Chris Jepson: I'm beginning to believe

 “In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.” – H. L. Mencken

If you had told me last summer that Jeb Bush would be cut from the presidential race by February 2016, I’d have said, “No way.” I’m frequently wrong when it comes to predicting American politics. For example, I thought there was no chance that Ronald Reagan, a B-list shill for GE, could ever be elected president. “He’s but a minor actor,” I’d shout at my TV whenever some rightwing pundit praised his speaking performance, “he’s scripted for crying out loud!”

Everyone seems to be wondering, “What happened to the Republicans?” The ‘Pubs themselves are pulling their hair out, perplexed over their presidential choices. I grew up in a Republican household. My father once voiced profound disappointment of his law profession because you could now (in the ’60s) advertise legal services and he considered that a most degrading development. He’d “tch-tch,” over that. I can well imagine his disgust over Trump, Cruz and Rubio.

What does that mean? That the GOP today would be unable to count on my father to vote Republican? Another unfathomable I ask of Republicans is, “Whose ox is being gored and how does that impact you personally?” If you’re well off, your tax burden has dramatically lessened over the decades. So, I don’t think it logical that it is “well-off” Republicans who are embracing Trump or Cruz. These men want to rock the boat. Running the ship-of-state aground might be how historians one day describe what happened to America, should any of these wingnuts be elected.

This leaves the middle and lower income classes of the American conservative electorate being “earnestly” courted by the Cruz and Trump campaigns. And, this is the part I clearly do not understand, “What is the message that Republicans spin to win this demographic?”

For the life of me, is it because you (the whole pro-life/anti-gay/social issue demographic) consider every sperm sacred? Such that you knowingly sacrifice your own economic welfare and everyone else’s as some political quid pro quo to the corporate (lower taxes/fewer regulations) wing of the Republican Party? Quite legitimately, as an outsider, it’d be a tough call as to who exactly is the devil in this transaction.

But now the Republican electorate is angry. So, again, what is the Republican message?

I offer the following as to what Republicans want to achieve nationally, I call it the “Kansasfication of America.” Check out Kansas today. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is doing in a Midwest state what Republicans want to pursue nationally. Discredit and defund government (at all levels). That is the Republican plan for America when push comes to shove. It’ll do us good, build character, the ‘Pubs argue. Good and hard is how our democracy should be experienced.

So, economic policies undeniably antithetical to middle class Americans are enacted and our fellow conservative citizens scratch their collective heads in anger and befuddlement. They do so while embracing the simplistic Trumpian nonsense of “Make America Great Again.”

The “true-believers” who subscribe to such twaddle are every bit American as any of us. That makes it all so more problematic because, as political economist John Stuart Mill once observed, “Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.”

The fact is I don’t want to feel that way about my fellow citizens.