Civil War 3: Hypocrisy Vs. Patriotism

When 9-11 happened, the minority Democrats all joined the Republicans, pulling together in a patriotic frenzy to do whatever the president wanted to do. Unfortunately, the Republican president chose to invade a country that had nothing to do with 9-11 and squandered our resources, the lives of thousands and all the worldwide goodwill that was out there for us and turned America into a nation loathed by most other nations.

But the point is, in a time of crisis the Democrats put patriotism above party loyalty. They united to do what was deemed necessary.

Today we have a crisis that over the long run will result in the devastation of more American lives than the evil attack by a band of religious wackos ever did. Millions of people have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care. There will be more broken families, more alcoholism, more robberies and murders. Many will die because of the economic crisis, in many different but definitely related ways. It is a crisis that threatens us much more than any radical Muslim.

So logic would have one believe that the Republicans would respond as the Democrats did after 9-11. One would think the Republicans would unite behind the president to do whatever is necessary for the good of the country.

Ha!

Fat chance.

Nope. The Republicans follow the lemminglike call of Rush Limbaugh and will do whatever they can to OPPOSE anything that is not tax cuts for giant international corporate conglomerates and the wealthy. Today's Republicans put patriotism on the back burner, while loyalty to their dogma moves ahead of everything else.

The Republicans claimed that anybody who disagreed with them when Bush did his dastardly deeds was unpatriotic. Well, I now claim that Republicans who disagree with Obama are unpatriotic and anti-American. In the case of 9-11 that claim was wrong because the invasion of Iraq was wrong. Nobody opposed going after the evil Taliban, and I hope all our military might will be trained against those bastards. But my claim of Republican disloyalty today is valid, I believe. They are obstructing economic recovery. Instead of trying to make the programs better, they want to destroy them, to destroy the Democrats, to drag us down deeper into a real depression...all so they can try to regain power. If they had a legitimate plan to do anything to promote recovery, I would say they are not unpatriotic. Hell, I disagree with lots of the plan, but it moves in the right direction and I'm not going to get everything I want out of what the administration does. I compromise. Not the Republicans. Their idea of compromise is that they get 100% their way and to hell with your way. That is unpatriotic and un-American.

There was a time when the Republican party was not unpatriotic. It was the party of Eisenhower, the party of Goldwater. Both of those fine men were conservative Republicans, but they were Americans first. They never put party loyalty above the interests of America. Yet in today's Republican party, Ike and Barry are persona non grata. America is not important to them, only their party and the power they lust after and can't seem to live without. All but three of them. Those three actually engaged in bipartisanship and worked to help craft the stimulus bill. Although I disagree with what they managed to get, I applaud their attempt at cooperation, rather than continued obstruction.

I live in Kansas and therefore have been a registered Republican before. You have to be if you want to have any meaningful vote in primary elections in this state. However, when Newt Gingrich started his scorched earth policy, I changed my registration. Even though I couldn't vote in the primaries against those religious fundamentalists who are so dangerous to education in Kansas, I didn't want my name associated any longer with such people as Gingrich, Limbaugh, Bush, and all the other Neocons who every day display their anti-American sentiments. I may criticize the failings of our country, but I am an American through-and-through and will always stand up for our democratic way of life and for real American values. I wish I could say the same thing for the Republicans in congress, but they are as unpatriotic as it gets in this country today. They fight against American values every day. It's too bad they know nothing about the history of their own party.