Could the new Republicans be worse than Bush?

So why am I speaking in praise of Bush now?

Because the new Republicans – the Republicans who want to take over the White House and launch a third Bush administration, are even worse. In the last two years we have seen the Republicans do things that even Bush wouldn’t have done.

Today’s Republicans have declared open war on Obama in a manner unprecedented in modern history. They denied the authority of the President on the grounds that he was illegally elected, encouraging the troops to disobey lawful orders; we know Bush would never try that one, because if there was ever a president illegally elected….They deliberately tried to create a climate of terror in the US regarding its new president. They insisted the President’s policies are killing our troops. They called Obama an enemy of humanity. They ran an internet poll on whether Obama should be murdered. They ran a piece calling on the military to overthrow Obama. They sent armed goons to Presidential events. If the Democrats had tried to treat Bush this way, the GOP would have declared martial law.

Today’s Republicans have also resolved to destroy Congress, to render it completely dysfunctional. They openly condoned and encouraged party members to commit or threaten assassination and other violent attacks against the President and members of Congress. They called on wingnuts to invade Capitol Hill and intimidate their representatives into changing their votes. They caused riots at events for members of Congress, so the Congressmen couldn’t do their jobs. They prevented Congress from functioning with endless obstructive tactics. This never would have happened to Bush: he got along fine with Congress, and even the Congressional Democrats were willing, sometimes too willing, to work with Bush.

The GOP blocked jobs bills, they blocked a plan to protect you from getting screwed over by your boss or your insurer or your banker, blocked the stimulus package which saved millions of jobs, blocked unemployment benefits, blocked student loans.They are blocking tax cuts for the middle class, threatening a shutdown of the federal government including everything from the Pentagon to the Social Security office to disaster relief to the post office, and even the crooked subsidies to GOP-connected corporations. They made an appointment to meet the President and then stood him up because they were too busy chatting with TV reporters about what a dirtbag Obama is. They are blocking bills which the American people have said they like, like repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the DREAM Act. They are trying to censor NPR because only reliable conservatives are allowed to have voices. They are blocking hundreds of federal appointees so Obama can’t even run the executive branch, and blocking the reappointment of the critically necessary budget chief because he had the nerve to tell the truth and make Republicans look bad. They are openly, flagrantly, treasonously damaging U.S. foreign policy, by blocking the START treaty which protects us from nuclear terror, by sabotaging a trade deal with Korea and then blaming Obama for it, and by openly proclaiming that they will side with Israel and against their own Commander In Chief.

Today’s Republicans have declared war on democracy itself. They told folks to get more guns and take back America so as to prevent Nazism. They insisted that perfectly legal legislative tactics are unconstitutional. They have advocated secession, which was called treason back in the day. They have launched a campaign of death threats, vandalism, terrorist tactics against anyone who dares to speak against them, or even put the “wrong” bumper sticker on their car. They have characterized all compromise as treason. They want to use the fraudulent “voter fraud” bogeyman to disenfranchise students, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the sick, working moms and blacks, because they have the nerve to support Democrats.

Today’s Republicans have openly defied the will of the American people, and American values, on issue after issue. They are working to trash Social Security, destroy Medicare and Medicaid. They have made it a crime to be Hispanic in Arizona and plan to do it across the country. They have launched a 30-state war on the right to choose. They launched a 100-million-dollar year-long campaign of lies and propaganda and bribes to fight against health reform. They have declared war on gays. They have resolved to crush all GOP moderates. They have declared war on anybody who’s in a union: our policemen, our firefighters, our teachers.

Even during the blackest years of the Bush era, I never envisioned the Republicans going this far into The Crazy.