SHORT LIVED STEVE ROSE CANDIDACY SHOWS BANKRUPTCY OF REPUBLICAN COALITION

An interesting thing happened recently in the highly Republican state of Kansas which casts doubt upon the future of the Republican Party. A rather distinguished publisher, editor and editorialist, Steve Rose, announced and then abruptly withdrew his candidacy as a Republican primary candidate in the 3rd District. Why was the candidacy so short? Republican rightists did everything but hound Mr. Rose out of the Republican Party because he did not go along with their far right and extremist ideas.


When I first heard of the candidacy of Steve Rose I wondered if he might have a shot at being elected in the district where centrist former prosecutor Dennis Moore has ruled with finesse for many years. I would and do criticize both Moore and Rose from the left side of the political spectrum but found the Rose candidacy a breath of fresh air in an otherwise moribund ranks of Republican rightists.


So the Republican fundamentalists were as angry and intolerant about Rose as they are about any human being that dares to differ with them in any way. Rose soon announced his withdrawal from candidacy; so much the worse for Republican moderates. It seems that Republican fundamentalists and the evangelicals are terrorizing moderate Republicans as well as Democrats. Can such crude conduct keep the Republican coalition together? I would prefer that people like Steve Rose either take over the Republican Party or that they form new political allegiances apart from that increasingly extremist organization.


Of course Steve Rose isn't really qualified to run as a Republican candidate because he can write his own speeches and actually knows what he is talking about.  Republicans tend to look down on exceptional competence and the "witch hunt" faction of the party is always looking for someone in or out of the GOP to persecute.  Ever since the McCarthy era  in the 1950's Republicans have hated "eggheads".  That's how Republicans roll!


Steve Rose is a successful businessman and well informed.  Many Republicans prefer con men and ignorami.  Hence Reagan and GW,

were both blundering idiots, who absolutely squandered American wealth and influence.

WHAT IS THE REPUBLICAN COALITION ALL ABOUT? PART I

What is the social basis of the Republican Party, USA, the so called GOP? It is the big bourgeoisie and finance capital in particular. In that sense it is not unlike the Democrats who are also a party of big capital. Both parties need to drag the general public into supporting them and by proxy their masters, big capital.

Of course there is a wee bit of a problem. The extraordinarily wealthy constitute a percent or less of the population and their interests are often in direct opposition to those of the other 99% so they hardly can expect the Republicans or the Democrats to appeal to anyone without at least pretending to discuss issues of interest to the broader public.

If we think briefly about the gun control issue we can see a little better about how the Republicans co-opt their constituency into to supporting their class oppressors.

The Republican Coalition seems rather diverse although it can be thought of a white and Protestant to a large degree of accuracy. This provides a certain amount of cultural cohesion but in terms of issues the coalition is quite diverse.

So I imagine the ruling class would like to see all guns in the hands of their thugs, their armed forces and their police forces and they have done a pretty god job of arranging that
situation. Still, millions of Americans want to keep their guns so the Republicans appeal to that popular desire. So there is a great deal of discussion of supporting this right but clearly, the Republicans are just playing a game in this
regard, to deceive the public into thinking that they represent the interests of run of the mill citizens.

Those who support the citizens' right to bear arms are not necessarily crackpots, far from it. Of course they may have a lot of crazy ideas about other things but the concern about an armed people remains legitimate and perhaps is even foundational in at least revolutionary times such as the War of Independence, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Those citizens, who are stereotypically on the "right"
are certainly in touch with the reality that a more repressive government is more likely if the people are completely unarmed.

So I write this not to demonize a citizen who is concerned about the tyranny of the state or perhaps that the tyranny of the state can go to far.

This is not to completely flush the concerns of those who want to ban guns because these guns are not really helping the poor and oppressed when they are used in petty crime and personal disputes. Both sides have some merit and I hope that both sides can at least understand the concerns of the other side.

Of course it is the white supremacists and fascists, the far right, the open oppressors who have taken up the gun both officially and unofficially in the United States. The recent murder of Dr. Tiller reminds us of that low intensity war, a form of right-wing terrorism directed at progressives, in that case against abortion providers. And that is only one form of rightist violence in the United States today.

Somehow that particular war against abortion providers has not been labeled as such by the Republicans or Democrats. It is a low intensity war with the goal of stopping abortions by killing abortion providers. It is a strategy that ultimately paid off in Wichita for the terrorists, terrorists never labeled as such by the media that otherwise uses the term terrorist with virtually no discretion.

