Republican Logic vs Sanity
February 27, 2010 – by Gregory Franklyn
CAUTION: Journalistic Hatchet Job Directly Ahead!
While watching the Health Care Summit on Thursday this week it occurred to me that The Republican Party, as a whole, may be insane! Now, hold on a minute. When I say that the Republican Party may be insane, I’m not just saying that to be mean (Well, OK not this time, anyway!). I’d like to make my case that they actually are clinically insane!
Here’s an example of what I mean; Every Republican who spoke at the summit said that something needs to be done about health care because our system is clearly broken. Each of them also said that America’s health care system is the very best in the world right now. Notwithstanding the fact that every entity charged with evaluating health care systems among nations ranks the US somewhere between 18th and 37th on health care among the nations of the world depending on whose ranking you like best. So, according to Republican logic, the very best health care system in the world ranks at #18 at best, and is clearly dysfunctional!
Each of them said we should scrap the current health care bill and “Start over with a clean sheet of paper.” Each of them also said we need to fix health care in, “Slow, incremental steps.” Now, to be fair, Democrats had their own set of talking points about health care and each of them expressed different versions of the same concepts; fixing health care can’t wait, it needs to be done now and it needs to include some 45 million people in America who do not currently have health care coverage. It needs to be affordable for the average American, it need to include subsidies for those who really can’t afford it and Blah-blah-blah. You know the drill.
But when I say that each Republican that spoke said that we need to, “Start over with a clean sheet of paper” and that we need fix our health care system in, “Small, incremental steps.” I mean each one of them said those exact words in that exact order, check your TIVO! They actually got together beforehand and agreed that each one of them would say the exact same words in the exact same order during the summit. Wow!
Each of these Republicans are seasoned professional politicians that know the Senate and Congressional rules backwards and forwards. This is what they do for a living! They know that the most effective way to stop something from happening is to use those rules to stop a bill from reaching a vote or to delay its consideration until it dies on its own. Like they’re doing with health care reform, for example.
So, the Republican contribution to the health care summit is to recommend that to fix a health care system that is clearly dysfunctional we should scrap the bill that we’d been negotiating for the last 12 months and “Start over with a clean sheet of paper” and make changes in, “Small, incremental steps.” so that each step can be delayed indefinitely or killed altogether. So, according to Republican logic the reasonable way to fix the health care system is to slowly and carefully prevent any changes to it.
Each of the Republicans that spoke, also demanded a pledge from Democrats, including the President, not to use “Reconciliation” (a senate rule that allows an up or down vote with a majority rule of 51 votes instead of a super-majority of 60) as a means to pass a health care bill. That would be the same “Reconciliation” rule the Republican Party used 16 of the last 21 times the rule has been used when they were the majority party in the Senate. They used it for some pretty far reaching legislation too. That’s how they got Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” rammed through. So, according to Republican logic it is a gross misuse of Senate Rules for Democrats to use Reconciliation in the very same way they, themselves, have used it since 1981 when I was first instituted.
All of that convoluted logic was employed by Republicans in ONE DAY last week. But let’s take a look at a few more deeply held Republican ideals that far outreach this one issue. Let’s take the Republican ideal of smaller government that stays out of the lives of American Citizens. They hold fast to that ideal,,, unless you’re gay and want to marry whom you freely choose, or in the case of a student who wants to freely read a controversial book in a school library, or a woman who wants to freely make a controversial health care decision, or a Buddhist, Hindu or Atheist who doesn’t want to be forced against his or her will to say Christian Prayers in school every day. In which case bigger Government that intervenes in the private lives of its citizens is a good thing. So the Republican logic here is that Government should stay out of people’s personal lives and should intervene in the personal lives of its citizens.
Republicans say they want smaller government that taxes its citizens less, unless you’re a contractor who wants to sell expensive tools to the military or Homeland Security or an energy company that wants to build nuclear power plants on the Government’s dime. In which case bigger government is a good thing.
Now, you’re going to have to help me with this one! If the government is smaller and also cuts taxes, how, exactly are we supposed to come up with the money to pay for all that military and Homeland Security expansion that Republicans fought so hard for? Fiscal Discipline, that’s how! (see below) So, according to Republican Logic, America should have smaller Government with less taxation to accommodate the expansion of the military, and Homeland Security and drilling for oil in Alaska and building nuclear power plants.
