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July 1, 2009 In 2005 I registered as an independent, when for the previous voting-eligible years of my life, I had been a member of the Democratic Party. The GOP social conservative plank was in line with my thinking, as is the case with a large number of black voters. Much to its detriment, however, the GOP makes no effort to reach out to this voting bloc. Before the 2008 primaries, I wrote articles on whom I thought would be the Presidential nominees of both parties. I thought McCain would be the GOP standard-bearer and that he would be a force to reckon with. (See my 2005 article, http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/june/article266.html) I was certain that the GOP ticket would be McCain-Giuliani. However, Rudy put all his eggs in one basket— Florida —and it cost him a chance at the GOP nomination. He immediately climbed aboard the McCain bandwagon. I still thought McCain was the most forthright candidate, especially when juxtaposed against the Clintons (and let’s face it, any if Hillary’s opponents were running against both she and hear husband.) However, after initially picking Clinton to earn the GOP nod, I changed horses when Bill Richardson entered the fray. At the time, I believed Barack Obama’s campaign would fall short and that what he would gain from running would be some valuable experience that would be helpful to a 2012 or 2016 bid. I had decided that if Richardson did not get the Democratic nomination, then I would vote for McCain. Richardson dropped out early, and by this time, Obama had emerged as a serious threat to Hillary’s coronation. When it became clear that Obama would be the Democratic nominee, I began to watch McCain closely. He appeared inept, and his choice of Palin over Mitt Romney not only added fuel to that fire, but also gave credence to assertions that McCain was one who held grudges. He also came off as careless and as one who would say anything to get elected, though He began to play the politics of fear-mongering and using buzzwords to imply that Obama was somehow unpatriotic. The “Joe the Plumber” came off as gimmicky and reeked of desperation. When a phony plumber can articulate the party’s message than the VP candidate, something is wrong. Barack Obama shocked the world and defeated McCain in the general election, and it seems as if the GOP has been shooting itself in the foot ever since. As for ineptitude, the McCain-Palin campaign was only the tip of the iceberg (See my UK article, http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/08nov/article023.html). For starters, the party has seemingly been hijacked by right-wingers hell-bent on espousing fear and bigotry. Author Michael A. Cohen writes, “The Republicans find themselves caught between two countervailing forces: the need to craft a policy agenda that appeals to middle-class Americans and the need to maintain the support of an angry base of voters that is alienated from, and suspicious of, the new president.” (Michael A. Cohen, Extremist Rhetoric Won’t Rebuild GOP, April 7, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20948_Page2.html) This is the same group that questioned Obama’s patriotism as they evoked the names of Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, who now follow their fearless leader—Rush Limbaugh—into rooting for Obama to fail. In my view, it doesn’t get any more unpatriotic than that. Even when Bush was in office—and I didn’t vote for him and wouldn’t have at gunpoint—I still hoped that his policies would strengthen the economy. I rooted for his war in Iraq to attain the desired effect, even though I disagreed with our being there. I think mist Americans stand behind whoever is in office, whether they agree with him or not, but not these 21st century Republicans. Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and FOX News’ brigade of Obama-bashing blondes constantly harp on the maltreatment of the GOP by the “liberal media,” while they rake Obama over the coals every evening and label him a socialist all too willing to sell America out. This from a network that has become nothing more than the public relations wing of the GOP. The news network makes wild claims about Obama, then invite GOP stalwarts to show up on air with their gas cans to add fuel to the fire. I suspect that Americas will grow weary of their thinly-veiled vitriol and come to realize that FOX News and the phrase “fair and balanced” should never be used in the same sentence. The GOP is in flux and there is no leader stepping forward to claim frontrunner status for the 2012 primary (and no, it is not too early for such posturing). Bobby Jindal’s star faded after he offered the GOP rebuttal to Obama’s first Congressional address. He came off as bland and disingenuous. Mark Sanford decided that a chick on the side was more important than running his state; Palin continues to wear the tag of one who is overmatched and not ready for prime-time. McCain is too old, as is Cheney—though sometimes he sounds as if he’s gearing up for a run. Newt Gingrich and John Ensign lack credibility, especially after admitting to having affairs while calling for the impeachment of Bill Clinton for lying about a similar misdeed. I can assure you that in 2012, family values will not be an issue the Republicans will want to debate. Worse, whether they like it or want to admit, Rush Limbaugh is the face of the clan, not Michael Steele. I bet most people don’t even know who Steele is, or that he’s black. Limbaugh, Hannity et al have made middle-aged white men feel as if they are an endangered species, or at the very least, second-class citizens. So what is the GOP to do in 2012? Surely they can’t be serious about Palin. Sean Hannity made an interesting comment about her last night (June 30). He spoke of how unfairly the media treats her (and I too, believe that she is often maligned for no other reason than she is an attractive woman), and said, “(during the general election campaign) Palin didn’t answer questions because she knew her answers would be used against her.” Huh? Isn’t this true of all politicians? Second, if her answers could be twisted in such fashion, couldn’t she come up with more in-depth ones? Who could blame the media for regarding her as a lightweight after she served up this gem: “My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.” This woman makes the Mr. Kimball character on Green Acres sound like George Will. I would guess the GOP hopes lie with Romney or Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. The longshots, in my view, would be Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. If Jeb Bush is thrust into the picture, all bets are off. Pawlenty said it best: “"Some things that I would like to talk about on behalf of the Republican party is the need to be positive and hopeful and optimistic…I think people want to follow that kind of leadership as opposed to negative and cynical and demeaning." (With Bob Scheiffer on “ Washington Unplugged,” June 5, 2009) With friends like Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly and Ann Coulter, the GOP has a laborious task in front of it. The aforementioned conservatives seem hell-bent on convincing white middle-aged males that they are an endangered species. According to one source, “Researchers say that right-wing hate groups, including white supremacists, have been energized by the recession and the election of America 's first black president.” (Kim Landers, “Obama presidency sees rise in right-wing hate groups,” The World Today, June 16, 2009) None of this surprises me. The truth of the matter is, I knew the country was in trouble during the Bush-Gore election campaign, when the media raised the question, “Which of these candidates would you rather have a beer with?” Sadly, America opted for the one with the drinking problem. Now that we’ve seen what kind of damage he done while driving our economic car, perhaps we can root for our current President to get us back on the road to recovery. For the record, this doesn’t make you a traitor, just a regular American. Then again, the far right has succeeded in turning the words “liberal” and “feminist” into profanities. Okay, you want to move your party so far to the right where it resembles a Ku Klux Klan chapter? Go ahead. You’ve already taken what I consider to be the first step to becoming irrelevant for at least the next decade or so. ------------ About the author: Timothy N. Stelly is a poet, essayist, novelist and screenwriter from northern California . His novel, HUMAN TRIAL, is the first part of a sci-fi trilogy and is available from amazon.com, allthingsthatmatterpress.com and in e-book format at mobipocket.com website: http://stellbreadO@tripod.com Email: stellbread@yahoo.com 
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