While we have certainly examined this trend before, it seems we must keep revisiting it in hopes that, sooner or later, everyone will understand the very simple reason behind the GOP’s downward spiral.

It’s simple:

- All since January of this year: A staffer for Tennessee State Rep. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) sends out a racially insensitive email…she doesn’t apologize, and isn’t terminated.    Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO) tells a monkey joke at a the 2009 Values Voters Summit…and then makes it clear that he’s talking about President Obama.  Kansas Republican legislator Bill Otto puts a clip on YouTube called “Redneck Rap” where he criticizes the President and then refers to opossum as the “other dark meat.“  Diann Jones, a Texas GOP official, criticized a tax on guns as “Another terrific idea from the black house and its minions.“  Audra Shay, at the time running to be head of the Young Republicans, encouraged and laughed along with racist jokes on her Facebook page and made her own joke about Obama “in a noose“…even after these comments went public, she won the position.  GOP activist Rusty DePass responds to a news story about an escaped gorilla…joking that it is “just one of Michelle’s ancestors – probably harmless,“ and the Republican Party does not apologize.  The chairman of the RNC, Michael Steele, says that he is going to lure African-Americans to the Republican Party with “fried chicken.”  When asked why he is the only senior official from Louisiana not to rebuke a judge for refusing to marry an interracial couple, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) would only respond, “I don’t think that’s the case,” then got on an elevator, declining to make further comment.  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 40.9 million black people in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

- All since January of this year: Senator Kyl (R-AZ) says that maternity shouldn’t be covered by health insurance, because he and other men “don’t need it.“  Senator Al Franken (D-MN) sponsors his first bill, which states that government contractors that attempt to force female employees not to report harassment and rape, should be penalized…and 30 Republican senators vote AGAINST it.  Republican Robert F. McDonnell, the man running to become the governor of Virginia…wrote a thesis claiming that women should not work, and should stay in the home, and that government credits for child care expenses are part of the “problem.”  The National Republican Congressional Committee said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) should be “put in her place“…and not a single female Republican legislator (or male Republican legislator, for that matter) was willing to denounce the statement.  No fewer than three high ranking Republican “leaders” are discovered to be cheating on their wives, brazenly, and are all connected to the bizarre, “weirdly-Christian,” C Street house, where it appears infidelity was not only encouraged (using the justification that as ‘men of power,’ they DESERVED to do it), but it was also allowed to occur in the building and was covered up by other members.  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 150.6 million women in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

- All since January of this year: Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Justice Sonia Sotomayor a racist during the confirmation hearings…and another Republican made the “Ricky Ricardo” reference that she’d have “some ‘splainin’ to do.“  Former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo called Sotomayor a member of the “Latino KKK.”  The RNC put out a press release for Hispanic Heritage Month that had obviously just been run through a translator program and was rife with translation, grammatical, and spelling errors…and the ad they put out featuring prominent Hispanics, didn’t include Justice Sotomayor.  Two RNC officials defended Senator Jim DeMint’s failure to “bring home” funds to South Carolina…by saying he was just acting like “a jew” with our country’s “pennies.”  Representative Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) wrote the forward for a new book which claims there is a “Muslim conspiracy” to take over our government, and Myrick and other Republicans held a press conference to ask the Sergeant Of Arms of the Congress to investigate any Muslim interns.  Republican Representatives and Senators cheered on a Tea Party gathering in Washington, D.C…despite the fact that many protesters held sign bearing anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-foreigner slogans and images.  RNC Chair Michael Steele claimed, ridiculously, that gay marriage would hurt small businesses.  Representative Steve King (R-IA) said gay marriage is socialism…and later claimed that the Hate Crimes legislation to protect homosexuals would protect other, what he called, “perversions“…and then he compared homosexuality to bestiality, necrophilia, and pedophilia.  Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is now trying to get gays to support him in the fight against health care reform…despite the fact that he has called the “gay agenda” the “greatest threat to our freedom that we face today,” and also once said, “Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that’s happened to us?“  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 44.3 million Hispanics…and the 5.5 million Jews…and the 8.8 million gay/bisexual/transgendered people…and the 6.5 million Muslims in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

And these incidents…are just the SOME of the RECENT ones involving politicians and other political officials.  I’m not even including the race-baiting and fearmongering from the presidential campaign, nor any of the numerous incidents involving the right-wing media.

In the end…it’s simple mathematics.  Each of us was taught in grade school that America is a “melting pot.“  The problem is…it’s not stirred very well.  There are clumps: enclaves of single-race, single-religion, single-creed people all across this country.  Within those caches of homogeneity, people often fall into the simple trap of forgetting that, while within their clique all may share very similar profiles and opinions…the rest of the nation varies considerably.  For example, when you have lived most of your life in a small town or suburb where everyone is white, goes to the same evangelical church, votes Republican, watches FOX News, and opposes homosexuality…it may be hard to imagine that there are a VAST number of American who are not white, go to some other church (or don’t attend at all), vote Democrat (or Independent, or not at all), think only fools watch FOX News, and support (or simply show tolerance towards) gays.

Those people also live in America, and millions of others representing every possible race, ethnicity, sexuality, creed, and lifestyle…and they are full citizens with full lives, equal rights, and one vote apiece.  And forgetting that they vote, not just in the polling place but with their wallets, will lead to the continued withering of the Republican Party.  It’s simple math…and simple politics…and there’s no excuse for the GOP not knowing this.

