(From The Rachel Maddow Fan Page/Facebook)
Sometimes synchronicity's gifts are stunning, and sometimes they're more subtle. The synchronistic statement above was a gift, delivered to my Facebook feed at just the right time. That's because I've been obsessing about the terms "conservative" and "Republican"—and the fact that these words are no longer synonymous. And it makes me a little crazy that other people haven't seemed to recognize this.
The annoying editor who lives rent-free in my head automatically replaces "conservative" with "radical," a far better fit. It gets to me when "conservative" is so misused. Even hearing the word can send my blood pressure to new heights.
"Regressive" absolutely fits the Republican mindset and agenda. Example: A House Speaker who says in a televised interview, ". . .we [Republican majority Congress] should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal."
How about Republican state legislatures rolling back women's reproductive rights—decades back? How about forty separate votes to repeal "Obamacare"—a law ruled Constitutional by the Supreme Court and already proving beneficial to many Americans, even at this early stage of its incremental implementation. Republicans are terrified the Affordable Care program will be successful and popular. Never mind how many of their fellow Americans, their constituents, will have better lives. Won't lose everything to catastrophic illnesses. Never mind that health care costs will go down, as will the deficit. Republicans don't want anything about the Obama presidency to succeed. They definitely don't want the health care program to be embraced by Americans the way Social Security and Medicare now are. Maybe they think "Obama failure" is their only hope of winning the White House—ever again.
How about the so-called "Voter ID laws" (voter suppression laws, they are) spreading like kudzu far beyond the deep south, taking voters likely to vote for Democrats back to pre-civil- rights days. To days before the Freedom Rides, the marches, the beatings and murders that happened on the way to black Americans becoming able to exercise the right that's fundamental to any Democracy. Yes, Republicans are regressives all right. Maybe it's time to call the two major parties what they are: The Progressive and Regressive Parties.
I've been seeing the current GOP as an ever-shrinking wing of "rational" Republicans (think David Brooks, George Will) and the majority/base "radical" Republicans. But I'm well satisfied with the "Regressive" label. It pretty much fits them all. Let's agree to stop referring to Republicans as "conservatives"—in conversations and in anything we write. I hope the media will join in. Let's remind them that the GOP is no longer conservative. Not even close!
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