Angry GOPers

This can be applied to democrats as well, but I wanted to focus on the GOP for a minute.

Anger! Everyday whether its on the television, radio internet, blogs, newspaper editorials, that's all I see/hear at the moment.

So why are republicans so angry? Why do they sound so angry, despite regaining control of Congress?

They just don’t argue with Democrats; they vilify them. Instead of disagreeing with President Obama’s policies, they call him a Hitler, a Stalin, a terrorist, a socialist, a communist, the anti-Christ, someone who hates whites - the list is endless. Republicans spew the same kind of ravenous rage towards Nancy Pelosi (who Im no fan of) and other prominent Democrats.





Why?



People say politics is a contact sport. Maybe it is. But the way Republicans approach it it is not a sport. In athletic sports we insist you follow the rules and that you respect the winner. Well, the winner is Barack Obama. At the very beginning of this administration, Rush Limbaugh, the titular hear of the Republican Party, said he wanted Obama to fail. Even the luminaries on Fox News immediately followed his lead, spitting daily invective against Obama, Democrats and anything even remotely related to Democrats. Republican legislators in Congress followed suit.



Pundits say it has always been this way. No, it has not always been this way. Sure, during election season the parties would throw dirt at each other. But after winners were chosen, the mud-slinging would diminish. There was a certain amount of respect each side had for the other side.



But in the last decade or so, Republicans have become emotional and irrational. Since Obama's election, Republicans have become hysterical. Just listen to the ridiculous stuff spouted by Limbaugh's lieutenants: Palin, Beck and Bachmann.



Why are Republicans hysterically angry? Why do people, in general, get angry? Because things do not work out the way they expected. Or because they don't know what to do in a crisis. Or because they realize that what they believed all their life is not true; this is sometimes called congnitive dissonance.



It seems to me that Republicans are faced with cognitive dissonance. Ever since Reagan, they believed in 2 immutable "laws":



1. Deregulation will produce a booming economy.



2. Tax cuts will increase government revenue





That's it!

Do deregulation produce a booming economy? In some cases yes & no.

So I did a little research & I found that the telecommunications and airlines industries were more successfully deregulated. This allowed more competition, and eventually lower prices for these services. However, many companies that could no longer compete went out of business, which had a negative effect on the economy.

On the other hand however, fraud occurred with a company called Enron, which essentially ended any further efforts to deregulate. Enron's fraud also hurt investors' confidence in the stock market, and led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

But back to the topic:

Although they may not admit it, some Republicans who have a brain can see that neither of these two "laws" is true. It should be obvious to them by now that sticking to these two "laws" was a big cause, perhaps the most important cause, of the current terrible economic depression, the worst since the 1930s. When Democrats denounce deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, Republicans have no rational retort. Their emotions run wild and crazy. They go ballistic criticizing Democrats.

To my angry Republican friends I say, Calm down and start using your head. It may help you build a more rational Republican program. If they took some of the anger out of their rhetoric maybe it'll increase their chances of picking up more African-Americans & regain the trust of the Hispanic Vote because they don't realize it, but that kind of spewing rhetoric makes some folks uneasy about becoming a republican, let alone voting for a republican