Reading this truthdig article this morning got me thinking about our national, almost forty-year, slow, but inexorable fall into the whirling room of mirrors, propelled by mountebanks and posers and just downright cruel and stupid folks. Ronnie Reagan ushered in what has become, living in the White House, our national disgrace and possible downfall. The Republican party was and is hellbent on destroying this country because they simply don't really like it. They pine and yearn for something else, something darker and more amenable to gun play. They weren't always like this.
I have read accounts of antebellum Southern Slave owners that had pangs of conscience and regrets about the owning and mistreatment of other human beings, but in almost every case, instead of discontinuing their participation in the horror, they doubled down on their cruelty and mistreatment. Their self-loathing, instead of providing a moment of grace, caused them to become even more monstrous. This is precisely what we are dealing with today. The disastrous effects of the forty-year Conservative national blitzkrieg has been exposed for the absolute practical failures but also for the dire consequences of its social stances and policies. Current Conservatism is like the regretful slave masters -- the self-loathing playing itself out right before our eyes. Never will they admit they were or are wrong. Trump stands among them tying America to the whipping post and yet they don't move to stop the carnage.
An exemplar of the absolute moral collapse of Conservatism is the Right to Life issue. Forty years ago it was a cause championed by individuals, albeit many somewhat deranged, that couldn't support abortion because of genuine issues of conscience. There are many today that still have genuine issues of conscience but what has really happened is that the Republican Party has taken this issue and cynically turned it into sloganeering and propaganda. I have had numerous conversations with Conservatives that just rattle it off in their list of things they are told to support. It is reduced to the politically banal. There are real world consequences for this type of cynicism. In prewar Germany not all National Socialists hated Jews, however after attending rallies where Jews were consistently dehumanized...you know what happened. The effects of forty-years of cynical Republican political rhetoric and propaganda have come home to roost. The word Liberal for many has become a foul epithet.
Conservatives, now is the time for forgiveness and reconciliation, like the Prodigal Son -- come home, we miss you, all will be forgiven. We have things to do.
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