Yeah, I'm Blaming You for Being a Republican

Yesterday, during the Benghazi Hearing Circus, I posted something about the Republicans on the Benghazi Committee:

Republicans don't like reality. https://t.co/wpEuBPQv9r

— Rich Wilkins (@TheRichWilkins) October 22, 2015

This drew a response or two from Republican Twitter friends who didn't like the generalization about Republicans. How could I generalize so negatively about all Republicans? How could I act like they are all neanderthals? How could I act like all Republicans are the same?

I felt bad for about .5 seconds about this and then I realized the reality- it's totally fair to label all Republicans together. No, not all Republicans are dishonest and stupid, not all Republicans are exactly the same. The sum of them all is the same though- they vote for these guys. All people who vote for Republicans most of the time are voting for the same things. They may not all buy into 100% of the things the GOP stands for, but they vote for 100% of those things when they vote.

When you vote for the Republican Party, you vote for their policies. Their policies like denying climate change exists. Their policies to not fix our crumbling infrastructure. Their policies like de-funding Planned Parenthood. Their policies like the war in Iraq. Their policies like opposing all gun control, even stuff that has broad support. Their policies like opposing any diplomacy with Iran. Their policies like opposing paid family leave for American workers. Their policies like voting over 50 times to take away the health insurance of close to 20 million people who got their care through the Affordable Care Act. Their policies like the budget busting tax cuts of the early-2000s. Their policies like cutting Embassy security funding overseas. Their policies like the Ryan Budget. Their policies opposing equal pay for equal work, across gender lines. Their policies like opposing marriage equality. Their policies like opposing any form of Wall Street regulation. I could go on, but I won't. I think I named enough.

If you vote for a Republican, you vote for their policy. You vote for their full set of beliefs. No, i'm not saying all Republicans are exactly the same in their intellect, temper, or morality, but the effect of voting Republican is all the same. I oppose virtually every policy I named above, and so I have no use for voting for the Republicans, even if a particular Republican is only 90% with them. A Republican President, Governor, Speaker of the House, or any other office will enact a lot of things I don't like. They live in a reality I don't deem to exist. It's important to note that I am talking policy here, and not values- there are conservative values I might share with them, it's the particular policies they put forward that I don't share. It's the Republican actions I oppose.

I try to see what the Republican Party of today has done that I would agree with, in terms of major actions. The Iraq War? No. The Bush Tax Cuts? No. The overhaul of bankruptcy laws under President Bush? No. The Bush Energy Policy? No. I can't think of much I like. I'm not a fan.

So yeah, I do know that some Republicans are smarter than others. I know some are more empathetic than others. I know that some are just generally more agreeable to me than others. Even with that, I can't find how that makes the end result of their being Republican much better. So I'm going to stick with "Republicans don't like reality."