The Republican party is not your friend. Unless, of course, you are very, very rich and mostly a white male. An older one. And maybe a short one, too.

We know this because it is the Republicans in Congress who defeated a proposal to require the airlines to stop reducing the size of their little sub-human seats in coach sections. Yes, hard to believe anyone could oppose this humane idea, but the Republicans did. And why? Because the airline industry lobbyists paid them off. We can call it “campaign contributions,” but it’s a payoff. The older rich white men who run the airlines paying the older white men who do their bidding in Congress. Thanks, buddy.

This might be news if it weren’t for the fact that it isn’t news. This is the Republican trope. This is what the party of Lincoln has come to: a group of wealthy, older white men looking out for themselves and their friends who also happen to be … well, you get it.

This is party that has tried repeatedly to kill Obamacare, depriving millions of health insurance coverage with no realistic plan to replace it. Shame on those poor people for getting sick. Or for having an illness that prohibits them from coverage otherwise.

This is a party that increasingly seeks to limit voter participation in elections, to oppose living wages for minimum wage workers, to enhance discrimination against minorities (gays, for instance, and mostly people who aren’t rich, white older men) and to do everything they can to take away women’s control over their own bodies.

They know nothing of climate change (because they aren’t scientists, you know), and they see the solutions to foreign problems resting in the idea of sending more young men and women off to fight and die. Some of them are, I confess, well-meaning; heck, some are even intelligent and reasonable older white men.

But here’s the problem: if they fall into that minority category — intelligent and reasonable, I mean — they are in fact a tiny minority in the GOP, and they lack the numbers to influence the radical right wing members of their party. So, voting for them doesn’t alter anything. The only possible solution — hope, really — is to defeat as many of the Republicans as possible. When the Democrats can claim a majority in the Congress, we are more likely to have at least a few moments of sanity in governance.

Think about it as the fall elections draw closer. Think about it carefully. Please.

The Republican Party is a mess. It’s actually much worse than that, but let’s call it a mess and move on.

This mess is not the result of Donald J. Trump’s candidacy, although he has brought the party’s worst elements to the forefront. No, the Republican Party, since the 1960s, has been the party which has built its intermittent success on a shameful combination of mostly implied racism and sexism crudely and cleverly blended with financial policies that have divided the wealthy and the middle class to the detriment of the latter. It is an ugly record of discrimination against the least and the lowest among us.

It has become the party that refuses to govern and seemingly is no longer capable of governing. That began in 2008 with the election of Barack Obama, soon followed by a declaration from GOP leaders that they would defeat the President in 2012 by denying him any legislative accomplishments. To make that work, they surrendered the responsibility to govern in favor of preventing government altogether. (It was not the success they hoped for — ObamaCare is one evidence of their failures.)

They have now become a fringe party, controlled by and lacking the will to face up to an even smaller group of radical right-wing evangelical zealots. They are now the party that belittles and denounces not just women but almost every possible minority: African Americans, Hispanics, Muslims and Asians. Have we left anyone out?

Donald Trump is the face of this party. But if you look past the morass of Trump’s bigoted, bullying, careless lies you discover truly that the Republican Party has no clothes. The rest of its candidates have no solutions to the issue of no government, only varying shades of similarities to Trump. That’s why when confronted with a choice of saying they would support Trump or not, they unanimously agree they would endorse him regardless of how crazy they may believe him to be. So much for valid differences.

And so much for the Republican Party as a valid place for American voters. And I don’t know the right response. Maybe the party needs to die and be re-born. Perhaps if its most responsible leaders — and there are a few — had any backbone, they would denounce Trump as the most venal, vile, morally corrupt and unqualified person ever to seek the presidency and move on, whether or not that might mean creating a new party.

This country needs and deserves an ideologically honest, responsible two-party system. It no longer has that, and I deeply regret that and consider it a blot on our democracy. Blame Donald Trump if you will. But the real issues lie much deeper.

Who was the big winner of Thursday’s GOP debate? It had to be Dr. Ben Carson, who had the good sense not to participate. It was without doubt the best decision Dr. Ben has made in his misbegotten and now ended campaign.

The rest of the candidates were all losers. Their so-called debate was an almost unwatchable, vulgar, screamfest of lies and accusations. What a disgrace for what used to be a legitimate political party.

I credit the Fox News moderators, who asked decent questions for the most part, with pushing for real answers. But the candidates, beginning with Donald Trump, would have none of it. Trump was at his showy, whiney, name-calling worst, refusing to reply directly to dozens of questions. His partners, particularly Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were only a few steps behind. John Kasich was there, too, but it’s hard to believe he is a serious factor to survive in this nasty slugfest for the nomination.

