Yo, Repubs

(ed note: This was hangin' in the Drafts File.  Not much new here, but it's generally a good idea to recap once in a while)

  

It's gotten so bad for you guys that the Repub candidates who might actually have a chance to beat Obama aren't going to bother running any real campaign in states like Iowa and South Carolina.  Why?  Because your party's "leaders" have allowed the loons to grab control.  

There's a pretty severe purity test at work here.  If you look at what it takes to get "the base" to vote for somebody in sufficient numbers to win the nomination, you might notice the list of issues requiring absolute fealty is getting pretty long - gays, God, guns, abortion, taxes, immigration, plus one or two others.  The point being that when you insist on strict adherence to this widening list of issues, the effect is that you're not just narrowing the field of candidates who could reasonably cleave to that platform, but you're severely narrowing the number of voters who're willing to go along with it, because what it really shows us is a party that seems bent on controlling way too much of our lives.

You're supposed to be the party of personal responsibility, and small government, and "just leave me the fuck alone".  But when you tell 5% of the population they're not allowed to marry someone they love, you're not holding to your own philosophy.  

When you say you can't vote for somebody who isn't in your chapter of God's Fan Club, then you're ignoring the part of the US Constitution that outlaws tests of religion for elected or appointed office (Article VI).

When you control the Alabama (eg) Legislature and pass a stupid Immigration Law which leads to the arrest of a Mercedes-Benz Production Manager on a visit to the plant in Tuscaloosa, you don't get to piss and moan about how government regulations are hurting business.

Wanna talk abortion?  Here it is:  You outlaw abortion, and you'll be requiring an expansion of government power that'll make Nicky Ceauşescu look like Calvin Coolidge.

The saving grace is that your rapid acceleration toward the logical extreme is causing the GOP to run in tighter and tighter circles, which will eventually make it disappear up its own asshole - which should let the rest of us get back to makin' shit work again.