In politics, to quote Yogi Berra: You don’t know nothin’—and that goes double for the Know Nothing Party.
The Grand Old Party, formerly known as “Republican,” has now officially adopted the “Just Say No” mantra in a way that not even Nancy Reagan could be proud of.
“No” is not exactly news but not exactly not news either. John McCain, The Great Compromiser, is a case in point. Once known as a “maverick” not afraid to speak his mind, the last of the Republican Presidential nominees is barely a dim bulb compared to his former self, now emitting a faint aura in lieu of light or heat.
The Senator from Arizona, facing a primary throwdown with hyperconservative J. D. Hayworth, was for the bailout bill before he was against it; for closing Guantanamo Bay until he was against it; for military leaders allowing gays in the service until he was against it; and for campaign finance reform until the conservatives in the United States Supreme Court gave corporations all the rights of free speech.
You can’t blame John McCain for practicing politics most base. Any Republican with a nose for survival is right behind him, butt-sniffing the wants and needs of the great unwashed. Disobey the Ten Commandments—from God and/or the Tea Party—and your future as an elected official is secure as a full term for Sarah Palin in Alaska.
Scott Brown, the spanky Republican Senator from Massachusetts, got the new word from the get-go by voting for health care reform as a State Senator before opposing it as the filibuster-busting candidate for the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s sinecure. Senator Brown knows all about the Know Nothing Party.
You can’t tell the floppers from the flippers. The seven Republican Senators who sponsored pay-as-you-go legislation were for it until President Barack Obama was in favor, and then they were against it, by gum. Republican Congressional parishioners were always in favor of cutting spending until President Obama gave the thumbs-up to a partial federal spending freeze (17 percent of the total budget), at which point the were again agin it. And the ’Publicans were all about transparency in the health care debate until the President called their bluff by suggesting they all get naked at Blair House February 25, 2010.
As for the Supreme Court, the conservatives are all about narrow interpretations and not making law until they get a chance to overturn something they don’t like, like limits on corporate free speech.
Sounds a little nutty, doesn’t it—but that’s the way things roll in the Know Nothing Party, where history, precedent, and logic are tossed out at the first signs of electoral agita. To Know Nothing means you don’t even know when you’re in deep trouble.