Why I'm not a Republican

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On Monday, I explained why I'm still not on board with Hillary Clinton's candidacy. Yesterday, I told you why I'm tentatively flirting with Marco Rubio. Neither post provided what would normally be called "reasons" for these two positions. As I explained, I have no logical reason to oppose Hillary or support Rubio, but something in my gut is pushing me in those directions, and in those posts I attempted to work out what it might be.

Today, I'm looking at my longstanding opposition to the positions and values of the Republican party. While, there are excellent, logical reasons for opposing GOP policies, might there be something else lurking beneath the surface? In addition to the good reasons, I possess deep inward feelings of opposition to Republicans, that (being honest)  have nothing to do with my intellect. What might be behind those feelings? Here are some possibilities.

1. You can't reason with them: Been trying and failing at that for years. They prefer to call names, or to make appeals to emotions, consequences,  authority, tradition or whatever. After a while, you get worn out.

2. They aggressively oppose matters that are irrelevant to them: For example, gay marriage.

3. Primarily populated by paranoid, nominally racist,  ignorant, hyper-religious plutocratic, militaristic, anti-science, white people See Fox News and their viewers. Or specific examples:

• Paranoid: "The media hates me."  
• Nominally racist: "You have to understand the Arab mentality"
• Ignorant: The founding fathers were Christians. Chazal were haredim. etc.
• Hyper-religious: God belongs in the public square; the government should take sides on matters of theology
• Plutocratic: The Koches, and all the super wealthy GOP politicians. 
• Militaristic: Four more wars!! Spend money on tanks, not health care!
• Anti-science: Global warming is a hoax! Evolution is a lie! You can prevent the rapist from impregnating you if you really try!

4. They posses an unbearable certainty that their religion, or interpretation of the constitution, or view of history - or whatever - is the one sole correct POV to the exclusion of all others. The essential insight of pluralism - that no doctrine or belief system perfectly and completely contains the Absolute - escapes them. Or to put it another way, everything has 70 faces but the GOP accepts only one of them.

Okay, so above I've been cribbing from this weird, androgynous clown dressed in black who I found on the Internet. Now I'll let him talk for himself. What he has to say is certainly satire and propaganda and, yes, he's shooting fish in a barrel but the caricatures of Republicans and their arguments that are shown below aren't entirely false. To the extent that they are true, these caricatures may explain my visceral anti-Republicanism.

Listen to the clown.





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