The Republican Party has two groups of people who are living in alternate universes. They have the religious right and the billionaires. I know it must seem strange for the religious right to share a party with billionaires considering what the bible says about a rich man’s chance of ever reaching the kingdom of heaven, but logic and reason are very low on the religious right’s priorities. The religious right does not think the government should provide any services or protections that they have to pay taxes to support because God will take care of everything. The billionaires are in complete agreement with that attitude because they think they are God. In other words, the religious right-wingers are like zebras that refuse to think about the fact that they are on the lion’s menu and defend the lion’s predatory behavior on the grounds that lions have to eat.
Most of the religious right-wingers vote for Republicans but deny they are Republicans. A Prior generation of them described themselves as Birchers; this generation of them describe themselves as tea partiers. They are in favor of the benefits and services the government provides to them, but they think the government also provides the same benefits and services to people who do not deserve them. Since the government does not distinguish between who is worthy of benefits and services and who is not worthy of receiving those things the government must be evil, and it should do absolutely nothing. If you try to point out that the religious right is working against its own interests people who belong to that group will tell you it does not matter. The world is, after all, a wicked place. God knows who is worthy and who is not, and He will provide.
If you point out the inconsistency of denying you are a Republican while habitually voting for Republicans the religious right will tell you they are taking their country back starting with the Republican Party. Unfortunately, taking over the Republican Party is no idle boast. Now that a significant number of corporate Republicans have lost primary elections to the tea partiers even well established, moderate Republicans are afraid to anger the people who would abolish social security, medi care, abortion even in the case of rape or incest, and every other government program and/or regulation you can think of. Thus you have Michael Steel refusing to discuss with Lawrence O’Donnell the wacky behavior and absurd positions taken by Republican candidates such as Rand Paul, Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell while still defending the political viability of those wing nuts. This interview with Michael Steel would have been comical if it were not for the danger posed by the possible election of those candidates and others who are now turning the November elections into a mental health test.
In California we have a different dynamic. The most notable Republican candidates, Meg Whitman for governor and Carly Fiorina for U.S. senate, are billionaires. Both live in an alternate universe of wealth and privilege, and are disconnected from the rest of us who object to being on lion’s menu. This disconnect is all too obvious. When Ms. Whitman was on the board of directors at eBay she approved laying off ten percent of the work force there while voting herself a huge golden parachute. She makes no apology for this or for the fact that she is trying to buy the election. When Gloria Allred filed a lawsuit against Meg Whitman for firing an undocumented house keeper Ms Whitman had employed for almost a decade, Ms. Whitman denied knowing the house keeper was undocumented. When Ms. Allred produced evidence to the contrary, Ms. Whitman still refused to admit she had made a mistake by continuing to employ the house keeper until just before Ms. Whitman filed to run for governor. What Ms. Whitman did instead was to accuse Ms. Allred of acting as a surrogate for gubernatorial candidate, Jerry Brown. She is so out of touch she thinks she can convince us that this is a phony issue rather than an indication of her flawed character and arrogance. High information voters are opposed to her because they know she is a billionaire who will represent billionaires rather then us. For less savvy voters, however, the hypocrisy revealed by the lawsuit will be a deciding factor.
Carly Fiorina’s political views are almost as hair brained as those held by the religious right. She has not made a show of those views as a candidate, but she is still disconnected from the majority of the voters. When she was CEO of Hewlett Packard she publicly bragged about shipping thousands of jobs overseas. Furthermore she is so clueless she allowed herself to be filmed as she made a snide remark about the hairdo worn by Senator Boxer. Ms. Fiorana is also running the lamest attack ad of the season. It is a clip of Senator Boxer asking a general to call her Senator rather than ma’am. The reaction of everyone I have talked to about this ad is “So?” Why Ms. Fiorana thinks it is so unreasonable for a senator to want people to call her Senator is a mystery to most voters.
This combination of the religious right and the billionaires would be laughable if it were not so dangerous. The anti-government stance of the religious right would give free reign to the very people who are exporting our jobs and whose irresponsible behavior almost took down our entire economy. Furthermore, the areas in which the religious right wants the government to interfere with our lives would take away many of the rights we take for granted. I am talking about a woman’s reproductive rights, a worker’s right to be protected from injury in the work place, and freedom of and from religion, etc.
Tune in, turn out, and vote! I am not making this stuff up. There is far more at stake than you might think!
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