“Republicans are chasing their own imagination. We think that in our dreams we create new and undiscovered worlds… but in truth it’s just an overlapping reality of things we’ve already experienced. Old experiences rehashed and mishmashed. That’s the operating method of republican policymaking and the conservative “idea machine.” Overlapping, refried hash. Re-tweeted gobbledygook. Recycled trash.”
I am a Catholic, therefore I believe _____.
I am a Progressive, therefore I believe ______.
I am a progressive Catholic, therefore I believe… um…
I am a Republican, therefore I believe ?!?!?!?!!!!?
Rule One: anyone who isn’t old enough to have first-hand knowledge of Reagan’s policies is no longer allowed to use his name as some sort of reference of “What it means to be the perfect Republican.” To see 20-somethings pushing for the sainthood of an actor gives me the willies. We might as well build a platform for Keanu Reeves and start calling him Siddhartha. (… wait for it…. ok, if not, Google.)
Rule Two: … let’s go ahead and extend Rule One to anyone who doesn’t remember (or chooses to ignore) most of Reagan’s policies other than rampant deregulation and making talkie-records about how Medicare is socialism (What? You thought that was a NEW republican-spinning argument at 33rpm? Play it backwards and boy howdy will you be surprised.)
With those two fairly simple rules, what does the Republican Party have left, escuse me – remaining – in their war chest of political messaging and policymaking?
Go ahead… take your time.
… I don’t know, either.
Republican policymaking is based on what they think a republican ought believe
There’s no foundational belief in the Republican Party. Even the Tea Party is oblivious to the irony of its own existence and financial resources. Wait… stop the knee-jerk reactions for a moment. All republican policies are based on ideas from two to five decades ago. There has literally been nothing whatsoever new to grow out of the Republican idea box (other than additional gerrymandering, but that, too, is not a new idea). Honestly. Don’t re-act to the statement, stop and think about the statement for a while. Find me one new idea. One. One idea of 2013 that has not already been pitched by republicans in the past. Spending cuts? Lower taxes? Gays can’t marry? Stop abortion? Deregulate Wall Street? War is good? NOTHING is new.
All the Republican Party knows how to do is re-tweet old ideas. Hash tag Reagan. Hash tag deregulation. #nothingnew
One result of this dream-like rehash of republican policy is a set of new polling and research data that shows republicans in Congress have gone far, far more to the extreme right than the everyday republicans they represent in their districts. Republicans are the most conservative they’ve been in 100 years. They are lobbying a dream from high school where they can’t find the classroom or open their locker. They think the dream of being unable to move their legs has something to do with the FDA, EPA, bank regulations, and respectable voter wait times. They fear dreams of flying unless they’ve passed through a full body scan.
Republicans in Congress are trying to make history… future – rather than shape the future by learning from history. Washington and state-level republicans are doing what they think “a republican” should do in a freudian dream-state, not what they actually should do in the 21st century (let alone the 19th century).
Republicans are chasing their own imagination. We think that in our dreams we create new and undiscovered worlds… but in truth it’s just an overlapping reality of things we’ve already experienced. Old experiences rehashed and mishmashed. That’s the operating method republican policymaking and the conservative “idea machine.” Overlapping, refried hash. Re-tweeted gobbledygook. Recycled trash.
It’s like the great uncle who tells the same story about a troublesome, cart wheeling gopher in his backyard and expecting you to believe it every time. I think it’s time we stop appeasing our senile great uncle (he’s adorable, but not fit to rule his own finances anymore).
What’s in a name? Policies and thought processes.
Names can be binding things. A young man growing up Bartholomew is going to end up with a very different outlook on life than one dubbed Butch. Try as we might, that’s a reality that is hard to disprove.
True, too, is where someone is raised. Where one was raised is one of the most accurate determining factors in their political beliefs. And I mean beliefs, not facts. We all know by now that when a self-declared tea party loyalist is asked about Obamacare that they spit on the sidewalk and curse at the heavens, yet when they are asked about specific policies inside Obamacare they tend to fully agree with all the pieces that are “Obamacare.”
Say it out loud, “Obamacare.” There’s a lot in a name, isn’t there. For example, I don’t like Cories. Never met a Cory I like. No idea why. Too much like Tory, I think.
The point is that people get stuck in names, wrapped in labels, and find far too much meaning and direction from party affiliation. Not just their own names and naming schemes, but others’ as well. I’m willing to bet most good republicans don’t believe everything in the Republican Party platform… but who has time for looking into all of that, right? Generally, if people adopt the R or the D, they take on the all the other letters and nuances of the affiliation without question or even knowing what they’re getting into. Straight ticket leads to straight belief systems.
If names are wholly defining how republicans are acting and passing laws… what happens if we remove the name? Granted, there are still plenty of people who believe rape is God’s will, and blue helmets are just outside the home school… but that number is far, far fewer than the name “republican” implies. If we can somehow remove ten, twenty million or so people from the bindings of the republican Word so that they no longer feel tied to the name “republican”… what would happen? What will happen once democrats figure it out?
In truth, most republicans in America are NOT republicans as it is defined by the Republican Party – they just have no other place to go. Moderate republicans are trapped by party affiliation. It’s not Cory’s fault he’s a twat: he’s a Cory. There’s nothing to be done. Maybe if Cory went by his middle name, though… then he might very well be able to start a new life elsewhere.
… It’s as if we need a coordinated witness protection program for moderate republicans.
It’s a shame the democrats have not yet figured out how to give all those “in name only” republicans shelter by decreasing the meaning of name and party affiliation. Royal shame. Wicked shame. Crying shame. Hash tag Shamezilla.
Family feuds start with meaning, but after a few generations they exist for no reason other than the name. Destroy the name and the policies will follow suit. The funding will follow the policies, and the suits will follow the funding (likely lawsuits will follow the following, but even lawyers need to make a living… all we can do is try and keep their damage well-targeted… like drones with really expensive shoes and “HL FIRE” on their vanity license plates).
Someone has to break the cycle by falling in love with the other side. (And no, Everthirst Rubio is not Romeo in this scenario.)
Give them shelter… and we might find hope under our pillows. Sweet dreams.
Published: by | Updated: 08-12-2015 10:13:38
