The new secessionists: The GOP secedes from history and progress instead of the union

Sam Smith - The current Republican Party is the most reactionary and destructive major political organization in American history since the secession by the South. In fact, a major portion of its power comes from the South. For example, almost 60% of Romney’s electoral votes came from states that seceded from the US. Harpers Magazine has reported that 23% of Republicans believe their state should secede, that number bouncing to 37% for Mississippi Republicans.

We tend to underrate the remarkable strength of the segment of the country that supposedly lost the Civil War. Beyond slavery and separation, however it is still not always clear who really won. Many of the South’s politicians simply moved from secession to retrogression.

If this seems exaggerated consider some of the current GOP efforts, led in no small part by its southern members. In this list we begin with the number of years that the law the GOP is attempting to unravel has been in effect:240 years; Post Office – The Republicans have repeatedly attacked the nation’s postal service

• 226 years: Voting rights. The Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers (R) claims that voting is "a privilege, it's not a right,"
• 216 years: Estate tax. Rand Paul would like to do away with it.
• 177 years: University of Wisconsin – Governor Walker engaged in the worst attack on the university in its history.
• 155 years: Education labor unions: Jeb Bush would get rid of them
• 99 years: Planned Parenthood – GOP leading the war against Planned Parenthood.
• 82 years: National Labor Relations Board – The GOP wanted to do away with it.
• 80 years: Social Security. Jeb Bush & Ted Cruz, for example, would like to privatize Social Security
• 77 years: Federal minimum wage – Opposed by Jeb Bush among others.
• 49 years: Medicare. Jeb Bush, among others, wants to phase out Medicare
• 45 years: EPA - Newt Gingrich wants to get rid of it. As did Michelle Bachmann.
• 37 years; FEMA - Republicans have repeatedly voted to cut or eliminate disaster relief.

In short, the current GOP has chosen succession from history and human progress over the earlier geographical form of betrayal