While the rhetoric aimed at President Obama the past two years has been worse than anything aimed at President Bush during his presidency, it’s nevertheless true that both the Left and the Right use hyperbole to tarnish their political opponents. The Right does this with greater frequency and ferocity, and I reject all notion of equivalency, but this doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem on the Left.
At the same time our increasingly vulgar, uninformed, and sensationalist media culture only makes matters worse by rewarding the loudest and most ignorant voices with the most air time. One particularly disturbing trend is allowing individuals to compare politicians and policies they don’t like to Nazis and fascism; demonization along these lines this should automatically disqualify anybody from being taken seriously.
But sometimes strong moral language is needed to describe the actions of politicians, political parties, and specific ideas and ideology. One of my major criticisms of Democrats and progressives is the infrequency with which they frame policy discussions in simple, value-laden terms—right and wrong, good and bad.
Which brings me to the question that headlines this piece: is it hyperbole to describe the modern-day Republican Party as “evil”? Even entertaining the question will strike some as extreme, but I think the facts warrant a close inspection.
First, let me say unequivocally that I in no way think the Republican Party’s moral failings put them on a par with a surfeit of unquestionable evil in the world: the severe oppression that occurs daily in most Arab dictatorships, the genocide in Sudan and the Congo, the crimes against children perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church. But “evil” is not a binary concept; there is a spectrum, and it’s fair to consider whether the goals and actions of the modern GOP put them anywhere on it.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary lists multiple definitions of evil: morally reprehensible, arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct, causing harm. By these definitions, any serious examination of Republican priorities and actions over the last two years demonstrates that the term “evil” is a fair descriptor.
Let’s begin with GOP opposition to Obama’s healthcare bill (which passed) and energy legislation (which didn’t). In both cases Republicans opposed policies they once supported for no other purpose than to deny Obama and the Democrats a victory; in both cases, they put Party politics over the national interest. The healthcare bill that Obama eventually signed is comprised almost exclusively of Republican ideas that have been around for decades. The same goes for the now-dead cap and trade bill: it was the product of conservative Republican ideology, and was part of the 2008 Republican presidential platform.
Both issues reflect far more than abstract ideas or principles. Healthcare affects all Americans, especially the 42 million who have none; energy legislation to curb climate change may literally determine the quality of life for all future generations. If Republican objections had been based on differing approaches to tackling these issues, that would have been one thing; but they were obstructing for obstruction’s sake, and nothing more. With so much at stake, this type of opposition to score political points can reasonably be described as evil.
On the issues that defined the lame duck session of Congress, Republicans did no better. They blocked a vote on the once-bipartisan DREAM Act, denying tens of thousands of innocent children and young adults the opportunity to get a college education or serve in the military. Almost all Republicans voted against the repeal of DADT (and the GOP even tried to insert a reversal of the repeal into the defense authorization bill, three days after DADT was repealed in the Senate). The GOP also blocked a bill to pay medical expenses for 9/11 first responders, backing down only after being shamed for days by the media, including Fox News’s Shep Smith. Republicans called the $7.6 billion price tag too high—even though it was entirely paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes, and Republicans just days before had added more than 100 times this amount to the deficit by continuing the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
That, of course, was the one thing Republicans remained committed to at every step: keeping tax breaks for the rich, the richer, and the richest, up to and including the estates of billionaires. In order to help the already wealthy, the GOP stood ready to hold up tax breaks for the middle class and unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who lost their jobs, and often their homes, through no fault of their own.
These documented and continuing stances of the GOP put the interests of the privileged and the powerful above all else, and showed little to no empathy for anybody else—not for the gays being discriminated against, not for the illegal aliens living in the shadows, not for those down and out because of the excesses of others. If these actions can’t be considered “evil,” we need a new definition.
The modern-day GOP has earned the label. Until Republicans change their ways, this is how their actions should be described.
Jason Scorse