BantheGOP is dead. The irascible little crumpet has finally been flung away like yesterday's news.

In fact, it was my doing. As many of you suspected, rightly so, BantheGOP was a mole. The DOTY award winner notwithstanding, the end of the era is nigh.
Now, Ban wasn't a mole that was a "true" mole, in the sense that a true secret agent completely assimilates into the mix. Steve Dawes, for instance, would most probably be the ultimate mole if he were to suddenly bust a gut and say, "I love Reaganomics!" To be blunt, the time didn't exist for such an incursion, nor, frankly, a desire.
No, Ban was the ultimate paradigm to the great Rush's philosophy of "Illustrating absurdity by being absurd." And absurdity was the goal, and deservedly so. For the DUmp is nothing short of the Olympic Training Center for the Darwin Awards.
While a true mole has longevity and huge quantities of vote counts, Ban the GOP was frugal. With barely over a thousand posts, perhaps a week's worth in Steve Dawes' or Stinky the Clown's world, Ban made it known that absurdity was a contact sport. The fact remains that most of the responses to subject positions I posited as Ban was shock and awe and hatred; yet, in virtually every case I could have easily found a thread where worse positions on the subject were posted and minions responded to with great glee. So what was the difference?
I would like to think that the difference was not just in response to the usual rantings. I would like to think that the responses to my posts were FEAR. Abject fear as to what is waiting for them down this Socialist Utopia road they have embarked on. This one's very subtle, but to be blunt, DUmmies revel in wallowing in their own socialist masses. They love the company of others...but some have real fear. And Ban just came right out and addressed EXACTLY where they were going to end up, and I believe that is the difference.
In other words, in my absurdity, which was intended as such, I wanted to show how the end results of their actions would coalesce, starting from the absurd, in your face user name. For in reality, the end game for socialists IS to destroy the Republican Party, from whence the Tea Party and fundamentalist conservatives and libertarian-thinking individuals would be suppressed. BantheGOP's and GOPCongress' thoughts are exactly the same in that regard.
(I'm sure there were a lot of behind-the-scenes counter agitation also directed against Ban in the room by our other agent moles, but I digress.)
I admit, that I spent $5 a year for the privilege. Originally, it was $10, so I tallied up, and actually see I spent $20, and had one subscription bought for me in appreciation. Thank you, my dearest lovely DU "piggy"-kins... you know who you are! (I won't release that name, as it was a private donation and even in DUmpland I retain my confidentiality. Suffice to know she will have to deal with it once she lurks here.)
Finally, as "Dummy of the Year" I will come forward. In fact, when it was elected I was quite shocked, to be honest. (My own vote as GOP Congress voted for someone else.) I greatly appreciate the honor, and in fact was not in for the glory of the award, but the absurdity of the DUmpster. The fact that I was voted upon by people here who had NO IDEA that I was the mole, I do apologize for the ruse. Charles Hendrickson, to his credit, downplayed the win as such in his own column, which was appreciated as it allowed me to go on just a little bit longer.
In any case, the end of the era is hence. It's been a lot of fun, and now I can just be a reg here in CC with no stake in the DUmp. With the $5 year saved, I should save up for my retirement. But may the eulogies begin.
BanTheGOP is DEAD. Dead, I said. DEAD!