"I hope he fails."

I know I'm a couple of months out of date on this, but I try to ignore Republican political rhetoric as much as possible. I hear that Rush Limbaugh has been saying "I hope he fails" about Obama. It's a nice insight into how Republicans think. Limbaugh apparently would rather have the US economy fail, have the US make major strategic military mistakes and generally have its government's plans fail than to give credit for a plan that works.

We can't defend Limbaugh by saying "well, he just doesn't believe Obama's policies could work." This is clearly not a question of whether Limbaugh doubts the efficacy of Obama's plans. It cannot be a question of Limbaugh believing that Obama's plans will be bad for America in the long run. "I hope he fails," Limbaugh said. This is not about Obama creating new problems.

The California Republicans who refused, for many months, to make any concessions on their points while California had no budget and was going to shut down many public projects (at a great cost to the state), are of the same ilk. It is not about cooperation; it is about them getting what they want at any cost.

I suppose they might argue it's about principle. But these are the same people who would vilify Democrats for not working on bipartisan efforts, and who would vilify the same Democrats for being wishy-washy and not having principles.

Although they are closely connected to the Christian religion, a religion that preaches love, I see little love in the Republicans.

Wouldn't it be great if the Republicans actually cared about people? Wouldn't it be great if they were actually interested in helping needy people? Wouldn't it be great if they actually wanted America and Americans to do well, instead of just their political cronies?

What would really be great is for a someone to actually convince me that the Republican voices--the Rush Limbaughs and Ann Coulters--really do believe in charity, in loving one's neighbors and one's enemies--you know, some of the basic tenets of the Christian religion, on which they so often call. I'm open to being convinced, but there's a lot of explaining to be done to explain how Rush Limbaugh's "I hope [the president of the United States] fails," is actually a patriotic sentiment, and not a petty, selfish one.