The Frankenstein's Monster Of Republicans

This was first published in March 2010 and it should be noted, George Voinovich retired from the U.S. Senate in January 2011 and he passed away in June 2016.


Both political parties have stalwart supporters, but some of those supporters border on, if not cross over into, being psychos. For more than a year now, the Republican Party has had a public face of some just plain mean-spiritedness. The overheated rhetoric of talk radio and of cable....ahh...news (?) channels has left its mark on the Party of Lincoln.* As this process began, few prominent Republicans, Laura Bush being one, spoke out against the escalating charges by what had been more of a fringe segment of the G(rand) O(ld) P(arty), albeit a strong fringe, at times. Those who dared to openly criticize the extremist talk were begging for forgiveness within about 24 hours of their remarks. This only encouraged a more and even harsher tone to the comments coming from the very hard Right.

Then we saw serious confrontations in town hall meetings across the country, with perhaps the most famous being an angry man pointing his finger in the face of Senator Arlen Spector. The man railed against the government, but then we found out that this government-hating individual lives on government-provided disability payments! Talk about a disconnect! We also saw individuals toting guns to public meetings, just as folks probably did in the Southwest when Geronimo was on the warpath about 125 years ago. Congressional representatives, both from the House and the Senate, and from both parties (the vast majority, however, were Democrats, but if a Republican even hinted that he/she might support some compromises on health care, they were targeted) were shouted down and called every imaginable name. One disabled woman who supported health care was verbally abused by those around her. Is this the "Party of Reagan?" I don't think so.

Now we have David Frum, a conservative Republican, and former member of the G. W. Bush Administration, saying that Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders made an out-and-out decision not to cooperate with President Obama and Democrats on any major legislation, so that Obama would have a failed presidency. So much for putting the country above political party or ideology. Frum also noted that Republicans have courted the most radical elements of the political Right. This is a Republican saying this folks, not a Democrat. The Frankenstein's Monster that has been assembled by such Republican actions threatens to take over their party lock, stock and gun barrel, and indeed threatens our very democracy. When will other Republicans dare to speak out? Senator Voinovich, you made some comments a couple of months ago about the rightwing of your party, but where are you now?** You were quick to denounce gambling casinos being legalized in Ohio, so how about this far more vicious stuff coming from your political party?

In more recent days the thermostat of the rhetoric was turned ever higher, to the point of a blast furnace. With the passage of the health care legislation and its signing by the President, one man (in Alabama, I believe) urged people to break the windows in local Democratic Party headquarters across the country; adding that he and others like him might actually have to use guns against Democrats, if they didn't back down after the window smashings. The little black mustache painted on the pictures of the President (and just about all presidents in recent memory) seems to have been put on the wrong person. (A Word History is below the notes)


* Let's be honest, the cable stations provide information, so that IS news, but they also have many programs that push a point-of-view, some of which may by news. This is the United States, and that is not a crime, but to use terms like "fair and balanced," or "I'm not here to push an agenda," is not being upfront. (I'm sure most of you recognize the first quote as being from Fox News. The second may not be as familiar, as it is fairly recent, but it is from MSNBC's Rachel Maddow ("The Rachel Maddow Show"), a person more or less opposite of Fox News' views. Regular readers know that I have much more in common with Rachel, but I'd prefer that she drop this recent "agenda" comment from her advertisement.)

** Voinovich is the Republican senator from Ohio, who is retiring after this year. He is the former governor and the former mayor of Cleveland.

WORD HISTORY:
Senate-This word ultimately traces back to Indo European "sens," which meant "old." The Latin offshoot was "senex," which meant "old, old man, elder." This then gave Latin "senatus," which literally meant "an assembly or council of elders." Latin-based Old French continued with "senat," and it is from this form that English acquired the word during the 1200s. Various town and regional councils in Europe used the term for their legislative bodies by the 1500s. Use of the term in America for a part of a potential governing body began in the 1770s, just prior to the Revolutionary War.