There was a day when the Republican Party was synonymous with the educated country club set and rational conservatives. Indeed, one need not have been concerned that admitting to be a member of the GOP would make listeners immediately perceive one as a racist, homophobe, know nothing, bigot or all of the foregoing. Those days are gone and within the GOP the race appears to be on as to who can be the most ignorant, superstitious, and foul in their view of others. The current crop of would be contenders for the GOP presidential nomination is a case in point. These people are down right scary and ought to be an embarrassment to all sentient Americans. Joe Klein has a piece in Time that looks at this sorry state of affairs. Here are highlights:*
It is always an education to watch our American writhings from overseas. It is particularly excrutiating watching the Republican Party presidential candidates who, on a daily basis, pronounce some ignorant racist or irreligious twaddle...which--amazingly enough--manages to be heard around the world.
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[T]oday's example primo is Newt, who really needs to get back on his meds . . . . And then there is Herman Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza who is pretending to run for President, proving that a black man can be as gutter-cheap bigoted as anyone.
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I mean, what are these guys smoking? (Nothing so benign as marijuana, I would venture to say.) This is my 10th presidential campaign, Lord help me. I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party's banner. They are the most compelling argument I've seen against American exceptionalism.
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And so I plead, as an unflinching American patriot--please Mitch Daniels, please Jeb Bush, please run. I may not agree with you on most things, but I respect you. And you seem to respect yourselves enough not to behave like public clowns. Please, in the name of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, run.
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