UPDATE BELOW
Government by brinksmanship, by blackmail, by obstruction, by hostage taking - the Republican Party is no longer a partner in representative democracy. More like a bad marriage to an abusive spouse, the GOP has been violating boundaries and abusing the public trust since the last government shutdown of 1996.
Like a bad marriage, Tea Party Republicans refuse to distinguish between YOURS, MINE, and OURS. The United States is not just THEIR country; it is also OUR country and MY country. It spends not just THEIR tax money; it spends OUR tax dollars and MY tax dollars too. Government should represent the values and priorities of the American people, not merely the demands of a rabble-rousing minority. Public policy debates without compromise and consensus are not my idea of “consent of the governed” when blackmail leaves a country held hostage and a majority of its voters disenfranchised.
This insurgent minority has:
- Employed covert and overt racism, deception, and defamation to delegitimize and undermine a twice-elected president;
- Tried and failed 44 times to overturn a healthcare reform bill passed by Congress, signed into law by the president, and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court;
- Presented a list of non-negotiable demands to gut environmental protection and financial reform, weaken the social safety net, hurt the working poor, and further undermine the middle class;
- Threatened default on the public debt in violation of Amendment 14, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution – thus risking a worldwide financial crisis.
Over the last four decades, the Republican Party has transformed from a loyal opposition into an insurrectionary party that flouts the law when it is in the majority and threatens disorder when it is the minority (John P. Judis).
[The Republican Party is] becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe (Mike Lofgren).
A disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself (Hannah Arendt).
These actions by Tea Party Republicans, as reckless as they are, are examples of nascent totalitarianism. Let the backlash begin.
UPDATE:
Poll Indicates GOP Has Been Deeply Damaged By Shutdown Fight
32 comments:
The Democrats will be 100% responsible for any shutdown.
They are forcing it in the hopes that the republicans get the blame, and believe me thats whats going to happen.
The monkeys, and their organ grinder masters that are well hidden behind the curtains.
Michael Tomasky in "The Daily Beast:"
"What they’re doing here is not hostage taking, the most commonly used metaphor in the media. It’s political terrorism. When hostage takers see that their demands are met, they release the hostage. But what makes anyone think today’s Republicans will ever release the hostage? No—if the Democrats agree to negotiate, the demands will never stop. Every pivot point on the legislative calendar will be an opportunity to make demands without precedent in our system.
And they won’t care how much they sink in the polls, as long as Obama sinks too."
Excellent post, (8)PUS! The TeaPublicans are getting hammered in the press. Americans are angry with their terrorist actions. They'll get blamed for this because they deserve all the blame. selfish and destructive never wins the day.
" ... Since a new budgeting process was put into place in 1976, the U.S. government has shut down 17 times. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan each dealt with six shutdowns during their terms in office, lasting anywhere from one day to 2 1/2 weeks.
"
The last actual shutdown came in 1996 — though the government came close during budget negotiations in 2011.
"The last shutdown lasted three weeks
"The three-week shutdown that lasted from Dec. 16, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996, ranks as the longest in U.S. history. As a result, about 284,000 federal workers were furloughed, and around 475,000 essential employees went without a paycheck, although they were eventually reimbursed. ..."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/09/23/225462813/8-things-to-know-about-a-government-shutdown
Lib Buster said...
The House Rules Committee has been in existence since 1789. The first actual government shutdown was in 1976 during the Ford Administration. Over the past 80 years and 64 years that Democrats have controlled the Rules Committee, there have been fifteen government shutdowns. FIFTEEN. In the 16 years the Republicans have controlled it there have been two. TWO.
So, why are the Republicans being blamed? Apparently, democrats have cinveniently short memories.
Shutting down a government is not governing. It doesn't matter how many times and under how many president it has happened.
It is a failure of governance, and no way to run a country.
It's a disgrace.
Seventeen wrongs don't make a right.
Anonymous/Lib Buster:
The Republicans are being blamed because the American people understand that they deserve the blame.
You guys are the FIRST to point out that what happened in the past (say, something in the Bush administration) doesn't matter anymore because Mr. Obama is the president! So now you come here and use what happened in the past as what? An excuse to dismiss or justify what's happening now?
Not going to work here. You can't have it both ways.
