The Republican Party 101

Paraphrased and quoted from syndicated columnist Garrison Keillor. He really hits the nail on the head. I added a few thoughts of my own outside the quotation marks.
"Republicans are pranksters at heart...They promote the ne'er-do-well son of the old Republican family as president, the idea that you increase government revenue by cutting taxes, the idea that you cut social services and thereby drive the needy into the middle class, the idea that you overthrow a dictator with a show of force and achieve democracy at no cost to yourself" and the idea that a for profit health care system will take care of sick people instead of its shareholders. Why elect a governing party that doesn't believe government works? Republicans say they fight for personal freedom and state rights but if a state allows medical marijuana they'll raid the businesses who sell it. They vehemently defend our failed war on drugs, perhaps forgetting that it's not freedom to criminalize a bad personal habit. They would like to overturn Roe Vs. Wade because they want to control our moral decisions. They stand in the way of marital rights for gay couples, even threatening that allowing homosexual couples to marry will hurt marriage between men and women. Isn't that the argument they used to stop inter-racial marriage for so long? Now to be fair, there are democrats that hold these views and republicans who don't but the overall argument is true. Let's define the Republican version of individual liberty for what it really means: low taxes for the wealthiest Americans because the poor are just lazy anyway.

Republicans have seized on the notion that if you keep people afraid and ill-informed, the perpetrators of the fear will keep getting elected. Isn't there something disturbing about this picture? I hope the next century emboldens the American people to choose being the greatest nation on earth by voting with their hearts and minds instead of their fears. This is within our grasp and electing Barack Obama was the first step.