GOP race is on to the far right of insanity

Rod Haxton, editor

By Rod Haxton, editor

We feel sorry for conservative Republican politicians.

After all, it’s so difficult to hit a moving target.

When you’re on the other end of the political spectrum life is simple. We’re glad to have government’s hands in our Medicare, we like the idea of Social Security when we turn 62, we feel labor unions have a valuable purpose in protecting worker rights and we even accept scientific findings regarding global warming.

We support gay marriage, the teachings of Charles Darwin and public education.

We’re opposed to men telling women what they can, or can’t, do with their bodies. We’re opposed to torture under any circumstance. And we’re opposed to those who feel that being an American means that we can never, ever do any wrong.

We haven’t taken a poll lately, but we would wager that most liberals, progressives and Democrats - basically anyone to the left of Dwight D. Eisenhower would share those same core beliefs. Heck, I’d even wager that Ike would agree with most, if not all, of those same principles.

And that’s where the dilemma is for Republicans.

It’s not enough to say you’re a Republican or even a conservative. You have to really, really mean it.

And that’s the problem. In order to be a true, red, white and blue conservative you are constantly aiming for a target that keeps moving farther and farther to the right.

Just ask Mitt Romney. He’s constantly two steps behind the conservative movement because Rick Santorum and the Tea Party are sprinting so far to the right that Atilla the Hun is starting to look like Jimmy Carter.

This has got to be driving the Romney team crazy as their coronation has been put on hold. It’s impossible to map campaign strategy when Santorum keeps moving the dialogue into uncharted territory.

Santorum’s latest proposal is to eliminate all state and federal funding in education.

Who thinks of this stuff?

Furthermore, he is urging people to quit giving money to colleges and universities because they are “indoctrinating kids with left-wing ideology.”

Tell that to the bankers on Wall Street or to the talking heads on Fox News. How many of them jumped from high school into their current jobs so they could avoid the left-wing indoctrination?

Santorum wants to give states the right to outlaw contraception. We’re not even talking about Roe v Wade because, as every right-wing conservative knows, life begins before contraception.

He wants to raise the age for Social Security eligibility and privatize Medicare.

He wants to designate English as the official language of the United States and he opposes in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and even the children of those immigrants who are legal residents.

This is the candidate who swept primaries in the Midwest and seems to be in the strongest position to steal the nomination away from Romney.

Rather than be the voice of reason in the Republican Party, Romney instead chooses to play conservative leapfrog with Santorum which is a never-ending game because Santorum is always going to be three steps ahead.

Romney calls for building a 15-foot border fence between the U.S. and Mexico; Santorum calls for 20-feet. Romney wants to electrify the fence; Santorum wants to add a moat. Romney wants to beef up the number of agents patrolling the border; Santorum wants to have the border monitored by satellites from space that will use a laser beam to disintegrate anything that moves within 20 yards on the south side of the fence.

Romney wants to raise the age for Social Security eligibility; Santorum wants to raise the eligibility age to 68 and collect benefits already paid to those who are under the age of 68.

Romney has to realize he can’t win this game.

And neither will voters.

The Republican debate is being dictated by ideologues who see no room for compromise on immigration policy; who feel the answer to our economic problems is to take away the safety net for the poor, elderly and disabled; who want to control the smallest details in our lives, including the use of contraceptives; and who see no value in science when it disagrees with their views.

This is a base that is being manipulated into believing the only way for this nation to become an economic power is for the rich to become even richer at the expense of the poor and the middle class.

This is a political movement - if you want to call it that - built on social issues. It is not a movement that offers any solutions to improving education, rebuilding our economy or saving the middle class.

If eliminating the use of contraceptions is the foundation for building a better America then Santorum is your man. And if that’s what it takes to get elected, Romney will believe the same thing - or just about anything else.

As the Republican Party races against itself to see how far to the right it can go, the rest of us can only watch in astonishment.

It’s enough to make even a liberal pray for divine intervention . . . or at least a dose of common sense.

Rod Haxton can be reached at editor@screcord.com