GOP future would not be warm and fuzzy

In her Aug. 29 column (“As convention unfolds, some misconceptions about Republicans”), Jennifer Rubin uses her “Washington insider” status to, ostensibly, clue us in to what Republicans really think, but she has instead produced a litany of what they say they think, as far as I can tell, in the process resembling a parrot who undiscerningly disgorges whatever he hears. For instance:

Republicans stress reliance on “community” instead of government. But we see examples everywhere of “community” failing those who could use its solicitude. “Community” in this country seems to be little more than insularity.

And why go to the noisy trouble of dismantling regulatory agencies when you can just hamstring their efforts at every opportunity and stay under the radar? Of course, if the bodies they regulate possessed that coveted “community” perspective, perhaps they wouldn't have to be constrained from poisoning/cheating/robbing/otherwise brutalizing the rest of us in pursuit of profit. Can you say Bernie Madoff?

The GOP is indeed obsessed with social issues, in the sense that it must pacify its Neanderthal “base,” yet then quickly finesse its positions in order to avoid alienating everybody else. I have no idea what Mitt Romney really thinks. And the Tea Party coup has accomplished nothing more than making it politically impossible for Republicans to compromise.

Please keep in mind what the entities that bankroll high-minded GOP platitudes so lavishly (and Dems are nearly as bad) really want. Warm and fuzzy it is not.

Cindy Adhikari

Cedar Rapids