With elections less than a week away, the time has come to confront the truth about the party in power: The GOP is no longer the GOP.
The Republican philosophy espoused by Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater had some admirable tenets, including fiscal responsibility and keeping the government out of people's personal lives. To be fair, many Republicans of this type still hold office: Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania - not to mention even more among the general public.
But today's Republican Party bears little resemblance to that of Goldwater. The dominant wing of the GOP now comprises fiscally reckless armchair soldiers obsessed with what goes on in others' bedrooms.
To my knowledge, no name exists for these pseudo-Republicans, so I'll call them "Bush Republicans" because our president best embodies their thinking.
While Rockefeller and Goldwater preached fiscal responsibility, Bush Republicans cut taxes and then spend money people don't have. As a result, the national debt has increased from $5.6 trillion in 2001 to $8.5 trillion today; it took this country 204 years to accumulate the first $1 trillion.
David Walker, the head of the Government Accountability Office, warned bluntly that unless we fix the deficit, we're headed for economic disaster, according to an Associated Press article published Saturday. We have been on this track for a while, but Bush Republicans' departure from fiscal responsibility has put us on a bullet train to ruin.
While Goldwater wanted to allow openly gay people to join the military, Bush Republicans and their fellow travelers would, if given the chance, bring back sodomy laws. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and William Rehnquist dissented in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., also opposed it, comparing homosexual relationships to sex with animals. Focus on the Family bemoaned the decision as providing a "constitutional right to sodomy."
The "conservatism" that Bush Republicans appeal to when they try and turn "moral values" into a political issue is the same type of conservatism that a black person would encounter in Elwood circa 1935: the conservatism of people in a small village who fear and despise anything that transcends their narrow world view.
Goldwater and Rockefeller knew it was important for America to be generally prosperous. According to John Dean's book, "Conservatives Without Conscience," even Goldwater supported the idea of a social safety net for people without any other means to provide for themselves or their families.
Bush Republicans also know the importance of general prosperity, but don't care. They only care about the richest Americans. This is why they often take their cues from organizations such as Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform.
However, I don't think most rank-and-file Republicans or even very many Republicans in office think like Bush Republicans. Instead, party loyalty, the drive to stay in office and simple failure to think critically have allowed Bush Republicans to lead the rest of the GOP astray.
This country needs to figure out where its soul lies.
Voters need to ask themselves: Do politicians who cut taxes for the rich and put our country in hock to foreign central banks for generations to come, start wars for oil and wiretap without warrants really represent the interests of the American people, or even those of their own party?
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