| The true "conservative" party has always been about excessive military spending, 1950s era family/social values, religious extremism, ideological paranoia and tax reduction. The incredible and invariable hypocrisy of the Republican right is that in the history of the US, no other party/group has spent as much money on defense or been as active in instituting aggression in otherwise peaceful periods. They are the only party that can speak of "reducing government, lowering taxes, and securing peace for all times" in the same breath as they announce a "a request for spending for a new military budget which will ensure the US remains the dominant military power in world affairs for the foreseeable future". The Republican party of the last 60 years has shown a capacity for ideological duplicity and double speak that should make the Nazi and Stalinist Regimes of the past stand up and take notice between terrors. It is often presumed that this psychopathological dichotomy reached it's apogee in the 80s era administration of Ronald Reagan, but the more realistic assessment is that it has been a slow running stream throughout the last 6 decades. One of the more incredible elements of their charade is that they haven't lowered taxes in historical comparison to other nations. The nations of Europe certainly face higher inflation (the republicans of future generations will soon realize no one escapes inflation no matter what party they are aligned with or their family values) and have higher taxes yet the taxes are the result of a substitution or a trade off for meaningful social services. By comparison, the social unity of the US has been consistently and shamelessly undermined by the core republican belief that "some people are just better than others". Many businesses and individuals alike are only too happy to join this congress of elitist thought as it validates (and quite erroneously) the shining individuality that they all aspire to in their otherwise average conformist lives. It is said that when there is a vacuum of authority, the most ruthless spirit must necessarily win. This statement is verified if not edified by the Nixon Administration, a band of criminal thugs, who at any political debate society would be only too happy to share their strategies for success in intrigue and moral desensitization with the worst elements of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes. Incredibly, except for Nixon, until the present Bush Administration, the average American couldn't even conceive of being confronted with what amounted to the "tip of the iceberg" in surveillance, terror, and political intrigue that characterized the years of Stalin. However, in the past 8 years, the Republican party has made great strides in reforming America towards a set of values more in keeping with the tendencies of the Soviet Bloc. Between Nixon and Bush Jr, the sheer atrocities committed upon individuals with and without health insurance suffering from chronic diseases would make even the UN open an eyelid. The attempts at the rollback of virtually every form of civil liberty in the wake of 9/11 must certainly have caught the interest of Stalin in the afterlife. One can only imagine the smug chuckle that came from his throat when he surveyed the American landscape and took a moment to analyze the shifts in political policy. "They fought a 75 year war against a book and a politics that they are now embracing and yet we soviets are ignorant? how can this be?" It is only because of the fortitude of the American legal process and the foresight of the constitutional founders that the Republican party has not gotten away with even more ideological chicanery. If Abraham Lincoln were to view the track record of the Republican party after his death, he would assassinate himself. Herbert Hoover's policy of "volunteerism in spending" to stimulate the economy out of the great depression was a notable low point in farsightedness and reflection. Nevertheless, being stupid is not the same as being criminal and the most disturbing development in politics has been the Republican embrace of criminality, from watergate and the kaiser plan to iran contra to the first iraq war and then onwards towards the shining future of the patriot act. The sheer number of "regime changes" instituted by the CIA in the last 50 years with the goal of "modernizing" developing nations for "business interests" and the lives lost as a result would literally make Jesus ask if it was still worth it to preach. Admittedly, the democratic party played its own shortsighted part in this too, but the real high point seems to have been the 1980s when the CIA attempted to colonize virtually all of South and Central America through covert military force. It would certainly strengthen the case against republicanism to discuss the utter smugness and naivete that characterizes the "social/religious right wing" but everyone knows those people in their neighborhood and truth be told it would be no less if they were purged right along with the criminal types like Nixon. In a nation with a 50% divorce rate, a world beating murder and child abuse rate and not a few rapes in between, they can't all be non christian democrats or third party members can they? History has always rewarded hypocrisy with recasting as evidenced by the current vogue of capitalism in the soviet union and the current trend in the US towards fewer liberties. Where oh where will the christian right wing end up? As Europe and Africa form unions for political representation, south america may soon follow and the place of the US at the head of the table, already very uncertain economically in light of the resources of Russia and the rise of China, may soon be just as imperiled in foreign policy charades. But if the conservatives have anything to say about it, that won't happen because no good criminal walks by the jailhouse willingly.  | 
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