The Republican Party: You're Afraid To Call It Evil?

The Republican party came into being in the early 1850s. Its purpose was to foster the abolition of slavery, the provision by the government of free land in the west, equal protection of the law for Americans and voting rights for blacks and women. Abraham Lincoln was the party’s first elected president.

The Republican party I just described ceased to exist a long time ago. Early on it was taken over by wealthy corporate interests which were- and are- directly and overtly opposed to the founding principles of the party- and the country for that matter. Republican politicians- who are in fact not Republicans at all in the original sense of the word- are devoted solely to fostering the interests of the wealthiest minority. They view the general population as a force to be kept in line, considering any expansion of the wealth, privileges, liberties and rights of the American people as a threat to their supremacy and as money out of their pockets. Lincoln, were he alive today, would renounce and condemn this modern so-called "Republican" party as in no way associated with the party he belonged to. There is absolutely no doubt about that. These “Republicans” are violently opposed to equality in any sense of the word. They are fully dedicated to insuring that the United States be a mercantile aristocracy of wealth and that the general population be subjects of that ruling oligarchy. Not citizens in the true sense of the word. Subjects.

That’s why the “Republicans” have strenuously fought every effort to bring a better life to the American people. They don’t want that. It’s a threat to their power. That’s why they violently- and often murderously- fought the establishment of labor unions. That’s why they fought- and continue to fight- minimum- wage standards. That’s why they fought tooth and nail to defeat social security and medical assistance for the elderly. That’s why they’ve destroyed pensions, forcing the elderly to continue to work until they drop dead on the job. And they’ve fought civil rights and women’s rights and environmental protections and constitutional rights- and on and on and on- for the same damn reason. They want the people to be kept down and they want their own pockets to be filled to the breaking point by the sweat and blood of an enslaved population. Damn it, that’s the truth and you people who naively call yourselves Republicans better hear it. You’re not Republicans at all. You have been conned. What in the name of God Almighty do you have in common with these criminal sons-of-bitches? What?

Dwight Eisenhower, when he left office, warned strongly against the burgeoning power of what he called “the military-industrial complex.” What was he talking about? He was talking about what I’ve been talking about in this post. I’ll put it this way: When all branches of government join as one with big business and the military and embark upon a scheme to derive maximum profit for their elites by securing absolute domination of economic, social and political life, both nationally and internationally, you have what used to be called in Europe “fascismo”- fascism, which of course also implies the lessening and systematic elimination of the rights, liberties and securities of the vast majority of the people. Why? Because absolute domination doesn’t want any competitors. The more power you and I have, the more threatened the elite feels itself to be. It’s a vicious combination of suppression of the people at home and imperialist warfare abroad- warfare for profit that is. And whether you want to hear it or not, that is the malignant cancer that has taken over this nation. It’s killing us as a people. It is destroying our beloved nation. And it is the essence of what the (so-called) Republican party is all about. And don’t think I’m absolving the Democrats, too many of whom are fellow-travelers with the Republicans, no matter how they may try to mask the fact.

This is deadly serious business and the epidemic of denial has to stop. If we don’t face what is happening we are lost. I hear someone even as politically savvy as Bill Clinton talking about all this in terms of being a difference in “political ideology” that will be cleared up if the elections go right. It doesn’t have a damn thing to do with political ideology. The Republicans and their Democratic fellow travelers don’t give a damn about political ideology. They’d use freaking Scientology or any other ology if it suited their purpose. This is all about suppressing and manipulating the population for maximum profit. It’s all about war for profit. How many billions have gone into the pockets of Bush and Cheney’s corporate fraternity brothers as the direct result of the Iraq war? I’m amazed to hear the pundits talk about “the cost of the war.” Who’s getting the money? The soldiers? The money for the supplies, weaponry, the mercenary operations, and so forth and so forth, is all going into the pockets of the merchant elite- in other words the elite of the Republican party. Are you surprised that they want to continue the war for “a hundred years?” The bullshit and the cant has to stop. That’s what’s going on- all at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Mass murder-for-profit. That’s what’s going on. A war invented to fill the pockets of Bush and Cheney’s fellow-criminal “Republican” cohorts. And too damn many Democrats. My God, this is what the Calvinist money ethic has come to? And we can sit back and let it happen?

This is the most critical moment in our history. If we don’t measure up to it we’re gone. What we have to fight with everything in us is an enormously powerful evil. I know it’s not fashionable to use the word these days; but that’s what it is- a tremendous, treacherous evil. You can call it Fascism or the Military-Industrial Complex or degenerated Republicanism or whatever the hell you want to call it. It is ruthless. It has no conscience. It can kill for profit without batting an eyelash. It is vindictive and merciless. It has no respect whatever for human rights and liberties. It will do anything whatsoever to attain its continuing objective: more and more power for more and more profit. It hides behind the corporate veil and “executive privilege” and considers itself entitled to call whatever it does “right,” It is the direct opposite of what this nation is about. And most unfortunately, it is now in the driver’s seat. It must be defeated. Now .We’re Americans and we can do it.