“[W]e here highly resolve that … this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863)
It used to be necessary, during the McCarthy era, to declare that one “is not now and have never have been a member of the communist party”. That is no longer true. While our Republican “representatives” were alternatively cashing checks, getting their make-up done, and napping, Marxists infiltrated virtually every institution in America. It is now, if one wishes to escape the inquisition, necessary to make a very different declaration, so let me make it: I am not now and never have been a member of the Republican Party. I do generally hope that the Republicans win elections but this is not because the Republicans are very good. They are not. It is only because the Democrats are even worse.
The first problem with the Republican Party is that there are too many Democrats in it. There is one less in the Senate since promise-breaker John McCain left, but there are still far too many. Arlen Spectre made official what was already obvious when he decided that it would help his political career to put that “D” behind his name. There are, in addition, far too many members of the Republican Party who may not be closet Democrats but are “spineless” weaklings. Like their Democrat colleagues, many of them never saw an appeal to emotion fallacy that didn’t make them weepy.
Finally, many of our Republican “representatives” do not appear to know what they are. Some of them do not appear able to understand English, for example, the expression, “shall not be infringed,” at the 10th-grade level. Psychologists tell us that, relative to the general population, there is a high percentage of psychopaths in the politician class, which helps to explain the behavior of some Republican politicians. Since everything is all about them, they simply calculate, in each instance, what is in their best career interests and then do that. Sometimes that means placating their base and so they do that, thereby giving the impression that they actually have principles. But when they decide that betraying their base is in their personal political interest, they simply betray them.
For example, following the mass school shooting in Uvalde Texas by a crazed gunman, 13 Republican senators and one Republican House member have committed to a “bipartisan” piece of gun control legislation. The list includes many of the usual suspects, senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and House member, Todd Young (R-Ind.). Their “reasoning”, so to speak, is that since the back door of the Uvalde elementary school was unlocked and since the Uvalde police failed miserably to protect the children it is necessary to take some constitutional rights away from Americans who have done nothing wrong.
Another important part of their reasoning is their “Do-Somethingism.” That is, instead of trying to figure out what might actually solve the problem of gun violence, which is unpopular because that requires genuine thought and courage, neither of which is ever in oversupply, especially in Washington D.C., one hears the constant refrain that “We have to do something.” However, medical textbooks do not instruct doctors that when a patient is sick but they do not know what is wrong they “must do something”. Rather, doctors are advised to identify the malady first before one administers specific treatment.
Suppose, for example, that a child is sick with a high fever and the parents implore the doctor to administer antibiotics. However, since a fungal infection can cause a high fever, since fungi do not respond to most antibiotics, and since antibiotics can kill off the good bacteria in one’s body that generally keeps fungal proliferation in check, administering antibiotics may actually make the patient worse by killing the good bacteria that are already helping in a natural way to limit the fungal infection.
Since the Columbine shootings in 1999, there has been a precipitous rise in vicious school shootings. Since the US population was heavily armed long before this without many of these kinds of incidents this is new. It is, therefore, not the presence of guns per se but some other sickness in the culture that is generating these school shootings. It is only common sense that one must figure out what has gone wrong in the society that has led to this anger in young men.
It turns out that in the period leading up to this violent era more young men have grown up in fatherless homes without an authoritative male presence to teach them how to become a responsible man. Unfortunately, there is no appetite on the Left to deal with this problem because, following Marx and Engels, the destruction of the traditional family is one of the central projects of the Left, including much of the Democrat Party. If one objects to the proliferation of new species of “families” promoted by the Left, single-mother families, gay parents families, transgendered parents families, etc., these situations are not ideal because young males need an authoritative father figure to show them how proper men behave, one is immediately vilified, or even “canceled,” for not being “inclusive”. Unfortunately, too many Americans are learning what real prejudice is when they encounter these angry young men produced by the leftist social experiment of fatherless homes.
The problem of Republican weaklings is not, however, confined to the gun debate. Nobody was surprised when Mitch McConnell broke his promise that the only way the Democrats would pass their multi-trillion (!) dollar Green New Deal and new entitlement programs bill would be by “reconciliation”, so that they would own it entirely. When he faced the moment of truth he forgot his promise to voters and folded like a cheap suit.
Another turning point for many conservatives came when Chief Justice John Roberts, who, we had all been assured is a strong conservative when he was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2005, apparently forgot that it is the job of the legislature, not the judiciary, to legislate, rewrote Obamacare to save it for his beloved Führer, thereby violating the “separation of powers” doctrine of the Constitution.
One could list many similar examples of betrayal but the point is clear: We do not have a liberal party (Democrat) and a conservative party (Republican). We have a far-left Democrat Party (Democrat) bullied by angry Marxist children and a mostly weak Democrat-light party (Republican). There are a handful of good people in the Republican Party but the “leadership” is more interested in protecting their fellow elitist club members on the other side of the aisle than they are in defending their own base. The reason so many turncoat Republicans had to get rid of Trump is that his successes showed how much they had failed.
The reason I am not a Republican is that I am committed to “a new birth of freedom” in the United States to replace the one that was frittered away by weak politicians. But the Republican Party does not, unfortunately, share the same goal and is rather committed to the same elitist strategy employed by Democrats to manipulate and control the people.
By Richard McDonough
Richard Michael McDonough, American philosophy educator. Achievements include production of original interpretation of Wittgenstein’s logical-metaphysical system, original application Kantian Copernican Revolution to philosophy of language; significant interdisciplinary work logic, linguistics, psychology & philosophy. Member Australasian Debating Federation (honorary life, adjudicator since 1991), Phi Kappa Phi. Richard is a regular contributor to The Blue State Conservative.
Enjoy HUGE savings at My Pillow with promo code BSC
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Blue State Conservative. The BSC is not responsible for, and does not verify the accuracy of, any information presented.
Notice: This article may contain commentary that reflects the author’s opinion.
Featured photo by The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This story syndicated with permission from The Blue State Conservative