Grand Unifying Elastic Sphincter Theory

Above: You figure it out.

I alluded earlier to the continuing dilation of the American sphincter at the, uh, hands of the Republican Party. I'm now three days into this blog so I guess I ought to elaborate.

Seems hard to remember now but 40 years ago, there was something of a liberal consensus in this country. Sure, there were sharp divisions about civil rights and Vietnam, but nobody in the political mainstream questioned progressive taxation, Social Security, the dangers of unchecked corporate power, etc. Voters still had vivid memories of the Great Depression and had no desire to roll back the protections of the New Deal.

Then the success of the civil rights movement provided the impetus for the Southern strategy, Nixon's election in 1968 signaled the beginning of an era of Republican dominance in presidential elections, and Depression kids started dying off.

Right away, Republicans under Nixon started exploring ways of consolidating power in the executive branch for the purpose of weakening political opponents. At the time, this was considered shocking. Too much penetration all at once, baby. Watergate forced them to back off, but six years later they were back with Ronnie Reagan and enough momentum to win the Senate.

Thus began a solid twelve years of mostly unrestrained appointment of right-wing prosecutors, federal judges and Supreme Court justices. Sure, most of the justices weren't wingnuts, but Supreme Court justices come from the farm system of federal judges who come from the farm system of federal prosecutors. At that time, longtime Democratic control of the appointment and confirmation process prevented many unapologetic nutcases to receive those appointments. Reagan and Bush 41 replenished the farm system but the list of wingnuts with experience was so short that they had to reach for Robert Bork, a douchebag so odious that even casual news watchers found him totally nuts.

Well, the wingnut farm system for crackpot judges is fully stocked now and we're paying the price with the likes of Sam Alito and John Roberts. Ow. More stretching.

Meanwhile, the Republicans have done what they always do: focus on sucking as much money into their own pockets as they possibly can. They made deregulation popular and then chuckled as they plundered savings and loans, banks, subprime borrowers, California electric customers, Iraqi oil fields, the public treasury, you name it. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. Ow!

And yet there's very little outrage about any of this. It's expected. Free enterprise is always right! And the news media? Fuhgeddabouddit. (Hat tip: Liz.) Bought out, whole, by the Republican establishment. Ow. Our information channels are polluted. Ow ow ow.

So, manufacturing is gone overseas, wage security has become a thing of the past, wage growth just another fatcat chuckle while record profits go into Republican pockets. All this unthinkable just forty years ago... today, it's no big deal. We're fully dilated while Bush the petulant manchild invades countries just to prove he can, destroys our rights in order to save them, has his thugs blow the cover of covert agents as political retaliation. We're numb. Get stretched out this far and pretty soon you don't even feel anything anymore.

That's right about the time the hemorrhaging starts. Don't think that the GOP is bothered about fucking us to death. That's the whole point. Once they get their permanent underclass, their cold lifeless bloody rectum populi, then the necrophilia party begins in earnest.

First one to say that Hillary's gonna put a stop to this gets the Astroglide taken away.