by
The Republicans are sure teaching this country a lesson. But not the one they think they are.
As they continue to espouse scripture from their crazed, craven syllabus, there are of course those willing students who hear and absorb the fundamental components of their flat earth/scorched earth philosophy and go forth to apply what they have learned.
But what the Republican lesson plans don't account for is their own party's demise.
For every band width crammed with vitriol, there is another, accidentally subliminal wave which radiates alongside, detected and absorbed accidentally by the human being's innate capacity for good, of knowing right from wrong. And the collateral damage is enlightenment.
In Germany, the lessons learned after experiencing life and death under National Socialism were ingrained into that nation's essence and passed on to subsequent generations who observe the consequences of their own terrible history with reverence and solemnity. Of course there are scattered cells containing remnants of the old guard, straining to remain relevant, and failing.
Here in America, the so-called Tea Baggers have regularly invoked Nazi imagery with little understanding of the labels they so callously and carelessly apply. This is because they have never known life under National Socialism, never known true oppression, never known the terrors inflicted upon them in the form of a steel toed boot to the face or the burning of a home by shrieking militia or the extermination of a daughter, father, mother or son.
They just "know" what they have been told is so. And just like their predecessors in early 20th century Germany, they trust the loudest, the most incendiary, the most divisive. It's easy math, easy grammar, easy learning.
But we are all finding out what life is like where the fruits of a Republican education are in full bloom. We saw what it yielded after eight years of Republican domination under Bush and we see what it yields with Republican fueled media outlets.
And someday the citizens who followed those teachings in tragic lockstep will find out that the education they received was as deceptive as the one their predecessors in early 20th century Germany received. And then, the lesson learned the hard way, the American people will really know.
And "Republican" will be a shameful, hateful word.