and reform.  But more importantly, it seems as though in its extremism that the Republican Party is on nearly the wrong side of every issue.  Moreover, their positions are inherently dangerous to the long term health of the nation, and its citizenry; the Party’s motivation – campaign contributions from wealthy and entrenched interests – are readily transparent.  Let’s run down the issues, shall we:

1)   The GOP’s blind commitment to the NRA and assault weapons is readily on display with the massacre of twenty Connecticut school children, and an ever-growing body count.  The GOP’s response to this atrocity is to hide, hope that it blows over, and ultimately, more guns.

2)   A lack of courage is always on display when the Republican Party fails to stand up to large and dangerous cartels and monopolies, whether its toadying up to Mr. Jamie Dimon, when he appears before a Senate Committee, or continuing special tax breaks for big oil.  Of course, the Wall Street cartel brought down the global economy in 2008, and the Republican Party has fought a rear guard action against financial reform ever since.

3)   “Borrow and Spend,” best defines the GOP’s fiscal polices, from Reagan to its most recent offering, Mr. Romney.  Its deficit spending has left the nation and the Federal government depleted, in hoc, and severely weakened.

4)   The GOP has forsaken the middle class or roughly 98% percent of the nation, and has embraced globalization, private equity, and laissez faire capitalism at the expense of the nation’s economy, business, and her citizens.

5)   At the risk to this nation’s international prestige, the Republican Party has embraced full-scale wars, throughout Middle-East, which were ineptly executed; hence, leaving the nation weakened, while building up yet another terrorist generation in response to same.

6)   The Party purports to support business, but when the nation’s chief executive officers, en masse, tells the GOP to raise revenue, increase taxes, and to work with the President to avert the fiscal cliff – the Party remains intractable and recalcitrant.

7)   Despite a thorough drubbing in the last national election, the GOP only remains strong in an ever-shrinking pool of red states, and in politics within the hinterland, where gerrymandering, rigged local elections, and homogeneous counties are not atypical.  The Party is exclusionary and demographically challenged, and within a generation – and without change - will be marginalized; the Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy” appears to be based upon crypto-racism.

8)   Even in the face of new information, science and facts, the Party is doctrinaire, highly ideological, and does not tolerate deviance in Party orthodoxy (see Peggy Noonan’s recent plea for the Party to embrace and tolerate free thinking in the pages of the W.S.J.).

9)   It claims to be the Party of Judeo Christian heritage, and yet, it rejects the teaching of Christ on a daily basis, and instead embraces an individualistic nihilism.

10) The GOP is not dedicated to the health and well being of the nation, but rather, retribution and removal of its perceived enemy, the Democratic Party.

11) It decries government assistance for those citizens in need, while overseeing corporate welfare on a scale never before imagined.  By allowing entire industries to be outsourced to other nations, or to be consolidated into monopolies and cartels, it has left the nation weakened and dependent upon an elite cadre.  It has caused a Neo-Guilded age.

This is a Party that is consumed with hatred and fear, and as such it is highly dangerous.  It is intolerant of nearly everything and anyone who dares challenge its authority or orthodoxy.  It is brittle, inflexible and in denial.

There appears to be no William F. Buckley on the scene to drive the crazed and the ignorant out of the party’s ranks - no one to stand up to the fanatics.  Today’s GOP reminds me of antebellum southern whites, the majority of whom did not own slaves, who fought for a cause and an aristocracy/plutocracy that was inimical to their own interests.

I don’t know if today’s GOP reminds me more of the early 60’s Corvair, or the Neanderthals.  My guess is Lincoln would disown today’s GOP.  Whatever the case, I’m glad I am no longer affiliated with the Party.

How much longer can a party dedicated purely to its own existence, and to the detriment of its fellow man, endure?  Truly, this is a political party that is unsafe at any speed.  

 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2012