Republicans Have The Same Misconceptions Of Reagan As They Do Jesus

What's wrong with republicans?

Today's republican party are politically the biggest and most stubborn babies perhaps in the history of the US; certainly since World War II. They're a bunch of anti-birth control, anti-middle class, anti-secularist, anti-evolution, anti-science, climate change denialists who have been completely bought and sold by their corporate fundraisers. They hate the President with a passion and are willing to disrupt government and jeopardize the welfare of the people just to prevent him from getting any serious bills passed because they don't want him to leave the White House with a positive legacy. Any time you hear a republican sound off on science, sexuality or economics you can almost guarantee that you're going to be hearing something profoundly idiotic.

Republicans have two dead heroes that they love to put up on a pedestal and idolize: Ronald Reagan and Jesus Christ. And what makes these two icons of the republican part so odd, is that if you really look at what each of them did and said, it is antithetical to their primary agenda. While the hypocrisy is astounding, it's what you'd expect from an anti-intellectual party.

Let's look at former President Ronald Reagan, the political icon of the republican party, who all party members must speak about with the utmost admiration. Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times when he was in office, he gave blanket amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, he traded arms with terrorists, he nearly tripled the federal deficit, and he increased the size of government. Reagan wouldn't even be able to win a primary in today's republican party because he'd be too far to the left. And yet, republicans have this image of Reagan as the ideal president - a model for every future republican with presidential aspirations. But his record clearly deviates from the modern script the party has devised today. Reagan was willing to compromise, he was sometimes willing to do the right thing and get government moving by finding a middle ground between his party's ideology and the left's. Compromise has become a dirty word today in the republican party and as a result we've got a congress that is the least productive in history.

The spiritual icon of the republican party is of course Jesus Christ. Every republican has to name Jesus as the most important person who ever lived. Doing so let's the evangelical base of the party know that they've got a politician whose spiritual views are right up their alley. But why is Jesus the spiritual icon of the republican party? To me it makes little sense. If you consider Jesus' philosophy, it is antithetical to many of the core values of the republican party. Jesus was anti-capitalist, who spoke over and over again about the evils of money. Jesus championed the poor and loathed the rich, saying:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” — Luke 6:20-21

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.” — Luke 6:24-25

“Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there you heart will be also.” —Luke 12:3

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” — John 6:28

It is clear that Jesus' philosophy warns against the materialistic wealth we so desire and that the republican party champions. They are the party of free markets and profit before people. This is something completely antithetical to what Jesus was for.

And one of the most famous passages of the Bible is when Jesus says:

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." —Matthew 19:24

The modern republican party has transformed Jesus into a free market capitalist who warns of the dangers of big government, when in reality Jesus said:

"So give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." —Matthew 22:21

Not only is this a recognition of one's duty to their government, it is also an admission that government and god are separate entities a la secularism - another thing the republican party wants to destroy. And when it came to family, Jesus said that he came to turn family member against family member and that Jesus was to be loved above all else.

"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." —Matthew 10:35-39

So much for the family.

The anti-gay marriage stance in the party is also out of line with Jesus who said nothing about homosexuality according to the gospels. Jesus was a socialist, anti-capitalist, big government recognizing, anti-family preacher whom the modern republican party has little in common with. If Jesus were alive today and were running as a republican in the US he wouldn't even be able to make it to the primary.

This highlights the conservative religious mind in a nutshell. They don't actually care about facts or the truth. They only care about the version of the truth they believe in in their minds. That's why they prefer to plug their ears when you give them the facts about evolution or climate change or economic policy. They want to live in a make believe world in a bubble that they've created that bears no resemblance to reality. Just tune into Fox News or read Worldnet Daily on any given day and see what I'm talking about. Facts are irrelevant to republicans, ideology is all that matters. And many of us are gloating at the dismal future prospects of this party that is slowly killing itself.