The conservatives... taking phony to new dimensions

Is it possible to expand the definition of phoniness past where the Republican party is leading?

Take border security, for example. They cry about lacking a secure border, but, they're only concerned about one border -- the Mexican border, the one over which those "brown people" are coming with ebola that jihadists are cooking up in the middle east. Let's forget the absurdity of that claim, though, and ask why they are not concerned with any other borders. Why, if they're really serious about making our borders iron-clad, impenetrable, aren't they talking about putting an electrified double fence sixteen feet high with razor wire on top around the entire nation, including the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts? Because the real truth is they're totally UNconcerned about border security. What their real concern is about is people who may eventually become citizens and vote against the conservative party. Period. It isn't about jobs, or security, or terrorism threats. It's about the threat to their power base.

How about abortion? Think they're serious about about overturning Roe? Nope. They had a Republican White House, Senate and House during the Bush administration. Did they try to accomplish the goal of eliminating abortion? No. They pushed an "abstinence only" policy. Why wouldn't they do what they say they want to do when they had the best chance they're going to have for decades to come? Because if anyone is truly serious about their Christian beliefs, when abortion is overturned and gay rights rolled back, the conservative base would have nothing to use to get Christian votes. You can't say you're truly a Christian and continue to vote for politicians whose sole existence is geared toward pummeling poor people for being poor and cutting every program designed to give them a hand up toward rising out of abject poverty. The Republicans' interest is only piqued by money that can be used for campaign contributions. They talk religion only to court votes of those to whom such a thing is important.

Lately, they've talked a lot about job creation. What have they proposed in terms of accomplishing new jobs? The Keystone XL pipeline. Nothing else. And that project will create less permanent jobs than a busy convenience store does. Sure it will create short-term employment and they'll be decent-paying jobs, but those are all a finger in the dike and will fall apart after the construction is complete. Do we want to face rising unemployment again once those thirty-five to forty thousand jobs expire in a few years? No. But, the conservatives know their base doesn't have the longer vision required to understand their proposal is only a band-aid. It is nothing more than pandering to the energy industry (read "Koch brothers") that heavily fund their campaigns.

They talk about public safety, too. But, are they willing to touch the new third rail -- the second amendment -- to secure that safety? Not a chance. There are no easy answers to curbing gun violence in this country, but at least agreeing to a three-day waiting period and universal background checks, both reasonable proposals, can't hurt. And have any Republicans come out strongly to condemn all the recent police shootings of unarmed citizens? No. Why not? Is there really any intelligent reason to question why they're not howling over excessive force usage by police? No one can really be that dense that they need the reason spelled out for them. I'll only go so far as to say look who the targets of that insanely trigger-happy force are.

The Republicans cry government overreach when the Democrats want everyone to have access to healthcare at a reasonable cost. President Obama reached out to the Republicans to get bi-partisan support for the Affordable Care Act and dismissed calls by progressive Democrats for a single-payor initiative, one that would have precluded cases like Hobby Lobby. But, because of a pledge taken by the Caucus Room 9, the Republicans only seemed to play along. The Nine pledged they would do everything in their power to ensure there was no Obama legacy, to ensure total failure for everything he wanted to do as President. That pledge was made as President Obama was taking the oath of office for his first term. But, I think there's a more nefarious reason for opposing universal healthcare. Those who would benefit most from such a plan would be the poorest among us, since expansion of Medicaid was an integral part of the plan. Who do the poor vote for more often than not? It isn't the party of the wealthy. Fewer poor people alive to vote means their base gains more voting power.

They talk about the Constitution all the time, but want to curtail the right to vote rather than expand that right because they know there aren't as many of them as there are of us. They can't produce a single bit of evidence to support their claim of widespread voter fraud, but that doesn't stop them from convincing their base that elections are being stolen by illegal voting.

This is the last point I will make about Republican hypocrisy. Spending. The Republicans voted to slash the IRS' budget more than a billion dollars. As a result, the government has been less able to collect what taxes are owed to it -- eight billion dollars less, actually. So, the Republican claim of having too little money to spend on programs we want? Well, the budget cut made that claim self-fulfilling. As long as we have fewer people to audit tax returns and fewer agents to enforce existing tax laws, the less we will have to spend on education, security, job creation, and smarter governance.

Smart voters are anathema to the conservative platform because their motives are so transparent, except to their base, of course. Anyone who can't intelligently analyze how it is that all of us are not Jewish should be banned from voting and gerrymandering should be abolished, regardless what party might benefit. Gerrymandering disenfranchises all voters, regardless of party. Make the House representatives answerable to their entire state and give them one rep per each 750,000 population. Then, the majority party of every state will be represented fairly and even the minority would be represented by at least a few candidates.

The bottom line is the Republican party has only one tactic to fall back on regarding every issue we face as a nation: FEAR.

We need to stand up and say enough is enough.