And then there’s this: before slamming the candidates for their juvenile behavior, please remember that earlier in the day we heard from Mitt Romney, who resorted to name-calling and slurs and slams to point out that Trump is a name-caller. In other words, Romney showed himself no better than the rest. And frankly, what the heck is Romney doing getting involved in this except as a stalking horse, and a bad one, for the Republican establishment? Oh yeah — Mitt would be the establishment’s preferred candidate now … now that he’s four years away from being a loser in 2012. And by the way, that’s the bottom line for Mitt: he’s a loser.

As for the debate, well, I can’t think of any reasons to discuss it further. It was shameful, descending even to the ugly level of penis references and bathroom humor, thank you Rubio and Trump. Repulsive.

And then consider this: for everyone who wants to blame Trump for everything, look at his competitors: are Rubio and Cruz really any better? Their ideas are almost as whack-a-doodle as Trump’s, and they are personally scarcely less odious. There are no good choices here.

Just how super was Super Tuesday? For one, it finally nudged Ben Carson to think seriously about getting out of a race he’s been out of for months. Yes, Dr. Ben announced earlier today he sees no path going forward for himself. Everyone else, of course, realized that months ago.

What else? Let’s call Marco Rubio an “almost out.” He’s hanging in on life support and spinning his victory in the Minnesota caucus to be evidence of his dramatic resurgence. In fact, it is nothing of the sort. Rubio has accumulated an almost unbroken series of third place finishes in the primaries (he’s 1 for 15 overall), and it has become spectacularly obvious that not many voters are interested in him.

By the way, Rubio says his five days of attacks on Donald Trump have resulted in trimming Trump’s victory margins. Which makes you wonder: what was Marco doing in the six months that preceded the last five days? He ever-more shows up as a boy in a man’s world, unprepared for the Presidency in just about every way.

Ted Cruz? Well, he won in his own state, the absolutely minimum essential to keep him in the race. It would have seriously mattered only had he lost. He also won in Oklahoma and Alaska but his candidacy seems no less doomed that before Super Tuesday. There aren’t enough breathing humans out there who want to cast a ballot in favor of loathsome Ted.

Which leaves John Kasich. He’s pitched himself as a calm moderate, although his record as Ohio governor is disturbingly right wing. He attracts few voters but won’t quit, claiming a victory in his home state of Ohio’s primary will propel him forward. Well, let’s put it this way: if he doesn’t win there, he’s toast, too.

Oh yeah, then there’s Trump. He took a big step toward the nomination with wins on Super Tuesday, and the prospect of someone catching him grows more distant. The noise on Republican social media about a brokered convention appears a death wish; if Trump comes to the convention with not quite enough to clinch it and is denied the nomination, there will be bloodshed. Kind fun to think about, though.

And lastly and very briefly: Super Tuesday results saw Hillary pretty much putting Bernie out in the Democrat’s battle. He will stick around, and he should, but it’s just about impossible to imagine he’ll wind up as the party nominee.

And that and a buck ought to get you a cup of coffee in most diners around here….

Last night’s Republican debate was noisy, rude and quite unhelpful for anyone in the party who maintains a serious interest in important issues. (Are there more than a handful of politicians and voters in the party who fall into that category?) It really amounted to a travesty and seemed once again to demonstrate all too clearly that not one of these candidates is remotely qualified to be President.

In the first place, no matter how crazy we believe Donald Trump is and what a ghastly chief executive he would be — even as that threatens to become a possibility — the truth is there’s very little difference in craziness between Trump and his two challengers, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Their policy positions, in spite of loud, meaningless insults hurled last night, are strikingly similiar.

On the matter of immigration, Trump wants to build a wall and deport 11 million illegal immigrants. Cruz wants a wall and wants to make the deportations permanent. Rubio has nothing else to offer and keeps vacillating on his positions.

The budget plans for the three candidates are whack-a-doodle and by nearly all economists’ estimates would substantially increase the national debt while benefitting mostly millionaires and above.

To cope with ISIS, Cruz wants to bomb the shit out the terrorists. Trump and Rubio want boots on the ground to destroy them. Neither of the three seems to have a clue as to how this might be realistically accomplished.

All three want to abolish Obamacare. Yet no one has a workable plan to replace it beyond generalities about interstate insurance purchases and health savings plans. Sick people are in deep trouble if one of the three makes it to the White House.

Rubio and Cruz want to do away with funding for Planned Parenthood and demand investigations, ignoring the facts that PP has been investigated on the federal and state level and been found innocent of any wrongdoing. Trump, to his credit, says he would support PP’s non-abortion health services for women. Rubio and Cruz denounce even that.

I could go on. But the point seems clear: Trump, Rubio and Cruz are philosophical brothers and differ only in some specific matters of carrying out their beliefs. I believe they are way out of touch with the American electorate, as differentiated from the Republican base, who are the mostly far-right unhinged. They create huge volumes of noise — the debate was coarse evidence of that — but it is very hard to see their largely extremist views prevailing beyond the primaries.