You can't dismiss what liberals point out happened in the Bush administration by saying "Bush isn't president anymore; Obama has to take responsibility," and then come here and point out what Democrats or any other political group did in the past.
The Republican Tea Party gets the blame, totally, for their kamikaze tactics.
But we conveniently and with great emphasis call it Tea Party terrorism today.
Oy Vey! The partisan drama and hyperbple. Almost as tasty and interesting as Green Eggs and Ham.
Harry and John deserve each other. And Obama gets to pontificate. It has become all so pointless.
When the monkeys have had their desired time in the .circus limelight things will get resolved and DC (Dumb City) will return to normal.
Always amusing that Obama says on NPR that he will not negotiate with the republicans, and if he doesn't get his way he will shut the govt down. Now the obama media blame the republicans.
The current impasse instigated by Congressional Republicans is not merely about ObamaCare. Imbedded in the Continuing Resolution is an misogynist/fundamentalist social conservative agenda, specifically this:
[The House-passed CR] “would exempt bosses from complying with the ACA’s Women’s Health Amendment if they oppose it for “religious or moral” reasons. This means that bosses could impose their religious beliefs on their employees, or block their employees’ access to needed women’s health care for vague and undefined “moral” reasons.”
The CR would allow employers to refuse to cover eight women’s preventive services included in the ACA. These services were identified by the Institute of Medicine and endorsed by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Although the House floor debate focused on contraception, the CR targets a wide range of women’s health services, including:
(1) Breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling;
(2) Screening and counseling for interpersonal and domestic violence;
(3) Screening for gestational diabetes;
(4) DNA testing for high-risk strains of HPV;
(5) Counseling regarding sexually transmitted infections, including HIV;
(6) Screening for HIV;
(7) Contraceptive methods and counseling;
(8) Wellness visits.
In other words, GENDER DISCRIMINATION, a hardcore social conservative agenda that specifically targets women, but not men; an agenda that capriciously allows employers to pry into the private medical records of employees who happen to be women; that allows any employer to deny benefits to women by reason of “religious or moral” grounds even when such claims are bogus and non-existent.
NOTE: There is nothing in Law (Constitutional, Federal or State) that permits invasion of privacy or interference with medicine of this magnitude. Furthermore, no religious denomination has the right to enlist government as Inquisitor or enforcer of church doctrine.
Hypocrites of small government demand BIG government intrusion in your bedrooms, your underwear, and up your private parts.
This is bullshit. Frankly, there is no way these so-called "culture wars" will end peacefully.
"skudrunner said...
Always amusing that Obama says on NPR that he will not negotiate with the republicans, and if he doesn't get his way he will shut the govt down. Now the obama media blame the republicans.
October 1, 2013 at 9:25 AM Delete"
What EXACTLY do you mean "...if he doesn't get his way?" Do you even know?
The TeaPublicans want to dick with A LAW, OBAMACARE. The president will not allow them to hold this law hostage so that THEY get EVERYTHING THEY WANT!
You complete disregard of this pertinent fact is tiring.
Stop coming here and making stuff up.
skudrunner, (O)CT(O)PUS sets you straight.
Most of the time you come here, you don't know what you're talking about.
The president doesn't negotiate with blackmailers.
What you fail to state, FT, is that past shutdown, up till Newtie Gingrich's epic fail, were short duration tussles over budget issues.
Got that? They delayed the budget over budgetary matters.
They didn't attach riders to block the implementation of major programs. This is a move by a rump minority to block duly passed legislation and as it further meld Republican identity with the Baggers will go badly for th right.
Ducky, thanks for that additional information.
I would just amend what you wrote to this:
"This is a move by a rump minority [financed by the insurance conglomerates] to block duly passed legislation..."
Two members of my family, who were not able to afford insurance or who were denied insurance for pre-existing conditions, will sign up today.
These two members of my family have not had routine medical care for years. They and I am forever grateful to Mr. Obama for his courage to pass a law that treats American citizens humanely. My only regret and disagreement with Mr. Obama is that the law doesn't go far enough. I wanted single-payer.
But that's a small complaint now that these two people can buy insurance on the insurance exchanges.
What in the hell is wrong with the people who are against Americans buying insurance on exchanges so that they no longer have to go to the ER for medical care and then have those exorbitant costs passed on to the general public?
