RIP, GOP

[Chango]

Excellent diary at dkos:

I honestly believe that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the so-called conservative movement, and the Republican Party that it currently inhabits. The slow-motion horror that the nation is witnessing on the flooded streets of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is the final, irrefutable evidence that the GOP is not fit to govern this great nation. There is no amount of spin and slime that can erase what millions of Americans are seeing for themselves on the evening news.

......

Tragedy has a way of revealing character. The constant drumbeat of death from the war in Iraq, and now the cascading nightmare that is the Gulf Coast flood has peeled away the veneer and we can see the GOP leadership and the larger conservative movement for what it is: a sham. They have nothing. They offer nothing. They come to destroy, not to build. They have no vision for a greater public good because, for them, the very notion of a public good is anathema.

Make no mistake: as we watch our fellow citizens drown, starve, and die in the street in New Orleans, its not incompetence or lack of planning that is killing them. It is willful neglect. It is the direct result of reducing the government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." This is what "starving the beast" looks like.

For some 30 years the Republican party has packaged humanity's darkest and most craven weaknesses and pawned them off as its greatest virtues. Well, the reckoning is here and the conservatives are found wanting. When the chips are down we are a nation that cares for our citizens and we expect our government to be strong enough, capable enough, and compassionate enough to do the same.

.......

Rest in peace, Grand Old Party. America can no longer afford the drag that your self-delusions and cheap justifications put on our spirit. For those who are willing to turn back from pandering to the lowest common denominator and who choose to join us lifting up the better angels of our nature, we offer the hand of friendship. For the the rest: may the God whose name you have scandalized and used as cover for your lack of humanity have mercy on your degenerate souls.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/20401/46134

[Birthmark]

1. It goes deeper than politics.

The culture of greed itself has been undermined, shown to be the sociopathic disorder that it is. It is tragic that this had to be discovered in this fashion, with so many of our countrymen killed by neglect, but the lesson is indelible to an entire generation.

Katrina changes everything.

[Soup Bean]

8. Perfectly stated. n/t

[malaise]

2. Brilliant n/t

[Dudley_DUright]

3. and they still don't get it,

considering they are planning on repealing the estate tax (not death tax) on Tuesday in the senate. :mad:

[LevelB]

12. Please, not the "Real Estate" or "Death Tax" -

It is properly termed the "Paris Hilton Tax".

B.

Edit: Fixed subject.

[Virginian]

13. I think the limit now is $1.5 million estates and under do not get taxed.

I think that is more than fair.
If I were to win a million dollar lottery, I would be taxed on it,
but
if I were to win the birth lottery ie. inherit the same amount of money, I would not be taxed on it.

The bill before congress is to eliminate it completely for everyone. They think it is OK to inherit $5 billion and not pay a penny in taxes on it. It is unearned income, just like the capital gains on your real estate. It is unfair for the working class to be the tax base of this nation and the wealthy to pay nothing.

[corker]

4. Repukes

the party of death

[wildcat78]

5. You are absolutely correct...

I don't even call my Chistian anymore - I'm a follower of Christ. This whole thing exposes Christian Fundamentalism for what it really is...nothing more than a political movement.

When you run into one of the nut jobs, ask them if they read Psalm 82. If they say yes, tell them to apply it.

Just look at Psalm 82:3 -

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

That says it all!

[silverweb]

6. Beautifully expressed.

I've sent this to everyone on my list. May it serve as an exhortation and an inspiration to action!

[Skittles]

7. Molly Ivins said it best some time ago

she said a second bush term would cure a lot of Americans of voting republican

[AuntieM1957]

11. Molly Ivins makes me proud to be a Texan - I'm so glad she is, 2

[Talismom]

17. I don't blame you dear, she even makes this proud NYer yearn to claim

her as a fellow statesman! She's the best!

[pokercat999]

9. They say "put your faith in us"

I say put your faith in a bullet and the bullet in a rethug.

[tom_paine]

10. If only the Imperial Subjects of Amerika had a vote or a Free Press

it might be so. But I cannot believe that the Busheviks, second-cousins to Hitler, Stalin, Caeser, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, and Ferdy Marcos, will go so gently into the good night simply because they lack popular support.

I am almost certain that things have already deteriorated far beyond the point where the Imperial Subjects of Amerika can change anything at the National Level.

[kath]

14. kick, for an incredibly well-written piece!

[slay]

15. I would love nothing more than to see the GOP go down in flames!

As it should!

[klyon]

16. I would like to see them knocked down too but

I will believe it when I see it. Some are blaming the victims not the government. This may not stick to the GOP.

KL

[Talismom]

18. Yeah, that and the "little" issues of Diebold and election fraud! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

19. This is a wonderful article, if he's right.I desperately hope he is.Thanx

Welcome to D.U. :hi: :hi: :hi:

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

20. "...for them, the very notion of a public good is anathema."

Witness Limpballs, who snarls "do-gooders" on his show. Only in an upside-down conservative world is doing good a bad thing.
:banghead: