Republicans Can Kiss My Ass

Both of our two major political parties have traditionally been "big tent" parties. Both have been the home to a range, a continuum, of political and economic views. In my voting life I have voted for Republicans, I have voted for Democrats, I have voted for Libertarians, I have voted for Independents. On many of the left-right ideological divides of the day reasonable people can disagree on the best way to address issues. Most issues cannot be simplified down to right or wrong, black or white. Economic plans that seem straightforward often have unintended consequences. Sometimes the thing you were against turns out to be not so bad and the thing you were for an unmitigated disaster. 

All of that has become moot. The modern Republican Party has become a danger to the nation. It has become inherently immoral. 

There have always been differences between the parties and there has always been bare knuckle brawling and dirty tricks. However, I trace the start of what the Republican Party has become to the nineties and the rise of Newt Gingrich. Democrats had been the majority party in Congress for most of the previous 50 years at that point. Gingrich's plan to put the Republicans in the majority mainly rested upon demonizing the Democrats and included impeaching President Clinton for lying about oral sex. The next main phase began when President Barack Obama was inaugurated. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's stated goal (not at all implied, he said it out loud) was to make Obama a one-term president. He used every trick in the book to block virtually everything Obama tried to do. He pretended to work with Obama in crafting the PPACA, winning concessions and compromises, but no Republicans voted for it in the end. Obama was only able to get that done do to a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate his first two years. McConnell continued to obstruct after the Republicans gained the Senate majority, blocking confirmation of judicial nominations and stated that his proudest moment was denying Obama a Supreme Court confirmation in his final year in office. 

The next phase was during the Trump presidency. A Republican majority in both houses pushed a massive tax cut...not for ordinary Americans, but for corporations. Once the Democrats regained the majority in the House of Representatives, McConnell refused to consider any bills passed by the House, the Senate functioning merely as a judicial appointment mill. He changed his mind about confirming a Supreme Court appointment in a president's final year, rushing through a confirmation in the final month before the election, not even embarrassed about the hypocrisy. 

In case you believe that the Republicans were acting this way only in Washington DC, Republican legislatures in several states voted to reduce a governor's power after a Democrat replaced a Republican in the governor's mansion, Republican governors or legislatures delayed or overrode a vote of the people in several states. In Nebraska, the Republican governor financed primary challenges of fellow Republicans who did not support his legislative proposals. Republican proposals to make it more difficult to vote proliferated. 

Back in Washington, most Republicans declined to so much as mildly criticize a President who was off the rails, even after he spent months trying to overturn the election and inspired his followers to attack the US Capitol. The Republican Party, as bad as it was before the 2016 election, has turned into a cult of personality, loyal not to the country or even conservative principles, but to one person. The few Republicans who do speak out are censured by the party and derided as "not real Republicans". 

I'll never vote for a Republicans ever again.

Republicans can kiss my ass.