Hope you’re sitting down:

• Last week, we reported that a man attended the Obama Town Hall in New Hampshire with a loaded gun strapped to his thigh, and a sign referencing Thomas Jefferson’s quote that the “Tree of Liberty” must occasionally be refreshed with “the blood of patriots and tyrants.“  Chris Matthews would later interview the man on Hardball…revealing this protester to be an unbalanced man with no reasonable justification for his actions, nor a working knowledge of the Constitution.  This time in Arizona, another man had a gun strapped to his thigh…and was carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle.  As with the previous incident, this man claimed to be simply exercising his “freedoms” proving ONCE AGAIN that many Americans don’t realize that just because you have the “right to do something” does not make it the “right thing to do.“
• Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is the Republican senator who is leading the bipartisan effort to draft the health care reform bill…which is a little frightening since he has been making public, partisan attacks which contain lies about what is in the bill: “you have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life. You ought to have counseling 20 years before you’re going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don’t have any problem with things like living wills. But they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on grandma.” After catching quite a bit of criticism over these remarks, Grassley has decided to employ a novel defense:  blame the negative reactions on the Democrats.  When asked in an interview why he was perpetuating the false notion of “death panels,” Grassley responded, “Well, listen. I see that as nothing more than a distortion from the far left bringing up these end-of-life concerns, which are not the issues we ought to be talking about. We ought to be talking about government takeover of the health care system.“  Yeah, Chuck…it’s obviously the DEMOCRATS who don’t want to have a substantive, reality-based discussion about health care.
• Oh, but Chuck Grassley’s not finished yet.  As said previously, Grassley’s SUPPOSED to be working with Democrats to forge a bill…and according to Grassley, the most important thing about the bill, even more important than what’s actually in it:  Republican support.  And he goes on to imply that even if some Republicans support the bill (again, that’s what’s REALLY important to Chuck)…he won’t vote for it, unless the “overwhelming” majority of them do.  Here on planet Earth, we fully realize that in all likelihood none of them will, which begs the question:  why is their support important, again?
• Fun new poll: a new poll shows that the majority of Republicans either believe that “death panels” are in the reform bill, or aren’t sure.  Combined with the “birther” poll which showed nearly the same percentage of Republicans don’t think President Obama is an American citizen, or aren’t sure, I think we have clearly established that Republicans will believe just about anything, no matter how outrageous the claim…and they will hold onto those believes no matter how available the hard facts are that disprove those beliefs.  It’s a lovely quality, folks…don’t go changin’!
• Last weekend’s Meet the Press panel included both MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, and Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas).  Armey, is now with a group called FreedomWorks, which is essentially a fake-grassroots, lobbying and conservative PR/Rabble-rousing firm.  On the show, Armey was cornered and forced to condemn the use of swastikas and other Nazi references by protesters…but when he said that Freedomworks didn’t support violence and disruption, Rachel was quick to point out that FreedomWorks and its associated entities, have used violence and disruption as a “rallying cry” for the mobs they have engineered.  Here’s the clip…watch also for when Armey falsely claims that MoveOn.org compared George Bush to Hitler in an ad, and Rachel points out that it NEVER HAPPENED (it was a false claim initiated by none other than Rush Limbaugh):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX5RqupDB9s

• WHOOPS! Speaking of Dick Armey…guess who just had to resign from his law firm of DLA Piper, because the actions of FreedomWorks are drawing so much negative attention?  Yup.  Armey released a statement saying: “It is painful and frustrating to see a good, decent, able and effective partnership of honorable men and women and their clients attacked for things in which they are not involved simply because of their association with me. One would expect a higher degree of competence and professionalism from members of the media than spurious attacks on innocent bystanders.“  Let me see if I’m following this:  Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks organizes protests that are filled with shouting, threatening, disruptive people…these people are told by a FreedomWorks-sponsored organization, in writing, how to be disruptive and threatening…and the media, by covering this insanity and his relationship to it, is somehow attacking his honorable and upstanding coworkers at the law firm.  Uh huh. Well, look at it this way, Dick…now you can devote ALL your time to lying to the American people in order to generate civil unrest.  It doesn’t look as good on a resume, but you gotta do what you love…
• Conservatives for Patients Rights, the group led by controversial and disgraced former HCA CEO Rick Scott, filmed a new “anti-health care reform ad” featuring several British citizens making complaints about their national health care system.  Only a few problems…first…NOBODY is even talking about nationalizing our health care system, so to be blunt, who cares if some British people have complaints.  Second…the Brits were told by Conservatives for Patients Rights organization that the ads were part of a British ad campaign to reform the British system, so they just wanted to give some suggestions…the truth is, all of the citizens they interviewed LOVE the British system.  The women WERE NOT TOLD that their comments were really going to be used to defeat health care reform in America.  Third…conservative legislators in Great Britain…EVEN THEY love the British system, and by a sizable margin.  Here’s the ad:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHer9bKn438

• House GOP leader Roy Blunt (R-MO) was busted spreading falsehoods by a local paper, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. They blasted Blunt in an editorial for making the following claim in an interview with the newspaper’s reporters: “I’m 59.  In either Canada or Great Britain, if I broke my hip, I couldn’t get it replaced.” As the Post-Dispatch pointed out…this is COMPLETELY false, and Blunt responded by apologizing and promising to stop making that assertion.  This is even more embarrassing because Roy Blunt…is the head of the House GOP Health Care Solutions Group, so there is NO EXCUSE for him getting the facts wrong.
• Hey, at least somebody is loving all this:  On increasing doubts that the public option will not be included in the reform package…Insurance companies stocks are on the rise.  Our loss -- is OFFICIALLY their gain.
• Sometimes you just have to laugh about it: visit here for some of the funnier signs seen at town hall protests.  This one is my favorite:

That’s all for now…more tomorrow.