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Republicans Abandon Truth and Principle, Engage in Postmodern Power Worship

Senator Ted Cruz tells us that net neutrality would slow down the Internet like the Affordable Care Act is slowing down health care. (Two responses to Cruz's absurdity: net neutrality is not the ACA, and one survey finds appointment wait times for five health care specialties in 15 markets decreased from 20.4 days in 2009 to 18.5 days in 2013.) Senator John Thune argues the EPA is overreaching with proposed water rules that would regulate fewer bodies of water than Reagan-era rules did. Senator-Elect Mike Rounds and his friends spew ever varying yet equally bogus estimates of the investment capital and jobs produced by South Dakota's EB-5 program. Pat Powers bleats that "liberal" politics caused the Democrats' defeat last week, when a majority of South Dakotans embraced liberal politics by raising the minimum wage.

Republicans have profoundly disconnected themselves from simple truth. In a Tweet-essay (my stars, what is 21st-century language becoming?) Grist writer David Roberts calls this attitude "postmodern conservatism." America's conservatives have "systematically and progressively destroyed the very notion of a nonpartisan arbiter of information." Conservatives, says Roberts, have accepted a notion that liberals cannot: there are no facts, just competing arguments, and every dispute not a search for truth but a "contest of power" in which the "loudest, best funded, most persistent voices win."

More than twenty years ago, when I was waging rhetorical war against my multiculturalism-peddling Human Relations professors at SDSU, I thought it was liberals and Democrats like Bill and Hillary Clinton who would destroy America with their sinister value relativism.

I was wrong. It is Republicans who are shedding their commitment to any absolutes other than absolute power. It is Republicans who are undermining America's moral compass. It is Republicans whom we must defeat to preserve the Republic.

20 Comments

  1. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.11.12

    Amen! Preach it brother!

    Sisters and brothers, can he get another Amen?!

    AMEN!!!!

  2. Jim 2014.11.12

    Pats allegiance is to his party's majority...oh, and the Burger King.

  3. Jana 2014.11.12

    Gotta love Ted Cruz. He's the GOP's favorite Canadian foreigner with an Hispanic surname.

    That the media reports anything that comes out of his mouth shows how shallow their attempt is to gain readers/viewers...or is the incriminating evidence that the media has become nothing but an entertainment venue.

    The guy is the Kardashian of the Senate and Smiling Mike, Pretty Boy John and Kristi the Show Pony should be embarrassed to be seen with him, let alone lack the courage to stand up to this demagogue.

  4. Jana 2014.11.12

    By the way, did anyone tell Ted Cruz that the good old U.S of A. is Ebola free?

    Thanks alot Obama!

  5. Roger Cornelius 2014.11.12

    Amen Deb, Amen.

    What concerns me about Republicans and their last week's election victories is that demonstrates how gullible the American electorate is. Mike Rounds told lie after lie in this recent election and was called out for them by numerous sources, yet he won an election. That is disturbing.

    Are we to build our Democracy and Republic on lies simply because those lies serve the corporatism that has replaced democracy?

  6. leslie 2014.11.13

    I blame Obama!

  7. leslie 2014.11.13

    GRIST gives the idea for a 35 tweet essay on Rounds/Daugaard EB5 fraud. can we get an injunction from bill taylor? Amen?

  8. mike from iowa 2014.11.13

    Raygun redux-it's mourning in 'murrica.

  9. Steve Sibson 2014.11.13

    "I was wrong."

    You still have it wrong. Yes the Republican Establishment are power mad pragmatists in today's postmodern New Age, but so are the Democrats. This web site demonstrated that during the last election cycle.

    And you are also wrong to label it conservative or Christian.

  10. JeniW 2014.11.13

    Leslie, it is not Obama's fault, the blame belongs to George Washington!!

  11. jerry 2014.11.13

    Maybe when the Republicans shut down the government yet again, will Americans figure out that they have been played.
    It seems like the only thing that tends to wake people up to pay attention to what is going on around them is to be jolted. Kind of like a bare wire that you brush up against, when you hit that, you know it is time to insulate it by eliminating it.

  12. jerry 2014.11.13

    McCaskill is just another blue dog republican lite Democrat. The only thing that saved her sorry ass the last election was who she was up against. She has consistently been a huge disappointment for Democrats and maybe this will be her last term.

  13. larry kurtz 2014.11.13

    Jerry, of course you recall that Rick Weiland said he'd vote against Reid for leadership: good to see Senator Tester was named DSCC chair and Senator Warren elected to Dem. leadership. Mitch is already taking victory laps for bringing a vote on earth killing KXL: my guess is what the President wants for its approval will make them wish they hadn't brought it up.

  14. jerry 2014.11.13

    A poison pill of the the sorts that would even make the turtle gag. How fitting.

  15. Jana 2014.11.13

    Whoa! According to the the Argus headline: "Rounds begins breaking in Washington"

    Mike Rounds is already shaking up Washington! Yeah!

    Wait...what? He's just going through orientation? Got to see his new office space and voted along with every other Republican voting for the turtle to be Senate leader.

    So...Argus, what are we missing other than you are trying to make it seem like smiling Mike the insurance guy will be relevant in DC?

    Monty...did you write that headline?

  16. jerry 2014.11.13

    Oh this is gonna get good, the shutting down of the government just before Christmas, how quaint. Lets see how much damage these bone heads can do. I hope republicans in this state start to pay attention, I know it is difficult for them, but...squirrel..oh crap.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/246476861/Salmon-Letter

  17. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.11.14

    I reject the "Republicans Bought Pressler" line. I embrace, however, Al Franken's embrace of progressive politics.

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