Never Enough GOP Spasms Department

Democracy has long been a delicate dance on the fine line between anarchism and fascism. On one hand, a nation must be united in order to be effective in meeting its own needs and in working in tandem with other nations; on the other hand, the individual spirit must be respected and nourished for a nation's citizens to best express its union in their own unique way.

The Republican version of this dance over the past half-decade has been, to be blunt, spastic. They approach totalitarianism by declaring that the President has unilateral power during times of undeclared, pre-emptive war, and claiming that all who object are sympathizers with terrorists, or worse, outright traitors. And yet, they also show a disdain towards democratic rule and its prerequisites--including but by no means limited to taxation. This they do by stripping away progressive taxation; weakening protections for consumers, workers, soldiers, and the environment; creating security mechanisms that do not work at best, and hinder or prevent actual security at worst; holding prisioners without charges in violation of federal law and international treaty; allowing torture; and ignoring the Constitution when convenient. In short, they respect power and abhor governance--they allow for obscene concentrations of power while disregarding the rule of law.

I'm not saying that all problems will be resolved by voting Democratic. Indeed, even if the Democratic Party won a majority in one or both houses of Congress, the fight would merely be joined--remember the vicious way the Republicans acted while Clinton was in office. But it'd at minimum be a much better balance than the current situation, and maybe, just maybe, some traction on truly important issues can be gained.