What’s wrong with these people? Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross blithely speaks of the firing of 59 missiles into Syria as “after-dinner entertainment.” Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, full of compassion for insurance corporations, wants to require people who actually need health care to pay increasing fees because they are not doing “the right things to keep their body healthy.” Yep, you’re reading that right. Cancer? Work-related accident? Old age? It’s all your own fault for making unhealthy choices.
I wonder if Republicans are sociopaths or just stupid, callous, selfish, soulless human beings with a love for making others suffer? I realize that pastors shouldn’t talk this way, but how do you say nice things about folks who enjoy cruelty? I wonder about pastors in Nazi Germany. Did they say, “Gee Mr. Drumpf sure loves his kids. Too bad his day job is forcing Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally ill to take cyanide showers. But other than that I’m sure he’s a nice church-going guy.”
Can you name one positive attribute of Republican policy? Do you like to fish? Good luck in 10 years when your water turns toxic. Do you like to travel? Good luck being an American anywhere that doesn’t allow you an armed escort. Do you like to trust that we are actually citizens with robust civil rights that expand our experience of being human? I suspect you’ll have lots of quality prison time to meditate upon that.
Republican ideology is a philosophy of death, destruction, domination and despair. From ecological rape, to war mongering, to looting the treasury, to hollowing out government administrative functions, to bulking up domestic surveillance, policing and prisons, to flagrant displays of cronyism, to White supremacy, male domination, authoritarianism, bullying and lying and media trashing, the totalitarian tendencies of Republican ideology are obvious to anyone even half awake.
There are two ways to boil a lobster. One can throw it into tepid water and slow-boil the poor creature to death or into already boiling water and bring suffering to an end. Republican ideology loves the slow-boil for its maximum effect of torment and terror. It enjoys watching years of democratic renewal incrementally fall apart. It celebrates the confusion and helplessness brought on through its yearning to hurt and harm all who fail to submit to its standards. It likes it when its victims have skins other than White, speak in languages other than English, and inhabit customs other than those taught in the plantations of the antebellum south.
It’s a slow-boil today, but a hard boil is coming. And make no mistake those who hold this ideology will support your lawful detainment when the time is Right.
Rev. Rich Lang is the district superintendent of the United Methodist Church in King County. He can be contacted at [email protected]. Read more of his Faith, Culture & Politics columns.
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