Undeniable

Washington US Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, walked into a rake, a rake she herself left in her political yard.  She wanted Obamacare horror stories from her constituents, so she headed to Facebook to beg for juicy negativity.  Instead, she got a lot of praise from her eastern Washington district for Obama's health care package, not realizing it actually has helped a lot of people.  The rake she walked into was made up of the rhetoric Republicans throw around at their closed pep rallies, rhetoric which has no basis in reality, something McMorris Rodgers is very aware of now.  More on that in a sec, but first...

The GOP is at a turning point.  After 35 years of cutting taxes and slashing governmental budgets, all in an effort to find money they can shift to the uber-wealthy in their delusional trickle down economic fantasies, they've come to a point where they can't hide their agenda anymore, showing their outright favoritism to the financial endowed, in stunningly grotesque displays.

Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey, went out of his way to make sure he gave a sweetheart deal to Exxon Mobile, an oil company who had polluted the landscape of the Jersey shore, lost in court repeatedly and we're told to pay up billions in damages, only to have Christie himself slash the penalty to a mere fraction of what they owed.  Scott Walker, the Governor of Wisconsin, was caught pretty much red handed awarding favors, and copious amounts of Wisconsinite tax dollars, to a major donor who gave the Walker campaign money through a dark money group, something seemingly coordinated illegally through the governor's office itself.  There is no fog on this; this is a direct rewarding of monies to a wealthy donor who helped his campaign; quid pro quo.

And then there is the US House GOP budget.  It gives most of the tax breaks and money to the wealthiest in the USA, at least 5% of a millionaire's salary ($50,000), and rewards people who make $75,000 or less with, at most, $10 in tax breaks, enough for Funyuns and Yoohoo!

They can't hide this payoff system anymore.  Everything they do is geared towards staying in power, something achieved with insane amounts of money donated to them by a handful of individuals, and the end result, the blatant GOP political money handout back to the wealthy, is becoming something even the most stalwart Republican voter won't be able to gloss over for too much longer.

Let's run the modern GOP system:

1)  Promise the wealthy they'll enact the wealthy's legislation and shovel tax payer money back into their coffers once they get elected.

2) Coordinate the donations through legitimate and dark money avenues to give the right an obscene money advantage during elections, at least 15 to 1.

3) Once elected, begin shoveling the money back to the donors, through mutated, hyper-aggressive trickle down economics, destruction of workers rights, the gutting of every budget they can, and then borrowing money recklessly, just so they can hand that loan to wealthy folks, making sure everyone else pays it back with interest.

4) Buy the media, so they can dictate the message the majority of Americans read, see, and hear (this is why they are furious over a free Internet).

5) Find a loyal group of followers (in this case the far right religious, the racists, the homophobes, and the tea party/Nuevo-libertarians) who they can convince to follow them by compromising on one or two issues, or by selling them a bill of goods they'll never deliver on, or by wallowing in the politics of hatred and bigotry, or by honing in on the extreme voter's own disappointments, giving them a fake boogie man they can blame for all of their woes (the Democrats).  By giving these people, considered a political laughing stock until the 1990's, a legitimate seat at the table and the ear of the Republican party, these voters were easily won over and it's nearly impossible to change their minds.

6)  Fix the election system so it's virtually impossible for them to lose, through gerrymandering, trying to change the electoral college, restricting voter rights, and limiting access to voting for the people likely to vote against them.


This plan has worked well for them, but never forget the main goal of all Republican politicians; stay in power at all costs.  This is why we're at where we're at.  They need to keep the ultra wealthy happy.  If they lose their money advantage, not only will they lose their re-election campaigns, they'll lose the seven figure lobbying gig they're banking on, the real reason they're in politics, a stepping stone to a cushy job representing the individuals they so eagerly strapped on knee pads for while they "served their constituents."

Cliven Bundy, anti-gay legislation, birth certificates, immigrant hate, Hobby Lobby, anti-tax promises, convincing their followers they're the persecuted ones, the never ending litany of name calling they do to make themselves 'righteous'...all of it is window dressing.  They need the delusional as their voting base, so they'll say and support almost anything the delusional want to believe.  Heck, they even have a few politicians who believe the crazy talk themselves.  Anything to keep the Republican lemmings happy.  When the rest of the world openly condemns their narrow minded, antiquated and bigoted ideals, the extremists are so incensed the majority doesn't agree with them, they accuse their critics of violating their freedom of speech, something which has never been subdued.  Political operatives, who need the fringe, enable them, so they in turn can reward the wealthy people who are holding a place for the politicians in the wealthy's high court.

But here's the right's problem; the voters they need to stay in power not only want a seat at the table, they want to drive the political parties agenda and direction.  Since the GOP needs these votes, they pander to them, but when the extreme right's agenda butts up against the agenda of the wealthy, or against reality, it leads to hilarious outcomes.  Look at the train wreck which is Indiana.  They pandered to the extremist right by trying to make homophobia legal in the state, but when the free market judged their actions, quickly, to be unacceptable, potentially costing their finical supporters a ton, Governor Pence and the Republicans were caught in the middle.  In Arkansas, all it took was Walmart telling the Governor to veto their version of the same bill, sending the Arkansas right into a frantic panic.  The GOP will always side with money, hence the speed at which they're rushing back to fix these bills they knowingly passed.

Which brings us back to McMorris Rodgers.  When she went about her fan fiction search, she forgot it's all a made up facade, a story she herself began to believe, a made up reality to encourage the zealots who vote for her, a narrative which can never be allowed to be engaged freely with the masses, as the fantasy deteriorates when real Americans are asked to speak freely, outside of a hand picked "town hall meeting."  She didn't upset her money people, but in turn, she did the 2nd worst thing a Republican can do, compare the real world to the made up one her voters believe.

Imagine where our economy would be if we had Republicans actually caring about the people they represented.  Imagine what would've been if they would've tried to work with Obama, instead of their self imposed gridlock.  Imagine where this country would be if we didn't have the GOP plotting to undermine the President at every turn, not because they thought he was wrong, but rather because he was right and they didn't want the American people to see the benefit of his leadership and ideas.

How long will it take for the Republican voter to finally say, "we've given the Republicans 35 years and they haven't delivered on anything they've promised; maybe I should rethink my vote"?