GOP Stop Being the Flight 93 Party

Okay, I hate the tax bill. That's known. And EVERYBODY has pretty much explained why it's bad better than I could. Let's be honest. If I were to go into a point by point breakdown on why it sucks I would be essentially be cribbing from other sources.

But I can't shake what's on my mind and writing helps me calm down so I can focus my brain space on other stuff so let's go.

First thing is first. Everybody hates the tax bill. Even republicans kind of hate it. The last few weeks have essentially been an exercise in watching the Republicans both in the tax bill and in other cases do mental gymnastics to justify the actions they're taking.

So why?

Well, they've said why publicly multiple times.

In the age of Obama the campaign promise of the Republicans was that if they were in power they could do things better. Beyond all the ... "other stuff" that was the pitch. "We know you all hate Obamacare, the regulatory state, and all that other stuff and if we were in power we'd get rid of all that stuff"

I would argue Trump has been more successful than people think and infiltrating the executive branch with poison pill appointees, and the judiciary is going to be red for decades,  but legislatively, Congress just hasn't passed the laws they promised the Republicans. Let me be clear at least for the next few weeks that's a win for me since I HATED all the stuff they said they would do.

But still, Republicans, in particular, have a veneration for Congress as the branch that actually gets things done and if they can't when they are in power then why does the party even exist?

A lot of the Republicans in Congress view this as the last best chance to justify the GOP's existence before it fades into obscurity. Let's be honest almost every shady thing the party has done over the last ten years has been a result of this fear. The obstructionism over Obama,  the moral relativism of Roy Moore and Donald Trump, and now the Tax Bill itself.

Now it's more or less the goal of politics to see your ideas and policies put into action and stay relevant but... stop being the "Flight 93" party. It's not a good look.

Despite previous statements, I made I don't hate republicans in theory. I hate all the stupid shit they've done in the last 18 months, and the party's instinct to double down rather than change course on repugnance.

I may be a hippy liberal, but  I want the GOP to survive as a VIABLE party. I want people who can intelligently and in good faith tell my guys all the reasons they SHOULDN'T try enact the policies I want. Who can make legislation better by articulating the flaws behind liberal ideology.

In short, I want a debate.

And there is a good debate to be had between the parties.

But lately, the Republican Party has been acting so crazy, taking positions that society has already moved past and finds "deplorable" that the debate is moot. Moreover how they are acting makes it seems as if the positions they are taking are logical extreme of the notion of negative liberty which is the cornerstone of the party and American democracy itself.

I NEED somebody who can stand for that without a bag full of crazy, or at least can make the case without feeling the need to lie about the positions they are taking. Which right now isn't the GOP.

They've been so focused on holding on to political power that more and more it seems thier ideas are irrelevant not only to the American people but to themselves. And that's a shame because there is something there that is salvageable when you scrape away all the xenophobia, and lying and racism, and lying and homophobia and lying and social Darwinism, and lying... did I mention the lying yet.

It's the most important part because while the election stands and I'm not going to say, "not my president" it's hard to feel like the GOP won by making an honest pitch about ideology and policy. By saying this is what we believe and this is what we'll do based on those beliefs.  

That tax bill is proof of that. That's why they are doomed to forever be the "Flight 93" party. And this needs to stop.