Stupid people have the right to vote. Stupid people propel our consumer economy and waste money on myriad things because they are stupid shoppers. Stupid people have the right to own guns, lots of guns. Stupid people have free speech. So, no surprise, in our representative democracy (aka republic) even the most stupid citizens deserve to be represented in government. God has done this by giving them the Republican Party with lots of stupid politicians running and ruining our nation.
Now we see leading Republicans working hard to rebrand, remessage, rebuild and separate themselves from Tea Party extremists. This mighty effort is just another example of how stupid and delusional Republicans are. The pitiful do not deserve our pity, nor respect. They fail at every turn to intelligently recognize the many truths that explain why they are having so many problems with so many segments of the US population. Now they create new lies in a feeble attempt to bury the many stupid statements and boldface lies Republican candidates vomited on the public in the past election cycle. They want us to blame just a few of the most idiotic Republicans that lost important elections and in general Tea Party enthusiasts, while the greater truth is that the Party platform and the endless statements of Mitt The Loser Romney, the presidential primary Republican candidates and the leaders of the Party in Congress were as damaging.
And rather than fess up to all the crap they dumped on the nation, Republicans now are trying to con the public that they have seen the light. They are more than delusional; they are stupid and politically inept. It is as if they have so long worked so hard to appeal to the most stupid Americans that they are brain dead and can only speak stupid.
Sadly, the good news for them is that there are millions of utterly stupid Americans that will continue to vote for Republicans, but not enough, thankfully, to put one in the White House, though through rigged congressional districts they can still win lots of seats in Congress. Stupid deserves stupid, so they deserve Republican politicians and all the destruction of the nation they continue to unload. But not the rest of us.
It is all about winning elections and nothing to do with principles when it comes to Republicans reinventing themselves. It is all about crafting new lies to deceive voters.
Krugman was correct: "One side [Democrats] believes, at least in principle, in letting its policy views be shaped by facts; the other [Republicans] believes in suppressing the facts if they contradict its fixed beliefs. " for all the talk of reforming and reinventing the G.O.P., the ignorance caucus retains a firm grip on the party's heart and mind."
Whether it is immigration policy, taxes, the budget deficit and national debt, health care, and our key social programs, Republican politicians, especially in Congress, say the stupidest things. What the nation needs is not some phony repackaged Republican Party but national recognition that voting for most Republicans is an act of utter and complete stupidity. If only the various Tea Party groups would drop their stupid thinking about things that have nothing to do with fiscal and economic matters and align with the Libertarian Party. Then we would have the beginnings of a badly needed alternative to the Democrats. The grand strategy of the Tea Party crowd to take over the Republican Party has been fundamentally flawed, mainly because of so much emphasis on social issues. They should have worked to make the Libertarian Party more powerful.
Here is some advice for Republican politicians: Start crafting your policy positions, party platform and messages on the basis you are trying to appeal to intelligent, well informed citizens in all demographic groups who are not addicted to blathering conservative talk radio stars and FOX News. Stop advocating far right positions on abortion and contraception, gay rights, and other issues that clearly only appeal to dumb, white men and racists, and also positions on taxes and spending that benefit corporations and the top few percent on the economic ladder.
Kurtz was correct in noting Republicans "losing hand that constantly made it appear that the party was holding the economy hostage to protect tax breaks for the rich."
Christie and Jeb Bush, of course, are good examples of impressive Republicans who clearly do not cater to stupidity. For a successful future, the Republican Party needs to clean its own house and get rid of their stupid politicians if they ever want to appeal to a broad cross section of the American population.
A danger-ahead-sign is that since 2004 young voters have voting for Democrats by larget margins than previous young generations. The nonpartisan Pew Research Center reported in November that under-30 voters are "the only age group in which a majority said the government should do more to fix problems."
Advocating limited government is fine as long as it also means a responsive, kind and truthful government serving the needs of non-rich citizens and not catering to corporate interests, nor depending on big money from the superrich. And it requires the inevitable loss of stupid citizens on the far right. Political power must be earned. Time for Republicans to face reality. Pick your political winners and drop your losers. Shift emphasis from winning elections by any means to intelligently governing the nation.