And one important note: today’s Trump endorsement by Chris Christie, quite unexpected, may prove to be quite significant, representing a mainstream Republican endorsement for the candidate thought to be the enemy of the GOP establishment. That is really big news, to my mind, bigger than anything that came out of the debate.

And, oh yeah, Ben Carson and John Kasich were in the debate, too. Katich mostly spoke mush, and Carson talked about fruit salad, whatever that means.

Marco Rubio swept to a huge victory in Tuesday’s Nevada Republican caucus, finishing an astonishing second place and building on his failure to win or come close to winning any primary or caucus so far this year. Let’s see now: four events, and Rubio has finished third, fifth, second and now second again. It seems the little boy wonder just can’t seem to get over the hump, in spite of his pronouncement that each return has indicated his growing appeal.

The problem with that would be that there seems little evidence of growing appeal at this stage. Rubio has yet to articulate a campaign that appeals to more than a narrow base of supporters. He appears as an embryonic candidate whose main reason for existence is to oppose Donald Trump. And we see how well that’s working out.

After crushing Rubio and Ted Cruz in Nevada, Trump appears ever-more on his way to the nomination, at least based on polls in upcoming primary states. Rubio and Cruz seem ineffective as rivals, largely because, in my view, neither is remotely deserving to be President (Cruz because he is dangerous unprincipled, Rubio because he is boyishly unqualified).

That’s not to say this can’t change. The inevitability of Trump is hard to believe, no matter the hard evidence from GOP voters. But given the level of opposition, where can he be stopped? And how is anyone who can manage that task going to stand up in a general election?

Pundits talk about where Jeb Bush’s money and voters will go now that he’s out of the race, but that seems more and more pointless. Outspending Trump isn’t going to defeat him, and Jeb Bush had so few voters that it’s doubtful even if they coalesced around Rubio or Cruz — and really, is that likely??? — I don’t see any significant differences in the outcome.

So Rubio can continue proclaiming victory in his defeats, but like most everything else in his campaign, it’s really hot air. If he’s going to do anything, he’d better do it soon, really soon.

And so the tiny-hand vulgarian bigot Donald Trump rolls on. He posted his second campaign victory in three tries in South Carolina last night, pounding the second-place finishers, the right-wing Cuban-American combo of Rubio and Cruz. What dismal prospects this poses for Republicans of moderation and intelligence.

Of course we lost Jeb Bush, whose sadly and curiously inept campaign came to its inevitable end. Even with so much money and a political dynasty in his DNA, Bush could scarcely move the meter when it came to appealing to voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. His decision to end the campaign was hardly unexpected but it remains surprising to trace his downward spiral.

Which leaves one to wonder: is Ben Carson’s ego so misshapenly swollen that he believes his campaign should continue, though he cannot match even the number of voters who cared for Bush? In the three state primaries, Carson has averaged only 6% of voters casting ballots. Bill Cosby could probably do better.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton whipped Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucus, which likely will restore some of her missing momentum. As for Bernie, his concession speech claim that “the wind is now at our back” seems at best a misreading of wind speed and direction. With upcoming primaries centered mostly in southern states with lots of African American voters, Hillary’s campaign is the one with a push right now.

Big question: where will all that money pledged to Jeb Bush go now? Many pundits believe Rubio will be the recipient as the remaining candidate representing the Republican Party’s so-called “establishment.” That may happen, but it seems unlikely to have much impact at this point.

Rubio’s record — which for obvious reasons he either doesn’t mention or misstates — is a strong one of opposition to marriage equality, abortion rights, gun safety laws and Obamacare. And he has some of the more ludicrous budget proposals (ok, not as ridiculous as Trump’s plans) out there, which, when examined more closely, show he has no financial sense about him (which we already knew from his mismanagement of his personal finances). And, frankly, he still looks and sounds just a little too young for all this.

So, onward and upward to Super Tuesday and the rest. For the moment at least, The Donald and The Hillary seem in control.

If you still labor under the delusion that the airlines are your friends, today’s Washington Post has some news for you: the airlines are not only not your friends, they are actively your enemies.

Here’s what happened: an amendment that would have set minimum seat room on planes was narrowly defeated by a committee in the House of Representatives. The amendment failed largely thanks to Republicans — do they ever do anything that supports the interests of anyone who isn’t at least a millionaire? — supported by lobbyists for the airlines.

A representative for the airlines said the government shouldn’t be getting into such matters because they should be left to “market forces.” In other words, left up to the airlines, who for years now have been ignoring pleas from the flying public for more leg room and wider seats. The airlines are making money hand over fist by squeezing more seats into less along with imposing dozens of new fees and keeping fares high.

