Lovecraft, and his insight into ancient evil (and Republicans)

I received an odd letter today from a former Ypsilantian who now finds himself living among the natives of Hawaii. He wanted to let me know about a quote that he’d stumbled across concerning Republicans. The piece, according to him, was penned in 1936, by none other than H.P. Lovecraft, the man behind Cthulhu (think Dick Cheney with tentacles) and the Necronomicon (imagine a compilation of everything ever written by Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter, translated into Arabic, and with a few incantations thrown in). Here’s the quote:

“As for the Republicans—how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical ‘American heritage’…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.”

Brilliant stuff, isn’t it? I love the phrase, “a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science.” It’s almost as though he could see the future. I’d always thought that our Republicans today were a different breed than anything that had walked the earth before, but apparently there were already visible signs in 1936 as to what would come.

Speaking of shutting their eyes to science, did you read that, except for Mike Castle in Delaware, not one of the 37 Republicans who were in the running for Senate this year believe that global warming is real? The following comes from Think Progress:

Last week, the Wonk Room published an exclusive analysis of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, finding that only Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) supported action to fight global warming pollution. That Tuesday, Castle was defeated in his primary by Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell, who believes evolution is a myth and opposes stem-cell research. Yesterday, Bill Maher cited that report in a discussion with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, bemoaning the dominance of anti-science Republicans. After Matthews played a clip of O’Donnell warning in 2007 of “mice with fully functioning human brains” — evidently a mangled reference to a mouse with surgically constructed ear from cow cells grafted onto its back — Maher noted that the “real issue” is the Republican opposition to science:

MAHER: I don’t know, when I saw all this coverage of the witch stuff, I was laughing yesterday. Because that is not really important to the election. It is just a side show, as you would say. It was funny. I don’t think it should hurt her. It was something she was doing in high school. But when you think this about scientific issues facing this nation, people could be really helped by stem cell research. That’s a real issue. There are 37 Republican candidates for the Senate. Not one believes global warming is real and man made. Except the one, Mike Castle, the guy she defeated in Delaware.

I haven’t said it in a while, but we’re totally fucked.