Age-Old Question: Are Republicans Born Or Made?

The harm that conservatism does to the well-being of all Americans can be seen everywhere. Just watch the news some night. Last week there was a report that many states are now adopting laws that make it illegal to use cell phones while driving (except in an emergency). I thought, "Well, there is something that we can all agree on." But...no. Some Tea Party advocate came on and fervently claimed that this was yet another government-enforced infringement on our freedom. His selfish and dangerous exclamation clarified something for me: the difference between liberals and conservatives is quite simple. Liberals are macro thinkers, and their concern is for the greater good. Conservatives care only for themselves, to the detriment of the greater good. Whether the issue is gun control, taxation, cell phone usage, market regulation, or corporate greed, Republicans always take the side which will do more harm to the greatest amount of people. They can't bring themselves to ban texting while driving, even though it endangers everyone within driving distance of the texter. They can't bring themselves to ban assault weapons, even though it endangers anyone near a madman with an AK-47. They can't force the super-wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes, even though it stalls the economy and makes it harder for all of us to access services we need. In short, they stand united against the people while serving themselves and their rich masters. The greater good be damned. In America, Republicans get to hold us all hostage to their mania. This mindset smacks of sociopathology--the human disorder/disease that renders one incapable of compassion for other human beings. They have no heart, conscience or soul...and their only genuine feelings are for themselves. They are utterly incapable of empathy. They are manipulative, self-serving prevaricators. They are greedy, conniving, and narcissistic. We see these traits in murderers and other criminals (Ted Bundy was a rising young star in Washington state's Republican Party before he was apprehended for mutilating scores of women...and notice that Jodi Arias liked to wear hats with the Republican logo on them). Thankfully, not all Republicans are murderers; their rapaciousness overrides their violence. But in America it is not a crime to be greedy, self-absorbed, and cruel. And, sooner or later, Repulicanism brings us all to our knees. This gets to me thinking, is Republicanism a disease, and can it be cured? Should we be organizing telethons, like the MD Labor Day telethon, to eradicate this plague? If we fund research, can we find that there is a Republican gene? Or are Republicans made, not born? I would like to think that we are all born innocent, compassionate people, looking for the good in others and capable of promoting the greater good. But if that is so, then something happens to Republicans in childhood which turns them away from their better angels. Sociopaths are typically verbally and/or physically abused in childhood. Many grow up in tryannical homes, totally devoid of empathy for others. These children neither get nor give love. They feel the poor get what they deserve. (Prescott Bush used to drive his son, GHW Bush, around the seedier sections of Hartford, Conncecticut, and tell him that the impoverished were not deserving of our help because they made their own beds.) Unloved kids learn that power is all that matters in family dynamics and the world at large, because it is power, privilege and status that will protect them. They grow up distrusting others, and looking for all the ways to believe the worst in all of us. They become the tyrants who raised them, and, in turn, raise their own kids the same way. This is a depressing thought because it means we will never be rid of Republicanism. It is more comforting to think that there is a Republican gene, and that some day we can find a cure for it. Though funding for this project would be opposed by Republicans...after all, government is not in business to look after the greater good.