The Embarrassed Republican: Stop, Don’t, Come Back ...

Still thumping their chests angrily, some Republicans are determined to continue with the “all conspiracy, all the time” rhetoric of the Presidential campaign.  All this week we have been treated to suicides, threats of emigration and wild talk of secession all due to the re-election of the President.  Really?  The suicide is really sad, mentally disturbed sad.  The emigration talk is just funny.  I mean, you’re going to Canada or Australia because you hate the idea of socialized medicine?  Have you actually looked into this?  The ridiculous secession talk comes from firmly Red state citizens, who probably don’t realize that they get more federal dollars back than they pay out.  Don’t expect a lot of support from your state government on that, or pleas to stay from the Northeast blue states who pay a lot more in than they ever get back.

At a time when it looks very much like Congress is going to get down to business and start to work on the biggest problems, this is all just noise.  More divisive noise proving these Republicans haven’t learned a thing from the election.  Obama didn’t win by getting Americans to revile one class or another.  He didn’t win by ridiculing the “47%” of  so called “Moochers.”  He won by appealing to everyone, all classes, all races, everyone.  A lot of Republicans have figured this out and they are rejecting the ideas and words of those that haven’t.  The party cleaning is in progress, watch out for the wet floor.  We don’t want to crack your head open on the way out.

So when I hear that Papa Johns is raising their prices and shortening employee hours because of “Obamacare”,  I wonder just how long it will take for the moderate Republicans to call them out.  The same goes for the Applebees guy in New York and the Hurricane Grill & Wings owner in Florida.  It’s not “just business” dudes, it’s politics, plain and simple.  You’re playing politics with your employee’s health, shame on you.  P.S.  By the way, you’re not beleaguered small businesses, you’re multi-million dollar cheapos.

The same and more goes for Coal King Robert Murray, who fired 150 workers and blames Obama.  Mr. Murray forgets to mention that it’s the new availability of natural gas that’s killing the coal business.  Natural gas is cheaper, cleaner to burn and very plentiful lately.  But that hasn’t stopped him from cowardly blaming the President and his clean energy stance.   I’m surprised he didn’t include Healthcare as part of the problem, he’s probably got a good idea of what coal does to the people who mine it.  He gets the award for “phony of the year.”

Not that these guys are getting a lot of sympathy for their tragic plights.  Too bad most Americans are looking forward to finally bargaining their way in to the 21st century and could care less about a bunch of filthy rich guys who are stuck in the “You’re lucky to have this job” 18th century.  Sorry, doing business in the US comes with the responsibility for the health and safety of your employees. Most Americans are looking forward to a cleaner energy future.  Most businesses have already figured that out and they will gladly eat your lunch if you want to play politics with it.  I can see the boycotts and petitions now.

It is a good sign that the magazine Red State has come out strongly against these types of Neanderthal tactics.  “We here at RedState are American citizens. We have no plans to secede from the union. If you do, good luck with that, but this is not the place for you.”

The same kind of thing is happening to former candidate Romney, Republicans are quietly showing him the door. His comments on a recent donor call about Obama’s “gifts that bought the election” smacked of his “47%” comments in the spring and the party doesn’t want anymore of that.  The President did throw him a small bone this week suggesting that a meeting to discuss ideas might be a good thing.  Don’t hold your breath though.

With any luck the party will smarten up and learn that excluding people is not the way to win elections or govern.  Neither is declaring birth certificates false,  accusing leaders of communist conspiracy or dreaming up vast “secret” powers who plot against America.  I really liked what Governor Bobby Jindal had to say this week ““We have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent.“   Amen.