No Mouth, No Guts

July 5, 2005
By Nancy Greggs

For years now we've been hearing about how a bunch of Muslim radicals have hijacked the religion of Islam, and are reshaping it into something totally opposite to its true tenets. Well, the same thing has happened here with the Republican party, and the irony is that everyone seems to know it except the Republicans themselves.

You remember the Grand Old Party, don't you? They were the party of fiscal responsibility, states rights, less government interference in personal issues, and a strong military. So where are they now?

This president is spending the country's money like a drunken sailor, the deficit is out of control, and the country is in debt up to its eyeballs. And yet we've heard nary a word from the GOP citizenry. No demonstrations outside the White House. No Internet petitions. Mum's the word.

Now, I'm not saying that the Republicans never open their big mouths anymore. They'll still show up at the odd anti-war demonstration, yelling about liberal cowards who don't support the disaster in Iraq.

But we haven't been seeing them lining up in front of the enlistment office, have we? They say they're behind this war a hundred percent – but obviously with the caveat that some other mother's son does the actual heavy lifting, while they put yet another "Love It or Leave It" bumper sticker on the back of the pick-up.

Yeah, they've still got lots to say about supporting the troops. Too bad they didn't speak up when this administration cut benefits to military families and vets – a concept that, in the good old days, would have had every last Republican screaming from the rooftops.

The Terri Schiavo fiasco was a classic example of Republicans allowing their elected officials to fly in the face of their long-held beliefs, without so much as a whimper. Where were those GOPers of old, who upheld the sanctity of states rights? Where were those Republicans who have traditionally vowed to go to their graves before allowing the federal government to interfere in their personal family decisions?

The Republicans have always proudly pointed to their base, the evangelical Christians. You know - people who would give you a speech, anywhere, anytime – about the need for good Christian values in American life? Too bad they all lost their tongues when this president, like a latter-day Pontius Pilate, publicly washed his hands of the blood of detainees in U.S. custody as they were tortured, or rendered to countries where others will do his dirty work for him. That's not only un-Republican, it's downright un-Christian. You'd think they'd be ranting twice as loud as usual. And yet, it's their silence that is so deafening.

While I realize that the Republicans are never going to support many of the ideals of my party, I am truly baffled by their obvious unwillingness to stand up for their own.

Why are the streets empty? Why are the Republicans not marching en masse, demanding a return to fiscal sanity, strong economic growth, American jobs for American workers – you know, the very things their party has traditionally stood for?

Well, as the Administration pointed out recently, I guess it's a matter of different philosophies - and the difference seems clear. While Democrats still stand up for their party's traditionally held ideals, the Republicans cower down in their spider-holes, totally oblivious to the fact that the GOP now espouses the very things they were dead set against before Bush and his cronies started running the country, and their party, into the ground.

So farewell, GOP, you proud and patriotic Republicans of old, you party of Lincoln. We disagreed with you, argued with you, fought with you; but that was back in the days when you were a worthy opponent. Now you're just a bunch of mindless sheep, being led by the nose away from the very ideals you used to uphold so valiantly.

So go back to your couches and tell yourselves that your party is still on-message, when it's more than obvious to all of us that you don't even remember what the message once was.