“The more outré and grotesque an incident is, the more carefully it deserves to be examined.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
In the beginning, there was oil. Long story short: and then we broke the world.
Yes, to be sure, there has been much pith and moment in the intervening years. A German Jew discovered the relationship between mass and energy, changed the world forever, and then became an emigrant to America; WWI made gasoline powered transport indispensable; an American theoretical physicist developed the atomic bomb, exploded it, and quoted the Bhagavad Gita, saying : “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” And by 1945, the American military had helped stop the advance of 20th Century fascism by deploying its blood and scientific treasure in an epic battle on behalf of humanity. But just as the story of energy fueled innovation and discovery, its acquisition has fueled endless conflict. The oil wars of the late 20th Century and early 21st Century have been bloody and continuous. They have spawned proxy wars throughout the Middle East, Russia, and South America, – and they have been the unacknowledged stimulus for the colossal spending on our military. Oil is no longer a commodity; it fuels every breath we take.
But the plutocracy that owns the Republican Party owns the oil and, thus, owns the world. It relies on crusaders: the zookeepers who throw chunks of meat to Republican voters – while the fat cats dine on the carcass of civilization. The Republican elite has boldly commandeered Churchill’s famous quote of 1940 in honor of the RAF’s defeat of the Luftwaffe – to become the slogan of the new Republican Party: “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”.
Is there some ideology hiding in this party that speaks to some beau idéal – something that places this movement on the high ground of moral and ethical thinking? Or is it rather, as Peter Mandelson once said, “good at taking the high ground and throwing itself off it”.
While most Democrats would prefer to see a GOP that celebrates decency above materialism emerge from the ashes of its defeat in 2020, who would be left to reform it? Trump’s systematic purge of even remotely decent Republicans leaves it leaderless in his absence. And outwardly less repulsive pretenders to the future leadership, such as Mitt Romney, would make even the most credulous among us thrill to see him fall off his Mormon high ground and crash into a thousand points of blight.
Surely by now, the Republican Party can no longer claim to exist anywhere but in the swamps of American governance. It bears the mark of Cain in that it has murdered its brothers – its fellow Americans – by financing the elections of some of the worst among us. Is there anything redeemable about Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, or Ted Cruz?
So, why would anyone other than a cheesy opportunist vote Republican? What didn’t they get about Gollum and his Precious? Why would a woman vote for a party that consigns her daughters to mere comfort women in our American story?
The Republican Party is a cult of materialism – no lofty ideas, and no protection from the storm brought on by modernity. This is not the party that will bring back jobs, care for the sick, or respect the dignity of others. This is nothing but a party of parasitic gunslingers intent on ennobling thievery, paragons of nothing but the art of looting.
Why would any decent person vote for anyone running on the Republican ticket anywhere? To defend it would be to echo Donald Trump’s Charlottesville apostasy that there are very fine people on both sides. No there are not. I’d call you stupid, I’d call you greedy, and I’d call you shallow – but I want my sisters and brothers to repudiate their party, fix their mess, and join the community of Americans who place decency above materialism, compassion above sadism, and truth above lies.
Deborah Long is a Principal at Development Management Group, Inc. and founder of several non-profit charitable organizations. If you find her perspectives interesting, provocative, or controversial, follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499?ref=br_rs
Image: wikimedia commons, Depiction of Behemoth, from Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal, 1863, first published in 1818.
Deborah Long is a Principal at Development Management Group, Inc. and founder of several non-profit, charitable organizations. If you find her perspectives interesting, controversial, or provocative, you can follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499?ref=br_rs