Oh won't you come home to America, Republicans?

It's fascinating, really, how the President has maintained his support in the face of overwhelming evidence that his decisions have had disasterous consequences for our safety and economic well being.

I invite you to read, Where did the middle go? How polarized politics and a radical GOP have put a chill on measured debate [via Chuck at New Patriot]. The author, Theodore Roszak, challenges a point of view that I have long held. I think, in my idealistic naive way, that if people know the truth, they will change their minds. So I labor to be objective, to assemble evidence that this administration, this president, and the GOP has wandered off in the wilderness towards right wing authoritarianism that has little to do with the fundamental American values embodied in the constitution, as I understand them.

But what if people know the truth, say about WMD in Iraq, or that Rumsfeld authorized torture at Abu Ghraib, or that John Ashcroft is steadily removing information about your government from public view, or that the government is producing advertisements that look like news, or that suspected terrorists are simply dissapeared by the US government, or that every single rule of civility and due process is being broken in the House and Senate by Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert, or that US taxpayers are being defrauded of millions by cronies of the Bush administration, or that the environmental legacy of the last three decades has been dismantled by this administration, or that the fiscal policies of this administration could throw the dollar in a tailspin that would make the Mexican Peso of the nineties look rich, and on and on....What if they know all this and just don't care?

As Roszak points out:

What if Bush's political base never needed to be lied to? That might explain why, despite "Fahrenheit 9/11" and all the other enraged documentaries (the best of which, incidentally, is "Hijacking Catastrophe" by the Media Education Foundation), the polls keep reflecting strong popular support for Bush's "leadership" and why he continues to find cheering crowds, especially at military bases where troops give their commander-in-chief the big "hoo-ah." These people aren't deceived. They know exactly what Bush is up to -- and it's OK with them.

What are you thinking, Republicans? I used to be an independent voter. Occasionally, I would pull the lever for the GOP. Now, and for the forseeable future, that is impossible. That could change if, with the defeat of George Bush, the GOP cleans house, and renounces its disgraceful leadership. While they are at it they can shitcan the loyalty oath (are you guys kidding me?) and the steady drive to replace the national values enshrined in the Constitution with the values of the Christian Right. Maybe then the GOP will come home to America. Maybe then I will consider voting for them. But not until then. I suspect I will have a long wait.