education for those that claim they are republican...

it seems the vast majority of you claiming to be republican have no idea what that means anymore. somewhere along the line you began to think being republican meant "support militarism, imperialism, and rascism at all costs because it is necessary for the hellfire-evangelical-southern-baptist vote below the mason-dixon line and blindly follow whatever it is that a member of the bush family tells me." so in the interest of clarifying some things for you "conservatives" that don't realize that spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the military, war, and combatting immigration isn't conservative...here is a history lesson on the republican party, and why those responsible for it wish they could arise from the dead and slap some sense into your ignorant ass...

this may come as a shock to you, but the issues which were major contributions to the development of the republican party were negative responses to trends at the time that have come to be the pillars of "republicanism" in the last decades. in the mid-19th century the united states went to war against mexico, basically for no good reason. it was pretty obvious to a large portion of the population that this was a blatant imperialistic land grab...which the leaders of the day liked to hide as "manifest destiny." imperialistic wars seeking land were unamerican to republican founders...and they spoke out loudly against the mexican-american war. now of course, imperialism and militarism are the basis of the republican party...odd.

one of the big issues that pushed republicans into a party of their own may have been the growing popularity of the know-nothings in the period just approaching the civil war. for those of you that don't know a damn thing about the history of your own country...let alone the world as a whole (and for that reason have doomed yourself to the most painful and swift decline of a world hegemon since spain collapsed in record time)...the know-nothings basically were built around rascism. they were a party of xenophobic morons (and for those of you not aware "xenophobic" is a person holding undue contempt for foreigners). republican founders realized such a stand was not only un-american, but stupid...in fact, lincoln once declared if the know-nothing ideals ever won out he would rather move to another country where they at least did not pretend to love liberty. of course now republican apparently has completely flipped to mean "one who hates foreigners and those with dark skin, along with anyone not a member of my christian army."

if only the confederates knew that 150 years later their backwater, armageddon, evangelical, science and progress hating, if it isn't in the bible it is bullshit (unless of course my preacher says it...because let's face it, the vast majority of the crap being spouted by the religious right is not actually in the bible...but then most people don't read, so that is a problem...and for the record, yes, i have read the bible, cover to cover...and i am sure you will be shocked by this, but the "left behind" series actually isn't accurate), rascist views were going to control the party that set out to destroy them and force reconstruction on them maybe we could have avoided those years of war.

furthermore, lincoln was well known for declaring that labor should always be placed above capital. the first republican administration was leery of corporations, and especially unhappy with war profiteers. somehow that became subjugate all things to capital, even if it means destroying our manufacturing infrastructure in the same way that every major economic power before us has done and then watch it all crumble in the same way it has for each of those powers...and give shitloads of money and help to war profiteers. fantastic...good job buddy...you did it.

so to jerry falwell, pat robertson, the bush dynasty and their cronies...get the fuck out the party and let us go back to what made republicans a viable option for this country.

i might as well just grin and bear it...