Political parties have been a part of the human experience is some form or fashion since two groups of people disagreed over something. Attacks and insults have flown, wars have started (the American Civil War readily comes to mind), and gridlock often ensues when parties become so ideologically bound and buried that they have no choice but to beat the old war drums to the beat of the Base, as they are often the only voters left who enjoy the parties shenanigans. These timeless traits of politics have been exaggerated since President Obama took office, despite his promise of change in Washington.

Despite having an apparently solid game plan to maintain a longtime stranglehold on all levels of American government in 2000, the Republican Party has, as of 2009, been reduced to a party wandering the wilderness looking for a message and a leader. With the 2010 election season already picking up steam in some pockets of the country, the GOP still has no message, no clear leader, and is losing members faster than the IRS is losing tax revenue . With regards to the healthcare argument ripping its way through Washington and the rest of America, the Republican’s attacks have been insulting toward the president while occasionally being pathetically hilarious. (Mr. Limbaugh’s incessant yammering about President Obama being a “fascist socialist”, perhaps one of the more inherently idiotic political attacks to date, readily comes to mind.)

Of course, Republican’s attacks are not always delightfully doofy. Having precious few legitimate responses to President Obama’s counter-attacks against critics of the “public option” as a component to the healthcare overhaul, the Republicans have taken a page straight out of Karl Rove’s playbook: fear. Intoning that government “death panels” would be formed to determine whether Grandma Edna is useful to save with an expensive surgery, the Republicans have caused civil unrest at town hall meetings across the nation by turning everyday Americans into ill-informed rioters. The madness caused by the right wing propaganda machine forced the President to address the nation’s fears during a joint session of Congress in September 2009 , where he tried to calmly yet firmly address why his plan for healthcare made sense.

As has been the case with Republicans as of late, during the Commander-in-Chief’s speech, the Republican’s managed to shoot themselves in the foot yet again by breaking decorum and, frankly, common decency, by declaring to the President in an outrageous act of schoolboy buffoonery “You lie!” The gentleman responsible was Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), and while temporarily distracting the nation from the matter at hand successfully managed to paint his own party as unpatriotic and disrespectful.

In short, the Republican’s strategy for reclaiming the government has been maddeningly confusing. Being unpatriotic and disrespectful while stirring Americans into a violent mass of hollering lunatics appears to be the plan-du-jour. It is sad to say the least that the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt has been reduced to angry nincompoops with no clear message. Unless the Grand Old Party squares itself away and tempers its more vocal and insane members quickly, one can expect the significantly calmer Democratic Party to be in control of national, state, and local governments for quite some time.