Why Do Republicans Hate America?

It really is puzzling. I mean, I know the current batch of Republican congressional leaders are a little thin, neuronally. I get that letting people vote is repugnant and scary to them, and that they distinguish themselves from Democrats, election after election, by actively discouraging -- preventing, as much as possible -- any but white Christians from doing it. Yet they don't entirely reject the notion. It's sort of a basic principle, after all. And we know how much they love the military (not including, unfortunately, paying for their care.) But when it comes to the law, the Constitution, they couldn't be less supportive. While claiming the mantle of law and order, they make no bones about the fact that they don't trust the American legal system, not a bit. Not one damn bit. It's hard to reconcile this with the proposition of patriotism.

And so it is, predictably, that these dim bulbs flip their switches, shine their weak lights into the darkness, and it gets darker. Refractory to all input, ignorant of evidence, believing that "24" is a documentary, yet again they denounce affording terrorists -- even American citizens -- any legal rights. Once again the Justice Department captures a guy, follows the law, gets him to talk, and these congressional Republicans are having none if it. Even though it works, time and again; even though torturing prisoners and ignoring our laws has led to false information and the inability to prosecute offenders; despite the fact (scratch that: BECAUSE of the fact) that the Obama administration is following well-established law, fundamental to our democracy, the screamers are screaming, the dummies are dumbing. I wish it were only pathetic. But it's much more than that.

Hypocrisy, for one. Because even George Bush mirandized terrorists. Tried them in courts, bragged about it. (Well, sure, not all of them. But the ones he did were convicted.) As with deficits, the Republicans seem only to have gotten agitated when that black guy got the white house. But it's more: where's the evidence that using law enforcement and courts the way they've been used for a couple of centuries is inadequate to bring justice? At what point did our laws become disposable? What's the evidence that they can't serve our needs? Since when did torture become a way to get useful information, as opposed to wringing false confessions out of innocents? For originalists, right wingers seem to have forgotten the lessons of Salem. Now those folks knew what torture is for.

So the Obama administration keeps rounding up terrorists, following the law, and getting actionable intelligence. And somehow that makes the crazy right wingers even crazier. What the hell is wrong with him, they want to know. He's blowing away all our talking points. So, Gumbying themselves, they point to success and call it failure. He doesn't get it, they claim. Oh, sure, he gets terrorists. But not it. Following laws that are there for a reason, that have stood the test of time, Obama is, according to those crazies, damaging America. Because he respects it. Which they don't.

Go figure.