Animal House 2
Der Spiegel takes a look at the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. What it sees is not pretty. A nugget:
It’s not just the two bullies at the top who are to blame. Their rise was made possible through a decline in values such as decency, honesty, tolerance and fairness — a process that has been hastened by the Republican Party more than anyone else. For too long, it has pursued fiscal, economic and social policies that served only companies and the rich, the financial backers of their election campaigns.
I was wondering this morning whether it would be accurate to suggest that the Republican Party is no longer a political party in any recognizable sense, but, rather, large and unruly cabal.
Just thinking out loud, mind you.
April 7, 2016 at 4:46 pm
The “culture of contempt” is not the exclusive property of the GOP. It is widespread throughout the American character. The entire edifice of rigged capitalism depends upon it because without it, it is not possible to sustain the system, one that relies on a rock solid belief that people, or any community, or labor has value in the pursuit of profit or position. It’s present in the Democratic Party, in the people who choose to be Independents, too. They just may deliver it with more a smile or insincere pat than a snarl about parasites getting what they deserve.
April 7, 2016 at 10:05 pm
There’s a difference between “present” and “dominant.”
Certainly you can see traces of it everywhere, because of the constant K-sub-i, the “idiocy constant” (in any given population, a certain percentage of that population will be idiots).
In today’s Republican Party, it’s not just present. It dominates and controls.