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A U.S. Park Police officer walks behind a barricade with sign reading "Because of the Federal Government SHUTDOWN All National Parks are Closed" in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. According to the writer, the Party of Lincoln is dead, replaced by a party that disdains government.

(The Associated Press)

John T. Sullivan Jr. is the former mayor of Oswego. He lives in Saratoga Springs.

By John T. Sullivan Jr.

The party of Lincoln is dead. Long may it rest. It has been supplanted by a new and negativity-based, anti-government group who, for lack of a better name, shall hereafter be called the "Repugnicant Party." It seems a fitting appellation, for their common creed, and the force that binds them together as brethren is re-pugnacity. To them, everything about government is repugnant. They care not for civil servants of any kind, and even view National Park rangers as common enemies. Anyone employed by the Federal government, excepting themselves, is viewed with disdain and contempt, and any attempt by government to solve common problems is anathema to their common core cold hearted kind of conservatism.

They have taken the art of sneering to a new level, and sniveling is what they most enjoy. If you don't believe me, just ask Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. She is so elated at the thought of a non-functioning government that she is behaving like a 12-year-old on a roller coaster. She is enjoying the ride so much that her screaming "Wheeeeeee!" as the coaster car goes over each top into a new dip can barely describe her ecstatic delight. It wasn't always this way.

The former (now dead) Republican Party used to stand for something. That party held a belief that government was not intrinsically bad, but should be limited to those tasks which we as a people cannot perform for ourselves. They did not view government as an extrinsic evil, but as a force for good, whose power should be limited to achieving communally only that which we cannot achieve individually. It is a reasoned and reasonable philosophy, based on conservative values and principles. It was not, however, anarchist, extreme and hateful. It was not the party of fear-mongering and federal loathing which its remnant elements have now become. The Grand Old Party is no more, because it has been overtaken by radical hostage-takers to whom all things federal are repugnant. That's why "Repugnicants" is a good name for this new kind of "Know Nothing" type party. There is even some historical precedence for this.

Before Lincoln, in the 1840s and '50s, there was the formation of the "Know Nothing" party. The parallels between the Repugnicants and the Know Nothings are striking. The Repugnicants of today don't believe in science, evolution or global climate change. The Know Nothings of old got their name because, when asked for a set of their beliefs, were told to respond " I know nothing."

Today, the father of the new Repugnicant party is Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, whose credo seems to be " We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are not created equal. That they are allowed by their creators only such latitude as great and powerful oligarchic billionaires like the Brothers Koch determine to be advisable. That they themselves are endowed with certain alienable rights, not the least of which is the right to lie, distort, ignore facts, and pursue distributing unhappiness among the masses. Their goal is to make the masses dependent on the charity of the moguls, whose rights to attain tax free mega fortunes shall remain unfettered."

That's what it has come down to. The forces the Koch brothers and others unleashed in the summer of 2010 in the form of tea party protests to the adoption of a national health care plan have now firmly taken control of the Republican reins. The Koch brothers either financed the buses for the tea party rallies or lavished money on their organizers, like former Congressman Dick Armey, of Texas, who eventually had second thoughts and quit. Armey has now been supplanted by Cruz as the leading doppelganger of the new Koch brothers-financed Repugnicant Party.

History teaches us that such movements are not long-lived. The Know Nothings faded, and were replaced by an anti-slavery manifest destiny coalition who believed in the power of government to insure freedom for all, and in the necessity of building infrastructure (national railroads, for example) even in the midst of a civil war. They were replaced by, ironically, the now defunct Republican Party. We can take some solace in the historical inevitability that this anti-government insurgency will not be long-lived. Common sense and belief in the purpose of the commonweal will triumph in the end, and this new Repugnicant Party will one day soon be consigned to the dust bin of history with other radical causes.

In the end, reason will triumph over radicalism. In the interim, unfortunately, we are all strapped into their roller coaster unwillingly until its energy is spent, or until someone comes forward to pull the kill switch. To do so might itself be suicidal, but historically heroic. Too bad the current Speaker of the House of Representatives is more concerned with his own survival that with the survival of the GOP. He remains an unlikely candidate for a Profile in Courage award. Then again, hope does spring eternal.