Not That They Deserve It …

Not that they deserve it, but I have a helpful hint for Republicans. If they want to regain some credibility with the American people and get back on the right side of history (or maybe even just learn to walk upright), all they have to do is what comes naturally to them, look backward, but not to Reagan, or Calvin Coolidge, but further back, to their supposed hero Teddy Roosevelt, who once said the following in a speech before Congress:

“When all is said and done, the rule of brotherhood remains as the indispensable prerequisite for the kind of national life for which we strive. Our aim is to recognize what Lincoln pointed out: The fact that there are some respects in which men are obviously not equal; but also to insist that there should be an equality of rights before the law, and at least an equality in the conditions under which each man obtains the chance to show the stuff that is in him when compared to his fellows.”

An equality of conditions and a level playing field, codewords in today’s degraded political discourse for liberalism or, shield the children, socialism. But there you have it, straight from the Rough Rider’s mouth.

Instead they turn to Newt ‘the Idea Man’ Gingrich, who announced last night to a gathering of right-wing morlocks that, “I am not a citizen of the world.” Now there’s an inspiring rallying cry. Well, tell us something we don’t know, Newt.

That was my altruistic act of public service for the day.