The New Republicans

Once upon a time, the Republican Party was something I could and did vote for. It stood for a set of principles that made sense from a particular, kind of old frontier point of view. There was a rallying call for independence, self-reliance, and a thoughtful Buckleyesque take on politics. William Buckley was persuasive, honorable, arrogant (of course) but above all rational. The man thought. While I didn't agree with him on all things, I felt I could go to him for intelligent engagement with the issues. I felt I had a choice between Democrat and Republican on the basis of two sincere but different approaches to the common goal of building and sustaining the US.

My god--what a difference fifty years makes.

What does the Republican party stand for now? Is Donald Trump the best they can do? What happened to intellect? What even has happened to seeking the good of the country? We elected a Republican government and they proceeded to pillage the country and enrich themselves. John Boehner now says they are willing to let the US default They throw around threats like they know what they're doing.

Let the US default? Here we go: over time, our money tanks, food heads for the stratosphere because we import so much of it. Oil? with our valueless money, consider how much welfare BP and the others will extend us. Plan to stay wherever the oil crisis finds you. Our houses become worthless because no one can afford one. Imports will zoom in cost, hence causing massive layoffs among industries relying on them.  Our businesses and corporations will immediately leave the country as the money flows into more stable currencies--hence more unemployment. Inflation will run rampant as people fight over what little food and supplies there are left. If you think the US has a problem with gangs, wait until there's no food. So, my Canadian friends, if this happens, I'd advise you to get your money out while you can.

In other words, the anarchists will have won. And if the Republicans wanted to destroy governmemnt, they've done it and taken us along with them. But why doesn't that surprise me? They've been planning for this: busy feathering their own nests to protect themselves--it's the poor and the minorites and the elderly--the drains on the economy in their eyes, who will bear it. The very people they've fulminated against from pulpits and stumps. I guess these new republicans really do believe in the rapture and that starving half the country to death is just part of the prophecy.

And now Obama has released his birth certificate. Too bad for the birthers.  Obama WAS born in Hawaii--just as I for one said--and at Kapiolani Hospital--just as I said--I SAW his mother, for god's sake. But now birthing has gone--the harassment won't stop. It never does with bullies--and that's what the Republicans have become. Trump is implying that Obama got into Harvard (thereby denying some white good old boy --like Bush I suppose) because he was an undeserving  minority. Obama came from the most prestigious, expensive, and storied private school in the State of Hawaii, Punahou School. Punahou graudates GO to Harvard. It's expected. The fact that Obama graduated from Harvard with highest honors doesn't count. Trump himself went to business school at the University of Pennsylvania--was he denied a place at Harvard by some undeserving minority? He'll demand Obama's school records so he can play admissions officer. Come on, you idiot. Let's have something useful rather than the rallying of the National Enquirer-addled.

And if you are going down that silly path--and it looks like you are--then as someone who WAS involved with universities and their admissions policies, let me tell you that applicants with high scores are turned down everyday in favor of others who show the potential to grow. If high scores were all that was asked for, Cal-Berkeley would be 100% Asian. Plus many students have a rotten first year in university (if the university is any good). Things haven't settled down for them yet. The transition hasn't been made from high school to college. I earned less than a 2.0 (C) for my first semester average. Next semester I earned a 3.5 (B plus) then some semesters earned straight As after that. I graduated with honors but did not make Phi Beta Kappa because of that first semester. I earned a 3.8 for my Master's work and straight As on my Ph.D. coursework. It's called giving people a chance and it's supposed to be an American virtue.

I can keep on shouting these things till the cows come home, but I have little chance of persuading anyone any more than my one voice could on the birth certificate. I want these clowns in D.C. to get off this posturing, understand that Tea Party yelling is only one political force among many others, and take a long look at who has bought Congress. But no--it won't happen. These people want to fritter their time believing the worst necause they just don't like Obama. In fact, let's be honest, they just don't like us.