The Core Contradiction of Today's Republicans

I've always had a soft spot for Republicans, and not just the preppy athletic ones with the polo shirts and topsiders. The old fashioned kind -- the live-and-let-live, why fix what's not broken, fiscally responsible, common sense kind. What happened?

Since the Gingrich "Contract with Armerica" era, I've often wondered just why Republicans ran for office anymore. Their new promise to America was basically "Vote for me and I'll go to DC and do absolutely nothing, spend no money, make no laws. I'll make sure that Government becomes a dried up, husk of it's former self, with no real strength or power." And that seems to be what people wanted.

My biggest problem with that though was the presumption that government itself was inherently evil, corrupt, bloated. It certainly leans that way without needed controls, but Republicans basically gave up on the fight. They ceeded that government was an untameable, uncontrolleable, mythical beast that at best could only be caged, banished to a dark dungeon where it could do no harm. The best tactic of all was just to starve it to death, cut off it's food supply.

The argument was framed in terms of big government, little government, when all along the real question should be good government vs. bad government, responsible government vs. irrisponsible, responsive vs. aloof. Republicans successfully linked these concepts of big government being inheriently evil and the smallest possible government obviously the best option. If you took their thinking to it's logical conclusion the best U.S.A. would have no taxes, no government, only a mega-military/industrial complex providing meager jobs to a population having to pay for it's own unregulated healthcare, schools, roads, everything. Staunch Republicans would call that heaven on Earth - most would call it anarchy.

So now we have bridges and infrasstructure crumbling, an unregulated free market system out of conrol, a healthcare system designed by the heathcare lobbyist spiraling out of control, banks lining up for bailouts, starts starting to que up for help, the auto industry starting to make their case - do we see the problem yet?