Changes

Fact is, the Republican Party has been in power for much of the last one hundred and fifty years (starting with Lincoln). It was created to protect national unity, and a supremacy of nation over state. A side effect was that this was the party that originally abrogated a massive portion of the constitution and essentially said that the states did not have the power to secede, and the federal control over finance and trade was the way of progress.

But more importantly in the American consciousness, they are the party that fought slavery and won.

They are the party that created the national parks, anti-trust laws, the FDA, the interstate, Hoover dam, led the fight for equal civil rights, proposed nationalized health care, created the gold standard, opened China for trade, and a whole slew of further accomplishments.

And one day, the progressives split off. Despite originally being a segregationist and eugenics movement, promoting isolationism and protectionism, they joined the democratic party (the ones who fought FOR slavery) and then... bam, they had the minority vote, the immigrant vote, the urban vote.

The turning point for the fucking weirdos to come out in the GOP was during George H.W. Bush's bid for president. He was forced to start courting the fringe groups. Not conservatives, working forward but at a slow pace, these people were straight reactionaries, isolationists, or fundamentalists. All the things that the original Republican party was not.

And now we have a group of people who claim to be conservative, who are really just reactionary. Who claim to be small government but led the 2 largest expansions of government ever. They talk of "republican values" and "American values," and how the progressive plan for this country will ruin it. This is not the Republican party of Reagan, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, and McKinley. This is not the party of Lincoln. This is a travesty to the causes of free will, self-determination, civil rights, public rights, capitalism, and national identity. It has replaced reason and the quest for "prosperity at home, prestige abroad" with inflammatory soundbites, self aggrandizement, outright lies, religious fanaticism and a strange conglomeration of corporate fascism (I might go so far as to say financial feudalism)and neo-liberal idiocy.

This does not mean I support the Democrats, far from it. For a party that was based on states rights, much less slavery and reactionary ideas, they have done quite the flip flop, hammering together a coalition of smaller parties (communists, socialists, progressives, nationalists) into something that works as a hydra, with too many heads going in too many directions. I point out the mess made of the health care debate. Vastly stronger in numbers, they are ideologically unfocused. This party is essentially the real opposition party. Consistently trailing in polls, numbers, and true supporters they rely on the disaffected, the uninformed and the ignorant to get elected. Some of their players are straight shooters, aiming for real reform, true progress, and whatnot, but the vast majority seem to have gotten their way in with some creative lies, flexible positions and hypocritical funding.

Of course, this is true of the new republican party too.

The evolution and convolutions of the two main political parties in America make for some interesting reading. But goddamn, caring about this shit is tiring. And infuriating.