"Reality bites...and doesn't let go"

[redheadedfemme]

"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." ~Abraham Lincoln

This is just beautiful.

Why I'm Leaving the Republican Party and Endorsing President Obama

The Republican Party refuses to look at what works and what doesn’t — they simply base policy on whether it fits into a rigid anti-government philosophy, whether it is good policy or not.  Essentially, the effectiveness of policy is completely and totally irrelevant to Republicans.  Additionally, the Republican Party believes more strongly in obstructing anything that President Obama proposes than in real solutions that would create jobs and help the average American.

(snip)

Even worse, the Republican Party has bamboozled the American people by portraying themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility.  Any person who can recognize that some numbers are larger than other numbers know the obvious fact that the biggest spending Presidents are Republicans.  Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush alone are responsible for most of the national debt.  Bill Clinton cut government and actually spent less money than was taken in…but George W. Bush quickly changed that.

I believe in smart government that effectively does what it should and leaves the rest to the private sector, while still recognizing the legitimacy of the existence of government.  I believe in equal rights for all Americans, whether gay, straight, female, male, immigrant or naturally born.  The Republican Party no longer believes in any of that.

This is called "living in the real world," the same place I am proud to admit I also inhabit. I will admit, I didn't always feel this way. Once upon a time, I used to (horrors!) watch Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity--the latter more because I thought he was cute than because I was really into what he was saying.

(Needless to say, that caveat does not apply to Bill O'Reilly.)

But the more I read, the more I followed links on the Internet and basically opened my mind, the more I realized these people--and by extension, anyone on Fox News and at Townhall--were simply not telling the truth. Or at the very least, distorting their "facts" beyond all recognition. The more I stepped back and thought about it, the more I realized the modern Republican "Party" had long ago abandoned the definition of a political party and was, in fact, taking on the mark of a religious cult...with Grover Norquist serving as its Grand High Poobah.

Last night's debate certainly drove home that point. I cannot believe one of those babbling idiots is going to win the nomination. Jon Huntsman sounded far and away the sanest of them all, and as others have remarked, he has a snowball's chance in hell of winning the nomination.

Really, what does that say about the Republican Party as a whole?

Any honest conservative should be saddened and dismayed by this turn of events. I would be tempted to feel sorry for them, if it weren't for the fact that if any of these yahoos gets into the White House, the country will crash and burn along with the party.

Be afraid, America. Be very afraid.