LEFT IN EAST DAKOTA

During the next few weeks the Republican descent into madness will become sharper. They are losing, and the paranoia ripe within the party will reach levels where satire itself will become ironic. My sincere hope is these folks in the Republican Party seek a mental health professional for their paranoia. (I am completely serious.) Having said that, please don't let this context allow you to conclude the Obama Administration has fundamentally been anything different than Bush's third term. If a few cosmetic differences gets your vote, fair enough; but I urge you to give it a second, third and fourth thought. I realize we have no electoral choice, but there are plenty of things we can do to make our lives better that don't involve voting for one of these two representatives of the one percent. So let's continue, or start, to do them.

My Facebook news feed is pretty much a never ending scroll filled with the embarrassing antics of today's pitiful Republican Party. It's a bit sad considering their history. While the Democrats were the party of slave owners, Republicans were largely united behind crushing the slave aristocracy, and in some cases they were radical abolitionist revolutionaries advocating the expropriation and redistribution of massive amounts of private wealth. They were our Jacobins. Now they offer us Mitt Romney, a silly little man you wouldn't notice in an empty room. To be sure, I'm no supporter of the Democrats. They are the party of perpetual war, among other horrible things. However, a quick look through their history doesn't offer you the same kind of teeth grinding question marks. Everything about them is suspect. They never offered hope. (Despite the latest rhetoric.) The Republicans were, at least at one time, different. Granted they have been brutal enemies of worki