The Distorted Standards of the GOP

One of my sisters and brother-in-laws sent me an e-mail of something he came across that neatly sums up the distorted mindset that is now mainstream with in today's Republican Party where truth, honor, and integrity have no meaning whatsoever. Years ago when I was an active republican, I truly though the Party respected truth and integrity, but not anymore. Only those living in some alternative universe, fanatical Christianists, and/or who are totally self-centered seem able to find a place in today's GOP. Here's what my brother-in-law sent me:

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I'm a little confused. Perhaps I need to watch a little more Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. Let me see if I have this straight....

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If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different, not a real American." Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

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If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

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Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable. Attend 5 different small colleges before finaly managing to graduate, you're well grounded.

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If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the firstblack president of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drivethat registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district withover 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representinga state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

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If you first got your passport at age 42 and if your total resume is: beauty queen, local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 6,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

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If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters in Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian. If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a real Christian.

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If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society. If, as mayor, your police department charges women for their rape kits and you consider banning books from the local library, and as governor,you believe abortion should be banned, even in cases of rape, and you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

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If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's. If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and was until recently a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family values represent America's.

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As I had said over and over, to belong to today's Republican Party, its a requirement that you be totally detached from objective reality and have had a lobotomy.