GOP Trying, Failing to Walk Back Loons

Today's Republican party.

“Who’s going to shoot Obama?” Those words uttered by an unidentified man at an Athens, GA, town hall meeting for US Representative Paul Broun, coupled with the events in Wisconsin, signaled the complete unraveling of the Republican Party.

Broun’s unfortunate response to them in lieu of the recent attacks in Tucson surely sealed the deal. He laughed and said, “… I know there’s a lot of frustration with this president. We’re going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we’ll elect somebody that’s going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.”

The GOP’s lost control of its loons and is working desperately to walk them back in an attempt to save millions of middle-of-the-road voters. It’s too late. The inmates have taken over the asylum, and all the keepers can do is ride this train until it reaches the end of line, then hope to turn it around. It has to be disheartening to be a sane Republican today.

It begs the question, is there anything the Republicans can do to short-circuit the idiots that have seized control of their party?

Even Fox news understands that they’ve gone too far, indicated by this discussion among conservative pundits on Joe Scarborough’s program, The Morning Joe.

You’ll notice that most of them joined in the assault on Glenn Beck, but uber-conservative Pat Buchanan found it impossible to participate in the gang rape. Why? It’s in large part Buchanan’s constituency, and if he turns his back on them he has nothing left to offer. Mainstream Republicans won’t regain control anytime soon.

The schism was made obvious when a conservative amendment to cut an additional $22 billion out of the budget failed by a 281-147 vote Ninety mainstream Republicans voted with Democrats against the measure, aware they have constituencies back home soon to be negatively affected by their deficit reduction orgy. Unlike teabaggers, many of these Republicans live in swing districts and require Democratic voters to stay in office.

The question is, are these Republican representatives and voters really that stupid? I have two personal anecdotes that suggest they are.

First, I had occasion to have a 15-20 minute discussion unrelated to politics with Michelle Bachmann. I can tell you unequivocally, no matter what you’ve heard, she’s so stupid that I’m shocked she remembers to digest her food. She could have won Dustin Hoffman’s role in Rain Man simply by being herself.

The second was a conversation with a man whose health is failing and is on 100% disability. His extensive health needs are tended either by Medicare or the VA. Multiple heart procedures and bucket loads of prescription medications keep him alive, yet he argues that all government healthcare should be abolished and turned over to private corporations. He’s like a man in an iron lung begging someone to unplug the machine so he can feel better.

In a strategic move by Karl Rove, the GOP reached out to these imbeciles and empowered them, and now it has to live with the consequences of its actions. Because of Rove, the GOP has elected officials like Maine Gov. Paul LePage who made the following quote regarding BPA, a known carcinogenic plastic:

“…if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards.”

The fact that most women would prefer not to have “little beards” notwithstanding, LePage’s idiocy has crossed a line that even the simplest minds understand. BPA (bisphenol-A) is carcinogenic and not healthy for humans, a fact generally understood by even the faintest lights among us. Unfortunately for the GOP, these aren’t isolated incidents.

On Monday Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) identified Juarez as the most dangerous city in America. Only problem is, it’s not, it’s part of Mexico. Perry had to be briefed by his aides after the gaffe.

Or there’s the old faithful, Sarah Palin, about whom it was released that she did not understand that Africa was a continent, not a country.

And of course, we dasn’t forget Louie “Terror Babies” Gohmert of Texas:

These and others like them are working furiously to turn the reins of government back over to the Democratic Party, and I predict they will succeed.

Consider those 90 Republicans who broke ranks with the teabaggers, and you’ll see the Republican’s dichotomy.

On the one hand if they vote with the teabaggers they can secure teabagger votes in the next election. Unfortunately for them, many of these Republicans come from swing districts that have largely moderate constituencies, so they risk alienating those voters in the general election.

On the other hand, if they vote against the amendment (which they did), they save their status with moderates, but they alienate the teabaggers. In this case it’s likely they will face a teabagger primary challenge where many of those moderates are registered Democrats and cannot vote for them. Imagine the repercussions of the teabaggers double down and refuse to raise the national debt ceiling, effectively shutting down the government.

All of this will be enhanced by the attack on public workers in Wisconsin by Gov. Scott Walker over the past 10 days. Surely there are many teabaggers among Wisconsin’s public workers who never considered that the discussion about getting rid of lazy civil servants might apply to them. Undoubtedly they thought themselves excluded from the riffraff that was under attack, but now their eyes have been opened.

So whether pandered to or not, these cretins will only become more rabid in their demands. It’s suggested that the $61 billion in proposed tax cuts will result in the loss of 700,000 jobs, many which will belong to teabaggers or their families. Soon there won’t be any thinking people alive that will wish to have their names affiliated with the Republican Party. The teabaggers are taking the party on a header, and no one can stop them.

Most people have figured out that Ronald Reagan was an asshole, not a saint, and we need to diverge widely from his policies. Saddled with the ideological idiocies of small government and tax cuts creating jobs, Republicans are destined to spend the next 40 years wandering in the desert. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving group.

Examine your family, and look for the teacher, police officer, firefighter or other state or public employee, and realize the Republicans have declared war on them. Ask yourself do you want your mom and dad living in your house in the room next to yours while you’re trying to bump uglies with the wife, then make your decision.

Kinda puts a different light on things, doesn’t it?