Thank You to the Republican Party (earmuffs)

Perhaps you had the same reaction I did when you saw the self aggrandizing ad that the Oregon Republican party has put out recently: have they finally gone completely batshit krazy, or as my students would put more succinctly, "WTF!?"
I mean, I get it, they realize that they need some serious PR, but this recent ad is just about as genuine as trying to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese while your planes napalm villages and your army massacres civilians.
The ad is just another example of the Republican party using a Machiavellian political tactic (see divide and conquer, or the use of fear to control the population). Consider the following, taken from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, "A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it." The recent Republican ad is nothing more than this--attempting to walk in past accomplishments of other Republicans who came before, specifically civil war era party members and Ronald Reagan.
So they attempt to appeal to environmentalists by heralding the fact that a Republican, Ulysses S. Grant, signed a bill that created the Yellowstone, the first National park. They attempt to cleanse themselves of racism by citing the fact that the first black U.S. congressman and state governor were Republicans. They then appeal to their base by noting the Reagan and Bush era tax cuts, and the absurd claim that Republicans help make American "the land of the free." All of these facts are available on the Oregon Republican Party website.
What they fail to mention is that any accomplishments in the post civil war era were going to be accomplished by Republicans de facto, because the Union army and U.S. government at the time was held by the Republican party. Moreover, at that time, it would have indeed been insane for an African Americans to join the any other party, because prior to the war most Southern States were governed by Democrats, and the Republicans were the anti-slavery party. Then again, that was over 140 years ago. At the last Republican convention, only 1.5% of the delegates were African American, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
They also gloss over the fact that while they did cut taxes, both Reagan and W. are responsible for the biggest government debts in American history.
Of course, according to the ad, we're also supposed to be thanking the Republican party for "making American the land of the free." The website doesn't offer any factual support for this statement--in its nature, the statement is so rhetorical that to do so would be kind of ridiculous. There is, however, plenty of evidence to the contrary, including: government wiretaps, the opposition to gay marriage, the attempt to interfere in state government and state laws passed by citizen's initiative, Watergate, stop-loss...I mean for Christ's sake, Republicans hate the ACLU.
In any case, I have my own list, which I modestly title, "A general fuck you to Republican party." OK, here we go: Fuck you for lying our troops and resources into Iraq, fuck you for torturing people, fuck you for opposing health care reform, fuck you for disenfranchising voters, especially African American voters in order to win the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections; fuck you for passing the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which does neither and actually prevents people from being able to file for bankruptcy while stiffening the laws that enable corporations to collect; fuck you for passing the Clear Skies Act that actually reduces air pollution controls; fuck you for bailing out Wall Street, fuck you for cutting taxes for the wealthy while running up our country's debt; fuck you for opposing science and not accepting evolution; fuck you for politicizing religion; fuck you for being bigots and opposing equal rights for gays; fuck you for dividing this country for your political benefit; fuck you for your lack of civility and rational discussion; fuck you for lying all the time and always trying to twist the facts to suit your agenda; fuck you for Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and that absolute deushbag Glenn Beck. Finally, fuck you Republican party, for trading your promise of small government, fiscal conservatism, and states rights, for war, fear, hatred, and the status quo. We have so much to be pissed about. Fuck you Republican party.
This message paid for by the Americans for Rational Thought and Science (ARTS)