Republicans insist that the stimulus package is a failure at creating jobs and a waste of taxpayer’s money. Unless the stimulus package handed over money to the Military Industrial Complex, or to construction projects in their home districts. In which case it DOES create jobs. So according to Republican logic, the stimulus package is a failure that successfully created jobs for Americans in their home districts.
Republicans hold fast to the ideal of fiscal discipline. Unless, of course you are a Republican President or a Republican majority in the House and/or Senate. In which case radical spending beyond your means is a good thing. President Ray-gun left office leaving the highest deficit in the history of the United States, up to that point, and he is regarded by Republicans with the same kind of reverence they reserve for the men who founded this government. George Bush Sr., left a deficit even higher than his predecessor. That was followed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, who left office with a multi-billion dollar surplus. That, of course, was swallowed up by Republican George Bush Jr. who expanded spending to yet another record high deficit and left the country free-falling into depression. So according to Republican logic, the way to exercise fiscal discipline is to spend money radically beyond your income.
Republicans hold fast to the ideal that what’s best for America is to let the marketplace fix whatever problems come up for us. Corporate America lives or dies based on doing what needs to be done with greater efficiency and at a lower cost than government can. Their very lively-hood depends upon being better at doing that. That’s why Republicans worked round the clock, last year, to provide tax money to prop up wall street firms that were failing because of bad management and for the past year have been working to stop health care reform in its tracks because the marketplace is doing such a great job of efficient and cost effective stewardship of our health care system that they agreed, as recently as Thursday, is clearly inefficient and not cost effective. So Republican logic holds that a free and open marketplace is a crucial cornerstone of Freedom and Democracy and that socialism is how we insure that.
This is my case tonight; Republicans are insane because they are able to hold fast to two mutually exclusive and diametrically opposed realities at the same time without their heads exploding. They work hard and diligently to insure that Americans are free to do as the Republican Party wishes without Government intrusion.
It’s a skill that requires Christian-like devotion to things that don’t make sense. And that’s an important piece of my explanation of how Republicans are able to accomplish that feat. Every Republican in the House and every Republican in the Senate is an avowed Christian. Right now there is no exception. Not one!
Christians are trained from birth to believe with all their hearts, that things that could not physically happen, happened anyway. One of many good examples of what I mean is the Christian belief in a 14 year old virgin giving birth to the son of God. Invitro-fertilization did not exist at the time. There was no such thing! And as an aside, I’m interested in knowing whom, exactly, did a physical examination of this little girl to determine that she was, in fact, a virgin after she became pregnant? There is no mention in the scriptures about how her virginity was established. Far be it from reality that a 13 year old girl might “Embellish” an explanation of becoming pregnant at that age!
Christianity teaches that the God of Abraham is a loving God. The kind of loving God that destroyed the entire world in a flood because he didn’t like how they treated Him and instructed one of his chosen to take his own son, who was innocent of any wrongdoing, up to a mountain top and burn him at the stake.
Jesus professed that the God of Abraham is a forgiving God! The kind of forgiving God that instructs you to kill your mother if she works on the Sabbath, plants two different crops next to one another, wears clothing made of two different fabrics or eats shellfish! Christians are conditioned, for a lifetime, to accept such contradictions as spiritually harmonious.
And this leads me Republican Logic. The evidence suggests that Republicans feel comfortable with contradiction in other aspects of life because they are already predisposed to accept contradiction as a matter of course.
This, in my view, allows Republican’s heads to remain intact while standing firmly for two mutually exclusive, diametrically opposed ideals. As a result of that conditioning they are able to think, believe and act upon belief, in a manner that is diametrically opposed to reality. More succinctly, they are conditioned to be “Insane!”
Defense Rests!
Much Love,
Gregory
February 27, 2010
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GLFranklyn · 
One Comment
Posted in: Current Events, Economics, Health Care, Media, Politics, Spirit
One Response
You are so right about how often the Republicans contradict themselves. This speaks to a certain type of insanity and hypocrisy as in the case of Bunning and his little sinister little political theatre he pulled this week. More to the point the Republicans are stalling until the calvary can come over the hill i.e., other Republicans who will be elected during the midterm. They will continue to bundle these bizarre contradictions with mean-spirited actions until they have re-reinforcements come after the midterms then watch the fun my friend.
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