title:  ‘Simpsons’ Creator Matt Groening Eerily Foresaw Today’s Republican Insanity 25 Years Ago
text: Matt Groening loves to poke fun at everything conservative and Republican. From the hilarious Fox News motto on a news chopper that circles Springfield, home of The Simpsons, to his own comic, Life In Hell, he s been clear that Republicanism is not something to which he takes kindly. This is plainly in evidence in Life In Hell, where he rewrote the Pledge of Allegiance several times.The most amazing of these pledges captures right-wing bigotry, fundie Christian culture, and jingoism very well. It reads:Matt Groenig predicted the future in 1994 pic.twitter.com/VJ0joILC18  Butch Brodie (@butch_brodie) August 25, 2016 I pledge allegiance to and wrap myself in the flag of the United States against anything un-American, and to the Republicans for which it stands, two nations, under Jesus, rich against poor, with curtailed liberty and justice for all (except blacks, homosexuals, women ). Look at today s GOP. It has been hijacked by flag-waving, gun-toting pseudo-Christians who think  Murica is the greatest nation on earth, and woe to he who disagrees with any of that. In doing so, they ve co-opted our flag and turned it into a symbol of all that is wrong, not right, with this country.Groening may not have known it at the time, but he was predicting the future of the Republican Party with this particular pledge. However, it s not the only time he s made fun of the Pledge of Allegiance. He had this one, too, from 1991: I pledge impertinence to the flag-waving of the unindicted co-conspirators of America, and to the Republicans for which I can t stand, one abomination, underhanded fraud, indefensible, with liberty and justice, forget it. And this one: I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow and to the republicrats for which they scam: one nacho, underpants with licorice and jugs of wine for owls. Maybe Groening saw back then what we re actually living now? These nutbags are people who think they re  taking their country back,  and in the process, have pretty much stolen everything that made us the United States of America (except fundie Christianity and the oppression that comes with it, and ammosexuality. They can keep those two). These three pledges are beautiful examples of everything wrong with Republicans.Featured image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images