The Church of the Latter Day Republicans

I had a wonderful retired businessman friend named Skinny Grooms.  He taught me a lot about life in business, and the business of life.

One of the things he used to say was, “When you see a situation which you just cannot understand, look for the money.”    I have found that to be a great truth.

A couple of years later, a waggish friend of mine appended the extension, “…..if the money doesn’t explain it, look for the BJ, it will be one or the other of those two.”

For today, however, let’s stay with Skinny and his dictum.  While Skinny was addressing American business practices, I have found that the same rule can be applied to religion and politics as well.  And it can particularly be applied at that strange three-way intersection where Big Business, Religion, and Politics all meet--the crossroads of greed that is the Republican Party.

And, please, don’t try to say that the Republican Party isn’t all about money because, “So many poor white people vote Republican.”  As Sinclair Lewis said, those poor white people have been taught by a cynical media to see themselves not as impoverished, but as “temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”  In a party that denies both climate change and evolution, of COURSE the members can be deluded into thinking their millions will be arriving any day now.  Clear, rational thinking is not encouraged among the rank and file ‘Pubbies. And, this year, who can blame them for thinking, “If a guy as dumb as Trump can make billions, I’ll have mine soon.”

However, there’s one way of looking at the current Republican coalition which can yield both fright, and hope.  The Republican Party now slouching toward Washington looks more like a religion than a political organization.  It requires blind obedience from its members; it expects acceptance of certain “gospel” tenants without question or examination; and it operates strictly on a “we/they”, “communicant/ apostate” model of duality.  You are either a member of the church, or you are deservedly damned to hell.  A hell they have under construction, and which is NOT being built by Union Labor.

That’s the fear part—an American Taliban run amuck and given power.

The hope part is that built into the very fiber of the religion model of politics as practiced by the Republicans is the disintegration of the party.  As religions grow, and pull in disparate groups, they begin to become internally unstable, and the major denomination soon splits into competing, viciously competing, smaller denominations.  Think, Roman Catholics and Protestants, the various branches of Lutherans, the competing Presbyterian factions, the Baptists of many colors, even the Sunni and Shi’a Muslims.  Religionists never hate anyone as much as they hate their slightly different thinking brothers and sisters.

Right now, the Republican Party is made up of three primary strains.  The traditional Republicans of country clubs and Episcopalian piety.  The group made up of the various stripes of white supremacists, white nationalists, NRA paranoids, and haters of government in any form.  The strange bedfellow mix of Catholics and Evangelical culture warriors who will “hold their nose” and vote for anyone who promises to ostracize gays and outlaw abortion.

The aims and agendas of those three groups are greatly at odds with one another.  Eventually, single-issue voters must somehow be appeased and their demands delivered, or they are liable to march out of the Prom, tearing down the crepe paper banners as they go.  And the internecine warfare is going to be far uglier than anything we’ve seen between the above bunches and their “liberal” whipping boys.  While there will be anger and slashing aplenty, in the end the controlling group will still be the money group.  Money after all, as the above business observation holds, rules.  And money is STILL the grease of American politics.  The billions waiting to be stolen will not be found in KKK rallies, clinic closings, or denying wedding cakes to lesbians.  The billions will win out.

The Church of the Latter Day Republican is splintering.  Watch and enjoy.  And be sure not to be hit by any of the gargoyles falling from the roof.