Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Hasan’s polemical take on politics, economics and foreign affairs

The Republicans are "an apocalyptic cult"

. . . says a former Republican Congressional staffer.

By Mehdi Hasan Published 05 September 2011 17:39

On Saturday, the website Truthout published a must-read "confessional" essay by a former "GOP operative", who "left the cult". Mike Lofgren, says the byline, "retired on 17 June after 28 years as a Congressional staffer. He served 16 years as a professional staff member on the Republican side of both the House and Senate budget committees." According to the Atlantic's James Fallows, "Among people who have covered or worked in the national-security field, he is a familiar and highly esteemed figure. He spent 28 years as a Congressional staffer, mainly on budget matters, mainly in the defense-and-security realm, and mainly for Republican legislators."

Lofgren's piece is a searing, scathing, no-holds-barred polemical assault on the modern Republican Party:

The Democrats have their share of machine politicians, careerists, corporate bagmen, egomaniacs and kooks. Nothing, however, quite matches the modern GOP.

To those millions of Americans who have finally begun paying attention to politics and watched with exasperation the tragicomedy of the debt-ceiling extension, it may have come as a shock that the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. To be sure, the party, like any political party on earth, has always had its share of crackpots, like Robert K Dornan or William E Dannemeyer. But the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital centre today: Steve King, Michele Bachmann (now a leading presidential candidate, as well), Paul Broun, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Allen West. The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy.

It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, they would use that fiscal crisis to get what they wanted, by literally holding the US and global economies as hostages.

He reveals the unbridled and unprecedented cynicism of his former right-wing colleagues:

A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.

A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media.

And Lofgren hits the nail on the head when he writes:

It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological, authoritarian parties of 20th-century Europe.

Read the whole piece -- it's long but worth it. I only wish the mainstream US media, tainted by its "centrist cop-out", would give it more prominence and notice.

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Tags: The far right Republicans US Politics Barack Obama

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29 comments

Thu, 2012-04-05 23:40 — Rihari Wilson (not verified)

I do. Isn't the spiritual wing of Fox News?

Tue, 2011-09-06 22:40 — Lox (not verified)

Rclayton, it's advantageous for the republicans to disrupt congress when there's a democrat president, and vice versa. And as far as appeal to the electorate is concerned, you seem to presuppose that the electorate don't like big government. Good for them-neither do I.

Tue, 2011-09-06 01:14 — Julia Harris (not verified)

What about the Satanic Verses?

Tue, 2011-09-06 01:16 — Lox (not verified)

Oh for christ's sake, anon. Do you really believe that the republican party is an apocalyptic cult? Really?

Tue, 2012-02-07 16:55 — freedemocrat

You've got to admire Mehdi Hasan's "chutzpa" in knocking the Republicans for being an apocalytic cult. Is this the same Mehdi Hasan who is an apologist for the apocalytic cult of Islam?

Wed, 2011-09-07 08:17 — pig (not verified)

A narrow stomach may be filled to its satisfaction, but a narrow mind will never be satisfied, not even with all the riches of the world.

Sat, 2011-09-17 10:51 — Bartlebian (not verified)

I remember an Al Franken line on Letterman or such - 'conservatives say government doesn't work. Then they get into power and prove it'. Thomas Frank wrote a very good book on the matter, The Wrecking Crew. And of course, it's also done with the most stunning cynicism and corruption, lining the pockets of themselves and their friends.

And yes, the present Republicans are terrifying - see Bill Hicks' line about fundamentalist Revelations believers with their finger on the button - 'tell me when, Lord! Tell me when!'. Maybe I'm being charitable to assume Obama isn't all that comfortable with how things are going. But up against the likes of Bachman or Perry, I'll take the literate, intelligent one. There may not be much of a difference, but what there is is enough.

There is some part of me that would like to see them get into power and actually carry out what they want to, to see how the capitalist fundamentalists liked it.

Sat, 2011-09-17 11:43 — Luddite (not verified)

Mehdi know's all about "apocalyptic cults" that is so true Julia!! Halim Uddin. The United States is in a deep financial malaise because of suffocating private and state debt that's also true. Taxes need to increase, state spending massively reduced, Foreign wars can no longer be financed along with Obama's ill-conceived health-care bill. In Britain these painful and difficult choices are being made. America and European will also have to face painful and difficult choices and face reality. That's something many on the political-left refuse to do?

Tue, 2011-09-06 08:45 — philiph35

Try reading the article. It is very well set out and argued and I thank Mr Hasan for pointing it out

Tue, 2011-09-06 08:47 — Not A Roy (not verified)

Mehdi, last I checked you were doing Ramadan which is sort of following a cult yourself. Pot Kettle, No?

Wed, 2012-02-15 09:08 — Federico

The United States is in a deep financial malaise because of suffocating private and state debt that's also true. Taxes need to increase, state spending massively reduced, Foreign wars can no longer be financed along with Obama's ill-conceived health-care bill. In Britain these painful and difficult choices are being made. America and European will also have to face painful and difficult choices and face reality. http://www.besthomeimprovementideas.org/

Sat, 2012-01-07 15:40 — Allan (not verified)

Mehdi - the greatest example of an apocalyptic cult I can think of - is ISLAM. I can't think of anything more uglier, nihilistic, aggressive, human-hating and all round crass - as this ideology you believe in and actively support.

