The Republican Party’s slide to the right reached an embarrassing point this week. On Thursday, House Republicans attacked food security by voting to pass deep cuts ($40 billion) in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  Yesterday they voted to gut the Affordable Care Act, a policy that would leave millions without health insurance and result in tens of thousands of deaths.

Jonathan Chait accurately describes the current agenda of Congressional Republicans: “to repeal Obamacare without a replacement, maintain short-term austerity, weaken labor laws, loosen financial regulation, and defend every tax deduction enjoyed by the affluent.” This is basically the inverse of Catholic social teaching, a preferential option against the poor. To be fair, it’s an assault on millions of middle-class Americans as well.

How did Congressional Republicans end up here? What happened to the belief that those who work hard and fulfill their responsibilities should be able to provide for their families? Do Republicans really believe that those who are incapable of working should not receive any assistance from the government?

Why are Congressional Republicans so extreme and plutocratic? The single most important reason is the corrosive impact that money has in our electoral system. Fundraising has become the primary job of members of Congress, and the economically powerful subvert democracy and the common good for personal benefit. It is possible that Republicans will halt this march to the right in order to win national elections or for some other reason, but until real campaign reform passes and is upheld by the Supreme Court, wealthy interests in both parties will successfully promote agendas that contradict the common good. Only then will we have a chance to end the Second Gilded Age.