Banana Republic, Here We Come - Downhill with the GOP

I suspect many voters are feeling that the November election offers them no really good options. On the one hand, we have the increasingly insane and sectarian GOP. On the other hand, we have the incompetent and spineless/truth challenged Democrats. It is in many ways a dilemma of choosing one's poison. I don't want the GOP in power, yet I expect nothing really positive from the Democrats whose only value seems to be that they're not Republicans. It really is a pathetic state of affairs. In his column in today's New York Times, Paul Krugman adds reasons to vote for the Democrats if only because they're not peddling the GOP party line. Here are some highlights:
*
Never mind the war on terror, the [GOP]party’s main concern seems to be the war on arithmetic. And this party has a better than even chance of retaking at least one house of Congress this November.
*
On Thursday, House Republicans released their “Pledge to America,” supposedly outlining their policy agenda. In essence, what they say is, “Deficits are a terrible thing. Let’s make them much bigger.” The document repeatedly condemns federal debt — 16 times, by my count. But the main substantive policy proposal is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which independent estimates say would add about $3.7 trillion to the debt over the next decade — about $700 billion more than the Obama administration’s tax proposals.
*
[T]he only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.”
*
So how did we get to the point where one of our two major political parties isn’t even trying to make sense? The answer isn’t a secret. In short, say whatever it takes to gain power. That’s a philosophy that now, more than ever, holds sway. . .
*
[T]he clear and present danger isn’t that the G.O.P. will be able to achieve its long-run goals. It is, rather, that Republicans will gain just enough power to make the country ungovernable, unable to address its fiscal problems or anything else in a serious way. As I said, banana republic, here we come.

*

Canada is looking better and better all the time. Hell, even some former banana republics might be better than staying in the USA given the country's direction.