Yes, Virginia, there was a time when a degree of sanity did exist within the ranks of the Republican party, a time when sanity had not yet been overrun by delusion and madness…

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”

~ Barry Goldwater, November 1994, as quoted in John Dean, Conservatives Without Conscience (2006)

And now the religious right has been joined by the Tea Party crowd whose understanding of compromise and its crucial role in a functioning democracy is as deficient and dangerous as that of the Pat Robertsons of the party.  I would go as far as to suggest that the Teapublicans in Congress pose a greater threat to the welfare of Americans than the combined efforts of every terrorist group in the world.  The first requirement in dealing with danger is recognizing its presence and no one has a problem understanding that terrorists pose a threat.  Not so with recognizing the danger presented by the slew of Tea Partiers in Congress where only a handful of conservatives have come to realize the destructive role these people play in making Congress an even more dysfunctional body.  As well-meaning as some within the Tea Party may be, their dogmatic and intolerant attitude to compromise and understanding (as that of the religious right), only aids in weakening the political system.

Incidentally, I just finished reading Dean’s Conservatives Without Conscience over the holidays.  It’s a good read if you’re at all interested in the evolution of the conservative movement and learning how the Republican party turned into the authoritarian entity it is today.  Dean’s culprits are the religious right and the neoconservative wing of the party which have moved the GOP so far to the right that he believes the core principles of conservatism have been trampled upon and left unrecognizable – so far to the right has it shifted, says Dean, that he, a Goldwater conservative who has not altered his basic conservative beliefs, now finds himself stranded at the left of center.

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And I did want to say thank you to all my readers and a sincere wish that the new year (and if we’re to believe the New Agers interpretation of the Mayan calendar, our final year as we know it) is a good one.

Thank you.

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