Brokedown Senate

Earlier today I mentioned that the "hyper-partisan Senate" was basically broken. But as BooMan reminds me, it's not the Senate that is broken, but the Republican Party.

Take a look at the elected officials in the GOP. There are no black Republican members of Congress. With the retirement of Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, there are no Latino Republicans in the Senate. The only Latino Republicans in Congress are the three Cuban-American representatives from the Miami area. There are no Mexican Republicans or Puerto Rican Republicans. Now that Arlen Specter has switched parties, the only Jewish Republican in Congress is Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia. I can't think of any Republicans of East Asian ancestry other than freshman Rep. Joseph Cao of New Orleans. There are no openly gay Republicans in Congress. And consider this:

In the House there are 75 female Representatives. The Senate has 17 females. These are the highest numbers of women Members in the history of the Congress.

Of the 17 female Senators, 13 are Democrats and 4 are Republicans. Of the 75 female Representatives, 58 are Democrats and 17 are Republicans.

The demographics of the country and the degree of female participation in politics have changed dramatically since 1962 when Ted Kennedy was first elected to the Senate. So, too, has that tolerance for gays and the rights of racial and religious minorities. But it seems like the Democratic Party has absorbed all of that change, while the Republican Party has been trapped in amber. The two Muslims in Congress are Democrats. The two Buddhists in Congress are Democrats. The three Unitarians in Congress are Democrats. The only averred atheist in Congress is a Democrat.

The Republican Party is hostile to non-white immigration. It considers religious tolerance to be an infringement on the free exercise of Christianity. It opposes gay rights and hate crimes legislation. And it holds anachronistically paternalistic views of human sexuality and reproductive rights. Overtly racist comments are made by Republican leaders (usually unelected leaders) on a regular basis. And, finally, the party has an uneasy relationship with science since much of its base rejects basic scientific theories like of evolution, plate tectonics, and climate change.

All of this has resulted in a deeply divided political culture that is rife with the types of disagreements that cannot be resolved by debate and compromise.

And that's really the bottom line. The GOP has become the last bastion of reactionary, antiquated, 20th Century demographics. They hate and fear change, and America is changing rapidly.

Republicans are wholly unprepared to handle it.