There was once a party for those who wanted less government.
They wanted free market capitalism, free enterprise, strong business, and a strong national defense.
All of this was perfectly acceptable.
Just a few months ago I wrote some articles questioning whether we are seeing the end of the GOP’s ability to win a national election. It was a time when I had more faith in people to distinguish truth from fabrications, humanity from inhumanity. I felt that, as the GOP was disenfranchising huge blocs of voters, they would ultimately cross the line where people would finally say, “enough.” As evidenced in 2008, and 2012; Republicans couldn’t convince Hispanic and female voters to elect them, but it goes deeper than that.
I was as wrong as Decca Recording Company was when they said they didn’t like the Beatles sound, and guitar music was on its way out. Not only have members of the Republican Party not said, “enough,” they have become stronger and more vocal in their support for some of the most appalling statements and candidates in modern American political history.
This article is about the respected party of Lincoln morphing into an extreme “Christian” organization like Westboro Baptist Church. It is about how we somehow went from the party of conservative values to the party of extremists who have no empathy.
One thing everyone will agree on is that everything we have built is at stake. Every war we have fought, every battle waged, every movement that has changed the social culture — all of it means nothing as we march towards the worst war imaginable: the war with ourselves. This is a war against our own compassion, our own humanity, our own values, even our shared past. This is a war for the very soul of America, who we are, and who we want to become.
The United States has always wondered how a reputable country like Germany could commit the atrocities they did. This moment that we are alive together in, right now; this is how the Nazi’s took Germany.
This is how it begins:
A person says there are real citizens, the consequence of this claim being that everyone else is second class, inferior. This delegitimizes an enormous percentage of the population. Massive numbers of people are scapegoated as “parasites” that infest the “real citizens” by attacking the health of the nation. Because of these “parasites,” all of the bad things that happen are these people’s fault.
In Nazi Germany, it began with Hitler saying there were real Germans, and then there were Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and gays…the so called, inferior. In America every Republican candidate speaks of real, true Americans, and then there are the Muslims, the immigrants, and the poor… all who are “attacking the health of the nation”. It is their fault for the nation’s problems, their fault for America’s suffering.
This is the point of no return. The Republican Party has now crossed into the territory of fascism. They have walked down the dark path all the way to the right, and have refused to come to the middle. In the face of President Obama’s campaign of hope and change, the Republicans went the other direction; the direction of anger, and intolerance.
In Nazi Germany there were three classes of people; the oppressors, the victims, and the bystanders.
In this scenario the three classes are the Republican Party, those the Republicans oppress (LGBT, poor, immigrants, Muslims, etc.), and the national press who reports the fabrications and untruths being told with more regard for media ad buys than for whom the lies are hurting.
The media is a bystander.
They are capitalizing on what is happening, and making millions off of debates. They have stood by and allowed this to happen without calling out facts. They are accomplices to a time that in the future we will wish never happened by giving these candidates a megaphone, and quietly supporting them through inaction and monetary gains.
According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a hate group’s “primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons belonging to a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin which differs from that of the members of the organization.”
If by the FBI’s own definition, we were to examine this closely against the Republican Party’s official values, we have to now define the Republican Party as a hate group.
Please, allow that to sink in. Half of our national political system is a hate group whose statements are more aligned with Westboro Baptist Church, and the Nazi Party, than with other nations that are similar to the United States.
Republicans certainly promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons who are Muslim. Donald Trump has gone as far as saying he would tag, and track them like cattle. Ben Carson has compared gay marriage to bestiality. The Republican Party has compared the poor to animals, and asked people not to feed them. The level of offensiveness to women and immigrants by this party is absolutely appalling. GOP attacks on Planned Parenthood and those utilizing their services has been blistering in the primary election cycle.
It was only a matter of time before armed conservatives began taking matters into their own hands and started attacking people because of what is being spread through the media. The atmosphere that has been created by the Republicans has bred this hostility. Watching social media, threats of violence have become a regular occurrence, as has a total lack of empathy.
This is what Republican supporters on Twitter said after an armed shooter stormed Planned Parenthood on November 27, 2015.
The GOP, it seems, is completely blinded by hatred.
Do we want to be the country of hate, racism, and fascism? Or do we want to be known for our compassion, acceptance of culture, and all races?
As Lincoln so eloquently stated “A House divided against itself cannot stand.”
Can the GOP finally see just how far down the darkened path they have travelled and turn around, or is it too late for them already?
Follow me on Twitter @DavidYankovich
Be sure to comment below with your opinion.
photo credit: a nation divided via photopin (license)
The Broken Road 