A Duck is a Duck is a Duck....

I have been taking some grief about a comparison I made on air the other day.  After Ukrainian separatists backed by Russia got a new toy, high altitude anti-aircraft missiles, and proceeded to execute around 300 people for simply flying from The Netherlands to Malaysia, the point I made was when a political party or leader gets into bed with a fringe element, handing some level of power to an extremist point of view, it usually never ends up well for the political party or leader.  I was specifically referencing Russia's President Putin supporting the crazies in eastern Ukraine, and to create another example of this political maneuvering, I brought up the far-right extremists who have taken over the Republican party here in the United States, going out of my way to make sure no one thought I was implying the tea-partiers, religious extremists and pseudo-libertarians in the USA were intending to, or capable of, shooting down airliners.  The point remains, when fringe elements take over it usually never ends well for the political party.

Apparently, I have crossed a line...or have I.

Let me reiterate, I am not making a direct apples to apples comparison in regards to the Tea Party verses Ukrainian Separatists.  Only a fool would think I was trying to do that, but the GOP has to come to grips with how much of their party has been usurped by the extreme far right, and how it threatens to ruin their party.  Back in 1999, after years of neoconservative policies had driven people away from the GOP, the puppet masters behind W. Bush started to court the religious far right, the libertarians, the racists, the militias and the stupid who were desperately trying find something they could blame for their own problems.  This new group of foot soldiers were never before allowed to have a seat at the table, but out of necessity, they were welcomed to belly on up.  Buoyed by success in 2000, 2004, and especially 2010, this once fringe right leaning political ideology, was now driving the Republican bus, requiring a blood oath to be able to stay on board.  For God's sake, one of the candidates on the stage during the 2012 GOP primary was a freaking Libertarian, and all of the other candidates were desperately trying to mimic him.  This would be like a Socialist candidate being up on the Democratic stage, and let's face it, the left wouldn't even allow a Green Party candidate in the arena, let alone a true Socialist.

How far to the extreme has the GOP gotten?

1) They applauded when a group of far right extremists threatened to open fire on government agents.  These militia extremists threatened to do so while hiding behind women and children.  The government agents were only doing their job and the person the right rallied behind was a tax cheat, government aid abuser and a racist.  It's only when the right realized their unbridled support for Bundy and his racist views would be construed as endorsement that, out of fear of losing voters, they quietly backed away.

2)  The GOP, while claiming to care for children, insist the loving thing to do with undocumented children without parents on the US border is to throw them back into the hell scape they are trying to flee without even a sandwich, while screaming in their faces to "get out."

3) They want to distort Christianity, a religion based on love and compassion, into a platform for legal discrimination against a group of people (the GLBT community), a group they don't like for personal reasons.  They hide behind the same Christian values when striping all food, medical and housing aid from the neediest of Americans.

4) It is impossible for the modern GOP'er to acknowledge that their party has EVER done anything wrong.  When confronted about such things as Iraq, Iran/Contra, the housing and banking collapse of 2008, or Katrina, it usually ends up with them making wildly outrageous accusations, screaming at the top of their lungs or storming off in a huff.  They do this because they already know they can't defend the right's actions, so lies, temper tantrums and running away are their only options.

5) It is impossible for the modern GOP'er to acknowledge the opposition party was ever right.  Point to the economic recovery the country has had over the last five years, an economic recovery which has pretty much been done by Obama himself, or possibly the greatest economic time in the country's history, the Clinton 90's, an economic boon created by smart governing from Clinton (for a fun activity, go look at 93/94 and see the GOP argue how Clinton's economic stimulus would "ruin" the country and how they proudly voted against it.  Too funny!).  To be fair, the Republican voter gets most of their 'news' from right leaning propaganda machines who either distort, lie about or ignore positive news for the left.  Regardless, as for their reaction, it's the same as it is for #4.

6) Many GOP'ers want to force everyone to always carry a loaded gun.  The mere suggestion that you may not think that's safe and don't want to, or limiting a mentally unstable man or serial spousal abuser's access to one makes their blood boil.  If you bring up any of the mass shootings in this country, their response is a belligerent ranting on how it's either unfair to mention those shootings, or the shooting was "made up."  They will even scream the later into the face of the parents of children ripped to shreds in Newtown, Connecticut.

7) There isn't an event or person the far right can't vilify; victims of violence, the Olympics, children, a POW, the family members of shooting victims, The World Cup, the hungry.  They can do it to anyone or anything in an effort to justify their flawed beliefs and/or hatred of the President.

8) They praised a political despot in Vladimir Putin just so they could criticize their own president.

9) The right applauded the idea of an individual or corporation getting between a woman and their doctor, something they spent four years insisting President Obama was menacing to do.  They will foolishly go after popular health choices, such as contraception, in an effort to tarnish the record of President Obama and the Democrats, regardless of the impact on most Americans.

10) They have threatened to revoke the basic security net system of America (social security, medicare and medicare) and the basic laws which, although inadequate in some cases, still present a basic rights barrier for the American worker (minimum wage, child labor laws, unions) not because they don't work. They want to get rid of them because they do work.

11) They will, in one breath, act like the wealthiest Americans are some poor, persecuted class who are the true victims in our modern world, while in the next breath criticize the truly needy and poor as living high on the hog, mooching off of hard working Americans.

12) There is a palatable racist element within the GOP.  Two words - Birth Certificate.  To paraphrase the Simpsons, "The GOP isn't racist, but it's number one with racists."

Shall I go on?

There is a Republican running for a state house seat here in Minnesota who is for - paying for the right to vote, forced child labor, water boarding and no celebrations for pregnant women who get married.  She terrifies the establishment GOP because she could win her primary, something that would have been near impossible 20 years ago.

It's time for the leadership of the right and their media megaphones to realize how close we've come to the brink.  Your relentless talk about revolutions, killing grandma, taking your guns, terrorist sympathizing, and anti-American rhetoric has encouraged the crazies driving the bus to aim for the cliff.  When the inevitable happens, not some drunken Ukrainian hillbilly shooting down a commercial airliner, but some delusional zealot taking a shot at the President (God forbid), a zealot  who is going off perceived marching orders from the right to save themselves and America, you can no longer bow your head and act as if no one could have seen this tragedy coming. Yes we can, and you on the right are responsible for the potential trigger man.  You can no longer keep telling some idiot the bees are their enemy, insinuating they need to stop the bees, encouraging them to throw rock after rock after rock at the beehive until the individual gets stung, and then innocently put your hands in the air and act as if you had nothing to do with it.

GOP, get control of your party.  This continued march into lunacy will only doom you to the history books.

I stand by the comparison.