THE NEW REPUBLICAN HERD

THE NEW REPUBLICAN HERD



GATHERING THE HERD

A new breed of lawmakers has lumbered onto Capitol Hill. They represent no one. They ignore their constituencies. They are blind to the issues that confront the nation. They cast their votes with no regard for the will of the people.

Their voting pattern is a window into their mindset and philosophy: They don’t vote with their hearts and they don’t vote with their heads. They vote only in lockstep and only as directed. One for all, and all for one, they dutifully vote with their party.

They are the new, mindless and obedient herd of George W. Bush Republicans.

Totally submissive, the GWB Republican herd methodically falls in line. Not unlike the suicidal terrorists they are taught to loathe, they follow their leader even if it means their own demise. They protect the corporations that poison the very air they have to breathe. They vote to eliminate the civil rights that are rightfully theirs. They vote billions of their own tax dollars to the Halliburtons of the world, even as they watch the quality of life around them crumble.

With each bill they pass, they and their nation suffer. With each law they support, they and the American people lose out. They seem to accept their own self-deprivation with stoic stupidity. How reminiscent of the pledge in Animal House who, after each paddle to his bottom, cried out: Thank you, sir. May I have another? And sure enough, they soon have another chance to perform to whip of their trainer.

FOLLOWING THE HERD

The herd began to form early in the Bush presidency, but formed an unbroken tail to trunk link after 9/11. Every lie uttered by the Bush administration was sworn to and promoted by the steadfast herd of compliant Republican legislators. The path to war was cleared and paved by the bowing and scraping of the loyal Senators and Representatives, who never questioned, never challenged, never debated, and never wavered.

But the GOP herd is virtually powerless without its lemming voters. The lure to reel in the least informed and most vulnerable Americans began to take shape almost immediately, and reached its most frenetic moments right before the 2004 election.

The 2004 campaign was the perfect stomping ground for the GWB Republicans to set an example of blind obedience for their symbiotic lemmings. During that time, one after another of the herd lined up to support and campaign for a president with whom they disagreed on a wide range of issues. How degrading it was to see John McCain fawn over the very person who had launched such vile personal attacks against him in the previous election. McCain had disagreed and even challenged George Bush on issue after issue, yet he campaigned with him with unrestrained enthusiasm.

The hypocrisy extended into the RNC convention where the moderate herd members were paraded before the nation. One after another, they abandoned their own principles and trumpeted high praise on a candidate who vehemently opposed a woman’s right to choose, who opposed gay rights, who destroyed environmental protections and who flaunted the separation of church and state. Herd mentality rose obediently to the occasion.

And so, in the end, the lemmings in the Red States came out in droves. They stood in line as the most uninformed electorate in history and voted in unison for a candidate that ran primarily on a gay marriage issue. They followed the herd in true lemming fashion and believed they were safe from terrorists because the herders had told them so. What they did not see is was that they were swimming directly to their own destruction. And so they were.

One is hard pressed to find a single person who has not been victimized by the policies of the current administration. And yet, the followers of the GWB Republicans lined up to thank their abusers and mimic their request for more paddling. Millions of Americans willingly voted away their civil rights, their jobs, access to affordable health care, clean air, clean water, consumer protections, their privacy, and any opposition to an illegal war. These millions of followers eagerly voted away the greatest protection they had as Americans – the checks and balances guaranteed by their own Constitution.

The logical question has to follow: How could so many people follow a herd of blind elephants and vote against their own interests? How? Enter - God at stage right.

Read about:
PRAYING WITH THE HERD, and DISPERSING THE HERD:

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