The airlines don’t care about the wishes of the flying public. (Oops, my mistake: if you are rich and can spend unlimited funds for first class seats, they do have some interest.) They really could care less about safety and health of their passengers, else they would examine closely the problems of evacuation that are heightened with tight seating as well as the health issues that arise from forced cramped seating.

Also, that same committee, led by Republicans, approved a proposal to allows airlines to publicize their lowest fares without any reference to taxes and other mandatory fees. In other words, this measure would reverse existing rules that force the airlines to disclose up front ALL their charges. Guess those airline lobbyists did their work well.

Taken together these two actions are repulsive. They show this particular big business at its greediest and most self-serving. Sort of like those drug companies that unilaterally set their own ridiculously high prices for drugs. Simply put, it is time — it’s way beyond time — for drug companies and the airlines to feel the wrath of justified federal attention. And while we’re at it, it’s past time for voters all across this country to show the Republicans for what they are: a group of well-off politicians who disdain those who do not share their wealth.

And, of course, we ought to reflect on lobbyists, too, for our democracy has for too long been shamed by their out-sized influence on the course of government. But that’s a subject for a much longer discussion on another day.

The unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court’s radical right-wing intellectual, opens up an enormous cornucopia of issues for Democrats and Republicans. Specifically, will President Obama nominate a successor knowing Republicans will delay and block it? And will the Republicans simply abdicate all legislative responsibility by refusing to even consider the nominee?

Maybe there’s a solution. Maybe two.

Here’s one: let the President nominate for the Scalia position Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader who has vowed the Senate will never take up the no nation while Obama is President. Wonder how he’s feel if he got the nomination?

And here’s two: simply continue with Scalia on the court. Sure he’s dead, but that would just place him at approximately the same intellectual level of Clarence Thomas.

You don’t think those are likely paths? Granted, you’re right, no doubt. So, how can we possibly proceed?

The answer seems to be that we can’t. The Republicans in Congress long ago ceded their interest in governing and government. They vowed, with considerable success, to oppose everything President Obama proposed. Of course they missed a few big ones, like Obamacare, too, thank goodness, though that didn’t stop them from wasting the taxpayer’s time and money trying to kill it more than 50 different times.

That gives us pretty dismal expectations for taking any action on a nominee. The hope is that the President’s eventual decision may lead at least to the opportunity to expose and embarrass the Republicans for what they have become: a Congress dominated by right-wingers who are unsuited to govern and who disdain the government.

Beyond that, the word “compromise” remains only a distant legacy, and for that sad fact we have some Democrats to blame as well. Very few legislators seem to have any national interest at heart any longer; their views remain parochial, centered merely on finding money for re-election, and while Republicans must accept most of the blame, there remains too much to go around everywhere.

It’s almost enough to make you think Justice Scalia would be turning over in his grave — at least if he hadn’t been responsible for some of the worst decisions handed down over the last 30 years, verdicts that have helped spread this plague of Republican nihilism.

So, who won last night’s Republican party debate? I believe it was probably the Democratic party.

The debate amounted to more of a brawl than a policy discussion. It pitted four candidate adversaries — Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush — and two other candidates, the “unifier” John Kasich and the totally disengaged Ben Carson. And let’s say once again up front that Ben Carson’s appearances are embarrassing; he should end his woebegone quest now.

But back to the meat of this debate. It’s hard to select winners and losers because just about everyone emerged as a loser. No one, with the possible exception of Kasich, seemed remotely presidential or exhibited the kind of leadership qualities we normally associate with the office of President. How in he world did we ever get to this impasse? Or is it morass?

Trump seems ever more incompetent. The tiny-hand vulgarian is incapable of telling the truth, and his bullying suggests nothing but a child-like emotional mentality. He has spoken of no coherent plan to oversee either the U.S. economy or its foreign policy, and the prospect of his nomination only grows more bizarre to contemplate.

Ted Cruz is undoubtedly smarter in a political sense, but he is revealed as a scheming, manipulative, unprincipled and thoroughly unlikable person. The scariest notion about Cruz is that he might actually get elected and try to do some of the dangerous things he suggests.

Marco Rubio seemed less robotic in last night’s debate, which is low praise indeed. His quick responses and general assertiveness tend to obscure his shallowness, inexperience and phony bonhomie. It’s all surface with Rubio, making it difficult to believe he can actually get to the point of winning the GOP nomination.

As for Jeb Bush, well, at least he’s gotten better in the debates. And in standing up to Trump, he looks sort of presidential, although that again seems the lowest sort of praise. Bush is a centrist, as conservatives go, but he seems unable to get anywhere in a field stacked with right-wingers.

Kasich does speak with some sense though he keeps repeating worn and not quite accurate lines. Still, if you look around for the sanest of the candidates on the stage, he tops the list. Whether or not that translates into votes remains to be seen.

Bottom line: are these really the only people the Republicans can offer this country? There is so little to be enthusiastic about in this group of men.