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'The Party of Lincoln" they like to say. While once true, that statement has been compromised. Lincoln, to this day, is spinning in his grave because of the Republican Party of 2005.
Some years ago, the Republican Party was infiltrated. People joined and rose through the party ranks who resembled very little the former precepts of the Republican Party. An unholy alliance was formed. Disciples of Tim Lehaye join with a new group. The Neocons. Their agenda was managed and pushed, not by true believers, but by amoral political operatives. Atwater. Reed. Rove. Winning, to them, wasn't 'everything'. It was the *only* thing.
Their acolytes were in office. Trained in political combat by the likes of Newt Gingrich. The Contract on America. The famous Freshman Class that he swept into office has become the 'establishment'. In Washington and in various state houses around the country, including my own state's, in Annapolis.
Using the religiously ignorant, the racially ignorant, the morally ignorant, as a base, they worked the vote to their advantage. They compromised the very fundamentals of the voting system. They compromised the most basic tenet of American democracy. Our votes no longer matter. They are now as meaningful as the vote in the last 'election' in Iraq for Saddam.
Once respected elected officials have been compromised. A draft dodger was viewed as a hero as compared directly to the real deal. A former POW who became a Senator from Arizona, the son and grandson of great American military leaders, John McCain was compromised in the 2000 primary season. And this once respected hero went down with nary a whimper, and later was famously photographed hugging the man who destroyed him. In this one action, the Republican Party compromised the value of real service to country for pure political gain. It made it far easier for them to use this compromise of military heroes to destroy a sitting US Senator from Georgia and relegate him to the Used Senator lot. It was used again in the 2004 campaign season to send a third US Senator and decorated war hero to that same political scrap heap. The same draft dodger and deserter was painted the hero by a rag tag group of political and religious zealots who set out to destroy - not to simply out campaign, but to essentially destroy - a Swift Boat captain who on three occasions acted so nobly as to win significant military awards for his heroism. Marginalized by the compromise yet again of the value of military service.
America's reputation in the world has been compromised. Our once great nation was seen as a beacon of liberty. A form of government to be admired and emulated was turned into a machine for imperialism. No cost would be too high to reach the goal. The American Rule of Law was compromised. In its place was a new Rule of Fear.
The checks and balances woven throughout the fabric of our government by our founding fathers have been compromised. In the summer of 2005, this compromise is nearly complete. Just one more Supreme Court appointment and they can be there. A democracy compromised.
Our intelligence service, respected and feared, domestically and internationally has been compromised. An under cover asset, for political purposes - and more frighteningly, for imperialistic purposes - has been compromised. Simply to undermine a claim that was afoul of their agenda, the neocons took down not just an agent, but an entire international network. A network that had the potential - and perhaps even the evidence - to demonstrate that some in power had direct ties to arming our enemies. No matter that such an action compromised not that one network, but the very fundamentals of our intelligence service. No matter that now, in the face of growing international terrorism, we need our intelligence service perhaps more than ever. No matter that the simple naming of this one agent could serve to severely incapacitate our entire intelligence apparatus. No matter at all. The Republican Party, above all else, needed her to be brought down. Compromised.
Through it all, the only entity safe from compromise is the core of power within the Republican Party. The party's rank and file are faced with a choice: Go along to get along or be compromised. Dissent is compromised. Even a 'moderate' Republican is, now, in the face of the Rule of Fear, as bad as the worst of them. Every 'moderate' Republican has been reduced to window dressing with a vote. There are no longer any 'moderates'. Instead there are those in power and those who serve those in power.
The Republican Party has been compromised. The ones in power within that once respectable party are the compromisers. They turn their own. And if unturnable, they eat their own.
The Republican Party.
Compromised.
God help America.
God help Planet Earth.
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