...on being hung separately

I was irked that I even felt I needed to go to the Washington State caucus today.  The Republicans inexplicably have failed to unify around the only--and obviously only--candidate that has a chance to beat Obama in November.  They've wrung their hands and hopped form one not-Romney option to another, putting their bigotry on display while dragging the contest out, weakening Romney and forcing him to spend heavily and unnecessarily to eek out victories in states that he should take easily.

So Saturday morning I went to caucus with my precinct. Arrived and was told that the online info was wrong and I'd have to go to another location across town.  Got there and the one person volunteer staff was totally overwhelmed and unorganized.  It took an hour just to get started.  Meanwhile, a lively discussion had started among some of the caucus goers as to how Obama was obviously not an American citizen and his birth certificate was a sham.  Yep, Ron Paul T-shirts.  Not surprising.  Finally somebody had enough sense to interject that that argument was done.  Had failed.  Was actually hurting the cause.  Oh no, it's a new election, came the retort, time to march it out again.  At this point I just wanted a private place to puke and then get out of there.

Those for Paul were deep into their fantasy, insisting that polls clearly showed he could beat Obama, that all other candidates wanted to destroy the constitution and that the rest of American would embrace Paul if not for the media conspiracy to black ball him.  The Santorum supporters marched out the usual garbage about Romney--the same stuff they marched out when they were Bachman supporters, then Cain supporters, then Perry supporters, then Gingrich supporters, then...good gravy, is Santorum still in the race?  Well then he's our man!!!  Woo-hoo!  Santorum in 2012!  Go anti-birth control guy!

Finally the Romney supporters got a chance to speak in our caucus, and most endorsed their choice by saying that they didn't like him but thought that he had the best chance to win.  The caucus chairperson got up and said that she likes Paul, but was going with Romney and that we should do the same and set aside the distasteful fact that he's a Mormon.  Well, bigotry aside, at least somebody is serious about winning.

What a truly pathetic display.  After nearly three hours (it should have taken 10 minutes) I was glad to get out of there and firmly convinced of a few things:

First, Republicans truly and richly deserve to have Barack Obama as their president for another four years.

Second, when Obama is re-elected (and he will be) they'll blame Romney (yes, he will be the nominee), but it will absolutely be their own fault.  They wouldn't hang together, so they'll be hung separately. Show me a Ron Paul supporter, and I'll show you somebody who doesn't want to win badly enough.

Third, there is no ideological purity in the Republican party.  They're hypocrites!  I had them pegged as the party of Sharron Angle--willing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory rather than abandoning principle.  But when I saw them trample principle and ethics in their headlong rush to embrace Newt "the man whore" Gingrich in South Carolin, I knew the truth.  Of course they abandoned him a month later in favor of Santorum, but not because of his adultery or say-anything lobbyist work.

Fourth, Republicans say they want liberals to change their minds about things like abortion.  But when somebody like Romney does change his mind, they reject it as a lie.

Finally, I have no interest in becoming a registered republican.  I could go for the idealogically pure party or the winning party, but the Republicans are the opposite in both counts.  Their ideals are a  matter of convenience AND they excel at losing.