The Democratic party likes to appeal to the other side of the issue, to oppose guns because they kill thousands of folks in street crime, crimes of passion and accidents every year. Yet, at the end of the day the big bourgeoisie wants all the weapons in its hands and no weapons in the hands of the people.

In this regard it can also be said that the Republicans seem to be intimately related to the many militias, generally white militias that have sprung up across the nation. It has to be said that at the core of the Republican's cracker constituency is a morass of right wing organizations that seem to be almost under the protection of the Republican Party.

Crucially we must remember that while the Democrats were once the party of Jim Crow that the white racists left en masse for the Republican party after historic civil rights legislation was passed by the likes of LBJ and other Democrats. White supremacists incubate and flourish under the wings of the Republican coalition and those Republicans that are not conscious racists ignore it or think it is a good thing.

The Republicans have appealed to so-called social conservatism including being against abortion, against birth control, and for a fundamentalist anti-scientific view of the world. The fundamentalist campaigns against the theory of evolution, biological reasearch and modern cosmology have distracted the nation from improving our educational institutions which have been in decline for several decades. Home schooling and religious schools further contribute to the skewing of the population towards
schismatic and bizarre views of the world. At one end of diversity is frank insanity and the Republicans have something close to a monopoly upon the voting insane.

So the white protestants and the white supremacists, we have touched on those constituencies. Then there are the folks who support the right to bear arms. We discussed that and some of the issues that have grown up around it.
We also touched on the armed terrorist groups that seem to fester and live under the protection of the Republican movement as a whole. Some discussion of the role of religious fanatacism has also been introduced. Later on we can say something more about all of this and the Ron Paulists, economic conservatives, and even one of the rarests animals in the United States today the progressive Republican!

DESPERATE REPUBLICANS: SOME ARE KILLING AND SOME ARE JUST GOING PLAIN CRAZY

It seems that the Republicans are in a state of denial, which is not really a new problem. In the twentieth century I used to wonder when the Republican "cowboys" would ride out of the 19th century and enter the twentieth. The Republicans never made the transition.

Now it's the twenty first century and the Republicans are in a sort of panic. They know something is wrong but what could it be? It couldn't be their reactionary ideology of self-righteous narcissism so it must be something else. It couldn't be the ruling class and the finance capitalists even though the Ron Paulists sort of partially know their is a problem their but their only solution is to run the capitalist experiment again!

Republicans are coming up with different answers to the question about how it could be that a party blessed by God could possibly be out of power!

And the current Republican Governor of Texas seeks to lead Texas out of the United States. This is what Republicans have come to, secessionism. He's certifiable as was his predecessor!

Simultaneously the different Republican blocks are headed in their own directions, directions that may or may not leave the Republican Party behind.

Where have the Bushies gone? They are remarkably silent and it seems as if the broad masses of cracker conservatives are yearning for a hate campaign that leads their fools back into the White House. The shrinking middle and professional classes remain largely loyal to the big business and big government GOP but that may change
since the GOP is apparently flying apart despite the desperate efforts of the mass media to put Humpty Dumpty,
or the Republican coalition back together again.

Pretty much the same block of voters remained loyal to Bush despite the economic collapse and his notorious lies. These loyal Bushies have little to say about the great man now. Instead they look with horror at the prospect that they have not only lost political power but are unlikely to see it restored without doing crazy antidemocratic things.

The murder of Dr. Tiller by a religion and conspiracy crazed citizen, not so atypical of about a fifth of the Republican Party, shows in what direction some Republicans are going. Now that the GOP can't rule on behalf of cracker America what is to be done? Do the white supremacists stay in the GOP or start up a new party?

A similar question is being asked by the Ron Paulists. Should they leave a party that will never be libertarian or continue their charade within the GOP?

I am so tired of hearing one story after another about how to possibly revive the GOP! Let the "G-O-P" "D-I-E" a natural death and leave the world in greater peace!

Yes, all the Republicans are eager to find their next little Hitler to unite the wealthy, educated and light against the people of color, workers, small town America, Ma and Pa businesses, and all thinking beings. To paraphrase a President who once let the truth slip out only to rapidly recant it, "The Republicans have, do and will act stupidly!"