Allah Akbar' indeed.

Tue, 2011-09-06 10:49 — swatantra

This is the equivalent of saying that the Tories were the 'Nasty Party' But he may have a point, if the Republicans shift towards the Neocon Christian Fundamentalist Tea Party Faction, then indeed they will be seen as a Cult, in the same way that the Nazi Party waa cult, with all the trappings glitz and glamour of a cult. Very scary.

Tue, 2011-09-06 12:38 — Marcus (not verified)

@Not A Roy - Yes, and all religions are cults aimed at societal control.

Personally, i do not understand people that believe in fairies, ghosts and goblins. To me believing in an entity that there is absolutely zip evidence for based on blind indoctrinated faith is a complete cop-out and removes a level of personal responsibility from the individual.

I respect the views of those with remain to be convinced about a higher entity rather more than the blind believers.

Three thousand years ago we worshiped the sun and the stars. Then we worshiped entities and personalities that looked out for us.

These days are coming to an end. Its almost unspoken, but science is winning the battle for the conscious and unconscious mind.

A thousand years from now we will be worshiping nothing apart from our own existence in nature. We will look back at how primitive and nieve we all were.

@swatantra nandanwar - Agreed. It is a big worry, but the population there will make the choice they want to make.

Hopefully they will see the light and vote for Ron Paul. I doubt it though. Despite incredible ground-level support and winning most debates, the right-wing media are cutting him out because they are scared of his non-Republican libertarian revolution.

Looking more like a Perry - Obama duel next year.

Tue, 2011-09-06 13:16 — Smiler (not verified)

ronnie was an outsider once

Wed, 2011-09-14 12:38 — Halim Uddin (not verified)

Again you have a whole host of Islamophobes commenting on this article which is totally irrelevant to the discussion. These people really have nothing constructive to say about any debate. Someone is chastising Mehdi for not speaking out about gays, this article is about the Republican Party you moron! Cult may be going too far, but the Republican's are fast shifting further and further to the right. We're all in this together but they refuse to raise a cent on the taxes of their gazillionaire funders.

Wed, 2012-02-15 18:29 — Buckskins (not verified)

Naaa, crank up the presses and send the chinks a boatload of dollar bills.

Wed, 2012-02-15 18:51 — John Cheese (not verified)

No Dem Senate budget for over 1,000 days! Red states are cleaning up their budgets- it can be done! As W Europe flames out, the US has a choice of 2 paths. 0bam's still promising goodies...

Mon, 2012-02-13 09:49 — Claus-Erik Hamle (not verified)

The Pentagon aims to achieve a disarming first strike capability-www.plrc.org. On the missiles in Bulgaria, Romania and Poland Bob Aldridge wrote: "Whether they are on ships or land, they are still a necessary component for an unanswerable first strike." This leads to Launch On Warning and Nuclear War by mistake. I´ll recommend Risaralda in Caldas in Colombia. It seems we blow it all up now and then-www.mcremo.com

Mon, 2011-09-12 13:31 — Julia Harris (not verified)

Islam is an apocalyptic cult.

Mon, 2011-09-05 19:38 — Lox (not verified)

An entire article based on one-perhaps dissatisfied-person's observations. This isn't journalism, Mehdi. It's lazy garbage, and you've wilfully avoided questioning the comments in the third quote you present: do you really think that republican politicians have such integrity that they'd surrender power for smaller government? Have you actually looked at the record of republican administrations in terms of their bribes to special interest groups and the tendency-one they share with democrats-to extend the power of the state?

Mon, 2011-09-05 19:45 — Jonathan da Silva (not verified)

It's equally befuddling that the drone strike king who claimed to decry torture and rendition but has not stopped them is considered the preferred candidate by most over here [UK]. Is the author trying to say he is more rational and sane?

Worse the economics of Obama's Administration are the same idiot stuff of Brown and the IMF. We should worry the idiots will take over the asylum if not next year certainly in 4 years time.

Thu, 2011-09-15 16:45 — Andyb (not verified)

"Do you really believe that the republican party is an apocalyptic cult? Really?"

Err...yes!

Fri, 2011-09-09 19:33 — Herring (not verified)

Has Mehdi "non-moslems live like animals" Hasan not got a problem with his own islamist death CULT that stones its own women to death and hangs teenage boys from cranes for being GAY?

Tue, 2011-09-06 21:04 — Rclayton (not verified)

Lox.
It's not what the GOP actually does that matters but what they are perceived to do. So long as the general population see the party as anti-big government it is advantageous for them to disrupt congress.

Wed, 2011-09-07 21:29 — Billy (not verified)

"The Republicans are "an apocalyptic cult"...

+++++

Sounds just like Islam, the religion that demonises non Muslims as 'kaffars' who are like 'cattle' and animalistic. When are you going to dissent from the cult, Mehdi?