Reagan's 11th Commandment

Many of the current woes being experienced by the modern Republican Party spring from the philosophy and teaching of their Great Saint - Ronald of Hollywood.

What Reagan did that is now hurting the Republican Party was devising a philosophy whose purpose was the holding of political power - a seemingly innocuous, but really repulsive idea - his famous "11th Commandment" which is quoted approvingly again and again by today's Republicans: "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican."

They LOVE that statement; they repeat it, promulgate it and adhere to it.

But think about the moral bankruptcy of it: don't speak ill of a fellow Republican? No matter WHAT he does? That's an open claim that Party is more important than Right and Wrong. Party is a higher principle than morals, a higher principle than decency, a higher principle than the good of America. And that's what Republicans claim as a commandment.

And in the last few years, they have, indeed, as a united body REFUSED to speak ill of some of the most disgusting actions ever taken by any politician in the history of America. He was a Republican, and therefore not to be criticized. Spending like a drunken sailor on leave? "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Spying on Americans without a warrant? "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Torturing prisoners? "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Lying and falsifying so you can have excuse to kill hundred of thousands of people? "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican."

And all those actions are now around their whole party's neck like an albatross. They corporately own them.

They decided that Party was a substitute for ethics, morals, honesty and decency. They decided that the route to power was to make Party more important than America.

And Americans, rightly, reject such a cancerous philosophy like the tumor that it is.