The Republican Cabal Has Literally Become the Cabal of Stupid

by Allen Clifton

While I’ve lived in Texas all my life, I’ve never seen Republicans behave how they have these last few years. After all, prior to George W. Bush becoming our governor in 1995, we had a female Democrat, Ann Richards, as our governor. That was two decades ago, but it’s still shocking to think that Texas has gone from electing a female Democrat to the highest office in the state – to electing someone like Ted Cruz as one of our two senators.
I remember not too long ago when things like evolution and climate change weren’t “topics up for debate” and anyone suggesting they were was viewed as an imbecile.
What the hell has happened?
In the last few years, the Republican party has literally become the party of stupid.
We’re battling people who look at 97 percent of the world’s scientists and say, “No thanks, I don’t believe your liberal lies about climate change. Besides, winter… duh!.” As if there’s some massive global conspiracy against the GOP’s propaganda. Not only that, but much of the “data” these fools on the right use to try to debunk climate change is paid for by big oil – an industry that stands to lose billions of dollars if we were to ever move away from fossil fuels.
Then there are those trying to get creationism put alongside evolution in biology textbooks. These people want the belief that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and that dinosaurs walked alongside humans, right alongside evolution – a theory that’s soundly supported by overwhelming scientific data.
Oh, and we can’t forget about gun nuts. You know, the people who literally claim that guns have nothing to do with gun violence; that somehow guns make us safer, except for the fact that we lead the modern world in gun violence while also having more guns than everyone else. If more guns really made us safer, then shouldn’t we be the safest country on the planet with the lowest rate of gun violence?
I’m sorry, I like to use logic every once in a while.
Then we can’t forget the religious folks who somehow believe that their freedoms are being trampled on because they’re being prevented from denying millions of Americans their Constitutional rights. No matter how hard I try, I still can’t wrap my mind around that ridiculous “logic.”
But then there’s always the economic theory pushed by the GOP that if we just make rich people richer, that somehow the rest of us will benefit. Meanwhile, not only are Republicans admitting that income inequality is a problem – they’re pushing for more of the same policies that made it a problem in the first place.
Then there are always my favorites: The people who rely on government programs, voting for people trying to cut and/or eliminate the programs they rely on to survive. Millions of people on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP and other government programs are voting for politicians who essentially refer to them as lazy moochers who just want the government to take care of them. When Mitt Romney talked about the 47 percent, those are the people to which he was referring – and millions of them voted for him anyway.
I could literally go on and on, but I think I’ve made my point. This is a party that’s no longer being led by people such as Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Dwight D. Eisenhower – instead, clowns like Ted Cruz, John Boehner and Rand Paul are calling the shots. It’s devolved into a party where the “icons” many look to for “insight and information” are knuckle-draggers such as Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent and Mike Huckabee.
And there’s no “left” equivalent to these people. While the left is far from perfect, we’re not worshiping idiots like many of those on the right do. People like Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, Bill Maher, John Oliver – they all went to prestigious universities. Meanwhile, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are all college dropouts.
As much as I would love for us to be at a point in this country where we could come together to accomplish great things, we can never get to that point as long as Republicans continue to rush further and further to the right, seemingly proud to be the party of stupid.
We’re not even at a point anymore where we’re debating how to fix the problems that science, history, reality and math show us are real; instead, we’re still having to debate people who don’t even believe in science, history, reality or math.
To me, that’s just as terrifying as it is frustrating.