Most political platforms derive from long, drawn-out declarations regarding which the political parties expend considerable effort consulting with their many layers of organizational structures to finalize. It generally emanates in concept from the precinct caucuses and traverses through the many layers of political bureaucracy until it reaches a point of consensus.
But that seems not to be the case for the Republican Party for the forthcoming national election of 2012. The entire process seems to have been reduced to a single item, and that is the degradation and expunging of the current president — Barack Obama. Instead of the chant that political parties usually shout for reelection of an incumbent president of “four more years,” the chant this season is “no more years.”
Never mind the many conditions, both domestic and international, that it seems could be developed as platform themes for the Republican’s 2012 election year. It is almost ironic that they would choose only the destruction of President Obama as their mantra.
As a matter of fact, an entire new pseudo-political party has arisen whose primary function appears to be the demonization of the president. And who would one of the leaders of that party be? None other than one of the Republican candidates for president, Michele Bachmann.
Another irony, it seems, is that although Bachmann is a leading Republican candidate for president, she still maintains the position of chairperson of Republican Tea Party Caucus of U.S. House of the Representatives.
In the meantime, some of the Republican presidential hopefuls who are a little less vocal on outright damnation of the president seem to be gradually fading from front-page coverage (ex-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is an example), while the more flamboyant ones on the subject (like our own Sixth District Rep. by way of Iowa) is blossoming in publicity.
Likewise, a new brigade of shock-jocks of both radio and television have become top earners for devoting their entire daily formats to degrading the president and his programs. The unquestioned king of this crop is Rush Limbaugh.
With few exceptions, he devotes his daily three-hour stint to lambasting the president and his policies. According to his self-rating, he has the largest audience of any political show on the air.
One of the major targets motivating Republicans (and their allies in the press) is “Obamacare,” a term that they have coined to discredit the president’s efforts to make health care more available to more Americans at cheaper rates. Yet their leading candidate for president, at this point, Mitt Romney, fought for and won legislation in the state of which he was governor (Massachussets) very similar to what they are now calling “Obamacare.”
It is often stated that we are the only industrialized country in the universe without some form of built-in universal healthcare system. Instead of praising the Obama administration for taking a step away from that designation, there are those who seem content that we retain that title.
Matthew Little welcomes reader responses to mlittle@spokesman-recorder.com.
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