America Is Purple

There’s been a lot of speculation on how and why the Republicans lost the election.  It could be as simple as the Democrats having a vastly better candidate, which certainly seems to be the case, however that does not explain the vast degree to which they lost.  The Republicans went from having control of the presidency, the supreme court, and both houses of congress to losing all of them (given the age of some of the supreme court justices, it’s only a matter of time.)  The speculation continues on what caused this but for my hypothosis I’d say it was the love.  Republicans lost the love.

There’s a bit of poetry in the book of Corinthians that says:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels,
but have not love,
I have become resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

The Republicans have been talking a good game, they haven’t changed their verbiage since Reagan.  But Reagan at least, as my friend put it so eloquently, “Believed in the inherent goodness of the American People.”  While many people have issues with Reagan’s policies, he honestly believed that Americans were good people and he believed that what he was doing was the right thing to do to help the country and the individuals living in it.  He loved Americans.

Since then, the love has been replaced by a quiet (and sometimes noisy) cynicism.  The Republicans lost when Bush failed in his response to Hurricane Katrina.  The Republicans lost when they stop-lossed our troups.  The Republicans lost when images of Walter Reed hospital were released.  The Republicans lost when they, as a party, stopped caring about average Americans.  Their idea was give enough to the rich and the wealth would eventually trickle down to the poor.  Though they gave eloquent speaches, they’re words became like clanging cymbals.

Now the Republicans are lost in the wasteland pointing fingers at each other and trying to figure out what went wrong.  We will wait and see whether they find the answers they are looking for, but unless they find the love, their reason for existing as an organization, it will be very difficult for them to return to power.   And really, we need the balance or the Republicans will go the way of Bull-Moose and the Whigs to be replaced by another party that finds something beautiful and worth fighting for in this wonderful experiment we call America.