Somewhere in the last four or five decades, Republican politicians got the idea in their head that the “R” that was there to identify their party affiliation actually stood for “R” Regressive or “R” Reactionary Rube. I mean, why is it that every time you hear the loudest, buffoonish diatribe about issues like climate change, stem cell research, education, or religion or damn near anything that demands rational analysis – the buffoon delivering that regressive diatribe is a Republican. Is it a chicken or an egg analysis that we should apply when we are listening to one more Republican Regressive Rube leaves us dumbfounded with airhead quality opinions about damn near anything that actually requires rational reflection or mature understanding?
Name it – science or basic narratives about social issues, cultural issues – why is that character with the big Republican “R” behind their name always the one who leaves us almost breathless as we try to grasp their dullard insight on the topic in question?
This past week, for example, one of those Regressive throwback politicians with a big “R” after his name told us that Obama was subverting the will of the American people by trying to expand high speed Internet into every classroom in America.
Michael Grimm, a big “R” Republican from New York was able to lift himself from his knuckles into a fully erect standing position to tell us that the high speed Internet, I suppose, is not good for American students. Seems pretty non-controversial to those of us who stand erect everyday, but genuinely very controversial for a predictable “R” regressive thinker, who again is predictably a Republican leader. I mean, if I had given you those facts and then asked you to guess the political affiliation of the person who made such a remarkable dullard statement, you would have guessed Republican almost 100% of the time without even needing more facts.
Chris Mooney is a hugely talented writer tried that understands that buffoonish big “R” Republican regressive quality. His book, The Republican Brain, questioned why the vast, almost overwhelming, majority of Republicans struggle with issues like Darwin’s theory of evolution or global climate change or even Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Mooney dug through the Conservapedia, which is the right wing’s equivalent of Wikipedia. The creator of Conservapedia is one of Phyllis Schlafly’s intellectually and socially disadvantaged home schooled children. The young bone head Schlafly tells the world in his site (for unstable conservatives) that he has proof that abortion causes breast cancer; Einstein was a fraud because his relativity theory questions religion; homosexuality is a depraved mental disorder; Darwin fabricated his research; global climate change is part of the ruse to create a new world order. And it goes pretty much downhill from there.
There was a time when the homeschooled Schlafly dimwit would be summarily dismissed by virtually everyone including Goldwater Republicans as a clownish psycho needing heavy medication. But you know what? Today that crazy crackpot is a respected, even admired Republican spokesperson just like his lunatic mother who is always at the podium in front of massive Republican audiences.
This new Frankenstein mutation of crackpot thinking is who you are if you call yourself a Republican today. It is your brand. It is a contagious infection that chronically weakens progress in science, economics, social or cultural improvement – It eats away at our ability to even properly educate our children.
It creates a diseased waste around our ability to ever become our best selves. And you need to know if you are one of those Schlafly -quality crackpots still carrying around one of the cards with a big “R” printed somewhere on it – you help further that disease.
