Separate pieces of the puzzle...

[redneckgaijin]

Here's a bunch of links collected together in the past two days which, put together, give a bit of an image of the modern Republican Party.

First, not Republican as such, but something to consider: rich people are more greedy and less empathetic than the poor.

In other words, rich people are more likely to think about themselves. “They think that economic success and political outcomes, and personal outcomes, have to do with individual behavior, a good work ethic,” said Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Because the rich gloss over the ways family connections, money and education helped, they come to denigrate the role of government and vigorously oppose taxes to fund it.

“I will quote from the Tea Party hero Ayn Rand: “‘It is the morality of altruism that men have to reject,’” he said.

My reaction: Matthew 19:21-23.

21Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

So, the self-proclaimed Christian right, which praises the builders of wealth and condemns the poor as "irresponsible", ignores this teaching of Christ- among many others.

Of course, the right defines "irresponsible" solely on the grounds of wealth. When a rich or powerful person does it, it's NEVER irresponsible:

Tea Party aligned Georgia Rep. Tom Graves (R), who castigates Washington for fiscal irresponsibility, reached an out of court settlement Wednesday after he was sued for defaulting on a $2.2 million loan -- which his attorney argued is the bank's fault for lending him the money in the first place.

. . .

In June, Simon Bloom, the attorney for Graves and Rogers, argued in a court filing that the default was the bank's fault because it lent the pair the money knowing full well they couldn't pay. Bloom cited a deposition in which bank officials saw Graves and Rogers' financial records, and then had them sign personal guarantees so they'd "'have some skin in the game' presumably meaning a sense of personal obligation for the debts ... even though they clearly could not fulfill the obligation." Graves and Rogers said they were unaware of that particular filing.

In other words: I don't owe that debt because I could never pay it off! If this argument held water, millions of people would still be in their homes, instead of foreclosed and kicked out.

Put Tom Graves in a bit of context: GOP Rep. Joe Walsh (Illinois) still owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in child support to his ex-wife, but will neither pay nor report the debt on his disclosure forms; and Senator James Inhofe (Oklahoma), after landing his plane on a closed runway and endangering workers on that runway with a touch-and-go hop to avoid them, currently seeks to punish the Federal Aviation Agency for daring to investigate his actions. Seems like the alternate definition of "irresponsible" isn't just a one-man thing, right?

Of course, some go farther than calling them irresponsible.

Nebraska Attorney General and GOP Senate candidate Jon Bruning caused a stir this week when he compared welfare recipients to raccoons scavenging for insects. According to an aide, he's since realized he may not have picked the best metaphor for the poor.

"It was an inartful statement and one Jon regrets making," Bruning campaign manager Trent Fellers told the Associated Press in a statement. "As Attorney General, Jon's been a strong supporter of welfare reform and giving welfare recipients a hand up and not just a hand out."

It was an inartful statement and one I regret making. Translated: Did I say that in my out-loud voice? Oopsie. But I still BELIEVE it.

Of course, they don't have any empathy for those less wealthy than themselves who want to BE responsible...

At a town hall meeting on Monday, freshman Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) struggled with a question from a constituent who was worried about losing her job to outsourcing. When the woman explained that her employer is shipping jobs to Vietnam, Gardner offered a vague response about the need to "create a business environment that actually starts creating American jobs." The woman was unsatisfied, saying that she wants to keep her current job, as was another constituent who complained that corporations "get tax incentives" for sending jobs overseas. "If that company can succeed, I would hope that they would share their success with you," Gardner answered. "If they are not, maybe that's not a great company to work for."

So, if your current job is treating you badly- quit! You can ALWAYS get another job...

Young and old, well educated and uneducated, they're all coming here for the same thing: a job at the new area Walmart, which has set up a hiring center inside the hall; and most of them don't care how many hours the store can give them, what they'll have to do, or even how much they'll be paid. They just want a job.

. . .

In less than two weeks, managers have fielded well over 1,000 applications for just 300 jobs.

Ah, yes- give away your good-paying job, which is being outsourced to Vietnam, and take a one in three chance of minimum wage at Wal-Mart. That's the RESPONSIBLE thing to do, right?

Of course, the Republicans- particularly the Confederate tea party Senator from Secessionia South Carolina, Jim DeMint- think doing anything for the poor is Communist and un-American:

"We saw within a few days that this President was going to be heavy-handed, he was going to implement his agenda and pay back his political allies, and it just went on from there to ObamaCare and then to Dodd-Frank," DeMint said.

"It has been the most anti-business and I consider anti-American administration in my lifetime. Things that are just so anathema to the principles of freedom, and everything he has come up with centralizes more power in Washington, creates more socialist-style, collectivist policies. This president is doing something that's so far out of the realm of anything Republicans ever did wrong, it's hard to even imagine."

Given all this, it's not at all surprising that the man most likely to be the GOP frontrunner for President next week has racist, neo-Confederate ties:

A 1998 voting guide published by a leading neo-Confederate group and obtained by Salon not only endorses Perry for lieutenant governor but also describes him as "a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans."

. . .

... the NAACP demanded that two plaques bearing Confederate symbols be removed from the state Supreme Court building. The plaques were ultimately removed (sparking a decade of litigation pushed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans), but not before Lt. Gov. Perry weighed in on the side of the neo-Confederates.

. . .

Fast-forward to 2007, when, after being reelected for the second time in a landslide, Perry invited right-wing rocker Ted Nugent to play at his inauguration ball. Nugent showed up in a Confederate-flag shirt (and toting a machine gun, picture here), prompting a minor outcry from black groups. But Perry's spokesman went on the record saying that Perry would have invited Nugent even if the governor had known in advance that Nugent was going to wear the flag shirt; and Nugent himself said Perry called him in the days after the event and, speaking about the controversy, encouraged Nugent to "give 'em hell."

In 2008, Perry was featured in the pages of the Confederate Veteran, the magazine of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He is pictured presenting a state flag that had flown over the capitol to Billy Ford, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans camp in Corsicana, Texas. That group's mission statement says it exists "to preserve the memory of the Confederate soldier, and to help to spread the truth of the cause for which he fought."

Not surprising at all, considering that since colonial days Southerners blamed slaves for their own poverty- and not the wealthy plantation owners for keeping them that way.

This, then, is the Republican Party: completely callous to the needs of most of America, contemptuous of the poor as a class, and willing to countenance destruction of the nation if it serves their own ends.

And this is the party Obama can't surrender to fast enough in any confrontation.