By James Donahue

It struck us in the midst of the “tea-party” episodes and all of the supporting commentary by the talking heads on FOX and CNN propaganda networks that the old Republican Party we once knew has gone missing. In its place has emerged a college of people who simply hate President Barack Obama. And we think the hatred has little to do with his ability to do his job or even the fact that he is a Democrat. It is all about the color of his skin.

The so-called “leaders” and “spokespersons” for the grand old GOP, including such characters as radio agitator Rush Limbaugh, former Congressman Newt Gingrich, current Congressman Eric Cantor and House Minority Leader John Baner have been quick to attack President Obama and his administration. But the attacks have never been about tea or in any way related to the historic Boston Tea Party that led to the great American Revolution.

In fact, the Republican attacks have been so distorted and disoriented that it is difficult for anyone to focus on any one issue. They range from a false allegation of “increased taxes” and runaway government spending to a president who is shaking hands with the enemies of America and making the nation unsafe by ordering an end to the CIA torture tactics ordered by the Bush Administration.

From where we sit, Mr. Obama has been doing a brilliant job since taking office in January. His first 100 days in office have been packed with naming his cabinet, setting up plans to try to resolve the worst financial crisis the nation has seen since the Great Depression, resolve two impossible wars launched by the Bush gang, meet with world leaders and attempt to repair the political damage caused by reckless Bush foreign policies, establish a plan for national health care and push through a budget designed to begin a badly needed repair of the nation’s broken down infrastructure while at the same time putting a lot of people back to work and keep them housed and fed in the interim.

While more and more people are losing their jobs and consequently their homes, Obama has managed to forge money that extend unemployment benefits and provide assistance to people caught in bad balloon mortgages who want to refinance and keep their homes. Also he has promised to remove some of the restrictions put into the nation’s bankruptcy laws that were added by Republicans under Bush so people with their backs to the financial wall have a last resort for escaping debt.

There is a new movement afoot all across the United States this year. There is a quiet hope expressed among people in cities, towns and villages that somehow Mr. Obama is going to pull us out of the mess created by the Republicans during the eight long years Bush held the reigns of our government, and succeeded in screwing just about everything up in ways we never thought possible.

In a sense, Mr. Bush destroyed the Republican Party. And that is a tragedy because America’s government has always worked best as a two-party system. Somehow the open and intelligent dialogue between conservative and liberal thinkers usually leads to the writing of laws that best serve the majority of the people.

The problems have occurred when one party gains total power over the other. We saw it happen when Democrat Lyndon Johnston was swept into office and voters filled both the House and Senate with Democrats. That led to an escalated war in Vietman and a Guns and Butter spending policy at home that hit American taxpayers hard, and sent a lot of young soldiers to an early grave. It took us a while to get out of that mess, and the scars of that ugly war are still lingering.

The pendulum swung in the other direction when George W. Bush came into office in 2001 with a Republican controlled House and Senate. Now we are paying the consequences of this.

Mr. Obama is enjoying great national and international popularity because he has a charisma and an open handshake policy that makes friends where ever he goes. Not only that, but our new president has shown by both words and deeds that he is smart and well organized.

Mr. Obama has been accused of being a socialist, and that may be somewhat true. Democrats, by their very nature, are socialistic in wanting to reach out to help the working class. And right now, because of the way the working class is hurting not only here but around the world, a socialistic policy may be the best solution for the majority. The capitalistic system now stands exposed as a tool with which corrupt mob bosses can control the finances of a nation as powerful as the United States and get away with it.

The conservative Republicans, who have not yet come to a full understanding of what the Bush Administration did to their party, seem to be unable to cope with serving under a very popular Democratic president. They cannot stop the Obama steam-roller, even though they still possess a relatively strong block of votes, especially in the Senate. They ignored Mr. Obama’s efforts to call them into partisan planning to solve the nation’s problems so are now being left behind. Now all they have left is daily press conferences filled with name calling, false accusations and dirty tricks.

Strangely, this may be the first time in American history that the two political parties have been so polarized. That nearly all Republicans in both houses are standing together and voting against key bills designed to help the people at this critical time is almost unprecedented. It is obvious these elected representatives of the people are not voting their conscience on these issues. They are voting against the president.

And this is the first time in American history that we have had a black president in the oval office.

They aren’t saying it, but their actions make it clear this is a racial issue. And for the sake of the nation and the Republican party, they had best clean up their act or risk the chance of being replaced by a third party.