I sure the Bible beater and Tea Party factions in the GOP base will be none too happy with Meghan McCain's latest column at The Daily Beast which reflects on the Republican Party's seemingly lack luster prospects in 2012. What I like best about her piece is that she recognizes that instead of moderating the GOP agenda and appealing to a broader base of voters, the GOP has raced to the far right and pandered to not only a nasty group of voters, but a party base that reject modernity, rejects religious freedom for all but themselves, rejects science, and who represent a dwindling group of semi-racist (if not out right racist) who want a patriarchy run by white males (straight ones, of course) and who thankfully will have died off within a couple more election cycles. Here are some column highlights (I love her evaluation of Santorum):
Right now, I’m in the middle of a 2012 election hangover, where I wonder what exactly has happened to make this election cycle seem like a long journey of lambs to the slaughter. Somewhere between the frighteningly delusional Santorum campaign and Mitt Romney’s incapability of doing anything spontaneous, we are actually having a debate about if birth control should be banned or if women that use birth control are “sluts.” I’ve hit my limit here.
What happened after we lost in 2008—and why are we worse off now? It’s like the Republican Party decided to ignore calls from moderates for a more open-minded party and we’re going, full-steam ahead, in the opposite direction. For electing the next president of the United States, these are my options:
(1) Santorum, who is a lunatic, right-wing fringe candidate that is hanging on to his candidacy for no other reason than, once this election cycle is over, he knows no one will ever listen to him again. I half expect Santorum to start throwing a tantrum on stage after he loses yet another primary and scream: “If I’m not going to be the nominee, no one is!”(2) Then, there is Newt Gingrich, the over-blown relic of the 90s, with so much baggage and anger that he really should move to a country where he can
be dictator.(3) Finally, there’s my boy Mitt—whom, yes, I support and no matter what, will vote for but…as his wife has even admitted “needs to unzip.”As I sit on my couch watching the commentators night after night, I am overwhelmed by a sense of panic that this election is quite possibly already over. . . . Why do Republicans continue to value “purification” and bloodletting over winning elections? What the hell is wrong with the Republican Party?!?
The right-wing conservatives are so entitled in their snobbery that no one is ever good enough for them, so the rest of us, especially moderates, must suffer. Apparently, we would still rather have a Democrat in office than a moderate Republican. We’ve botched this election cycle so badly, I’m scared it might be too late.
The GOP's real problem is that it sold its soul to the Christianist extremist and those who openly embrace ignorance years ago and the long term cost is coming home to roost. Meanwhile I and many former Republicans can only shake our heads in dismay.
