The Republican Party has had control of the House of Representatives for about nine months now, and the way they are managing to accomplish absolutely nothing is reminiscent of the Whig Party in the 1850's, right before it collapsed into nothingness because of the pressures of abolitionist and slavery proponents within its ranks. Read some of the history of that time, change the issues, and you'll marvel that the ink is dry on the page.
Back in the late 1970's, one of my favorite college professors predicted that the Republican Party would not be able to sustain itself because of the conflict that was working its way into its ideology and its platform. Cross purposes between longstanding practices and politics favoring things like "trickle down economics," dropping tax liabilities for the wealthiest Americans, removing safeguards and protections when it came to gun control legislation, deficit spending which took off like a jet during the Reagan administration, and the moral, "family values" agenda introduced to get conservative, Evangelical Christians to the polls in larger numbers cannot mix without a lot of deception and subterfuge.
If I remember correctly, he thought the party's demise would come right after the turn of the century. But he wasn't counting on the media propaganda bubble conservatives created which has contributed to promoting the deception and which keeps Republicans from knowing the truth. I'm pretty sure he'd join me in laying the blame for the attacks on democracy and the influence of ridiculous conspiracy theories at the feet of Rush Limbaugh, who helped create the hatred of the "us vs. them" mentality of today's political atmosphere. And it's been this kind of media propaganda, half-truths and outright lies that has promoted the continued animosity, fed the hatred and brought us to the point where we are seeing the cracks in Republicanism widen and the structure start to collapse.
Celebrate good times! Come on! The words to the song by Kool & the Gang are going through my head these days as I watch the news and see what is developing in Congress. When was the last time we had Republican members of the House openly talking to Democrats about working together to defeat their own party's speaker and keep the government from shutting down. It's almost unfortunate that there are some Republicans, probably enough to avoid the disaster of a government shutdown, who see what's coming and are taking steps to avoid it. Almost. But we are getting close enough to disaster that the damage to Republicans is a certainty.
We're in that period of time, to use an analogy that works well, after the victim has already drank the poison, waiting for it to take hold and bring death. The poison has been delivered in the irresponsible blasting of ridiculous words from their former orange headed buffoon of a President who insists on continuing to talk as if that matters at all. The man can't deliver a coherent speech, he just has several monologues that he plays over and over. He's lost in his own world, not realizing he's tanking in polls and his rallies are not even half-filling small venues. He's so out of touch that he doesn't realize a government shutdown will not stop his prosecution, but it will end his party's slim chance at winning a congressional majority in 2024, as well as ending what little possible chance he might have at winning back the White House.
It will be interesting to see how the shutdown threat will eventually play out in the House. Some Republicans, mostly those who know what is at stake and are no longer willing to stay silent, are really creating a major dilemma for McCarthy. It's 50-50 at this point as to whether some Republicans will break off and work with Democrats to avoid the shutdown. I personally think that's what will happen and then we will see a House in "disarray" like we've not experienced in our time.
Are we on the verge of seeing Republicans, also fed up with the shenanigans going on in their party with the orange headed buffoon as their leader, realizing that they're going to have to take a stand, even if it means breaking up the party at this point, to restore any chance they might ever have at a successful conservative political agenda at some point in the future? I see that scenario talked about on social media now, after months of achieving absolutely zero. I now see Republicans openly opposing the ridiculous, partisan trash, like attempting impeachment hearings, and desiring to get their representatives back on track.
The collapse of the Whig party eventually let to the formation of a successful Republican party which dominated American politics from the Civil War into the early 20th century, even with major failures happening, like Reconstruction and the Rutherford Hayes debacle. It took a World War and a major economic depression to end their dominance. The hostility in our current political atmosphere would prevent political productivity now, but then, if the GOP dissolved, or broke apart, the animosity and hatred might also disappear.
Until then, go get the popcorn, kick back and watch what happens. It looks like it will be quite a show.
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