IMO, most of their railing against Obamacare is knee-jerk, anti-goverment blather.
"In May Paul Ryan admitted that Republicans would not go to budget negotiations because Democrats had no reason to give in to Republicans:
Without that leverage, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday, there is no point in opening formal budget negotiations between the House and the Senate, because Democrats have no reason to consider the kind of far-reaching changes to Medicare and the U.S. tax code that Republicans see as fundamental building blocks of a deal.
To that end, Senate Democrats attempted to go to conference on the budget 18 times and Republicans blocked every attempt, staring on April 23.
But...but...Obama wont' negotiate!
Obama this, Obama that, you’d think he was the devil.
He’s been called everything, even an infidel.
There is no way that just one man could've caused all that trouble,
Wake up my friends, and use your heads, you’re living in a bubble.
Your logic and your facts are wrong, your thinking is askew
The ideas stuck inside your heads are stuck like Super Glue.
It does no good to show you facts, you know what you believe
I wonder if your common sense is absent without leave.
I don’t care what you say, you have so many gripes
I don’t listen to Fox News’s numerous media tripe.
But there’s one thing that galls me, a thing that really stinks
You’ve got the nerve to tell me what it is you think I thinks!
Progressive, liberals, democrats are not pontificating
About the things, you say they say, and always are berating
Now did you get that sentence straight? I didn’t mean to fool you
I just want you to realize you’re out of line, our purpose is to school you.
Instead of spewing sewage, if you're willing and you're able,
Fix the mess, devise a plan; bring something to the table!
Despite what you believe, our youth are well-informed
They know the truth--how this administration has performed.
They know the future lies with them, and not with angry, mean old men.
So it really doesn’t matter what you say or what you do
Because the ultimate revenge is they will all outlive you.
NOTE: S.K. did NOT write this. It was sent to me in an email today. It doesn't scan well, but the message is sharp.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told WND exactly why she thinks President Obama and Democrats are unwilling to negotiate with the GOP over Obamacare’s well-documented problems.
“I think the reason is because President Obama can’t wait to get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care.”
“Because, once they enroll millions of more individual Americans, it will be virtually impossible for us to pull these benefits back from people,” the lunatic congresswoman explained. -
The following is a list of things that have been, at various times, demanded by Republicans under threat of a government shutdown or default:
1. A balanced budget amendment
2. Approving Keystone XL
3. Eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood
4. Medicare privatization
5. Tax reform, as outlined by Paul Ryan
6. The REINS Act, which would require Congress to approve significant federal regulations
7. Means-testing Social Security
8. Defunding Obamacare
9. Allowing employers to eliminate insurance coverage for birth control
10. An expansion of off-shore drilling
11. Preserving all the Bush tax cuts
12. "Trillions" in budget cuts
13. Slashing funding for food stamps
14. Protecting mountaintop strip mining
15. Stripping the EPA of authority to regulate greenhouse gases
16. Loosening regulation on coal ash
17. Delaying Obamacare implementation by one year
18. Repealing a tax on medical devices
19. Eliminating Social Service Block Grants
20. Expanding drilling on federal lands
21. Restricting the child tax credit
Affordable Care Act is so unpopular that the servers are overwhelmed by the volume today.
"Affordable Care Act is so unpopular that the servers are overwhelmed by the volume today."
Gives us an idea how desperate Americans have been to get affordable health care.
Andrew Sullivan is angry:
"How does one party that has lost two presidential elections and a Supreme Court case – as well as two Senate elections - think it has the right to shut down the entire government and destroy the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury to get its way on universal healthcare now? I see no quid pro quo even. Just pure blackmail, resting on understandable and predictable public concern whenever a major reform is enacted. But what has to be resisted is any idea that this is government or politics as usual. It is an attack on the governance and the constitutional order of the United States.
When ideologies become as calcified, as cocooned and as extremist as those galvanizing the GOP, the American system of government cannot work. But I fear this nullification of the last two elections is a deliberate attempt to ensure that the American system of government as we have known it cannot work. It cannot, must not work, in the mindset of these radicals, because they simply do not accept the legitimacy of a President and Congress of the opposing party. The GOP does not regard the president as merely wrong – but as illegitimate. Not misguided – illegitimate. This is not about ending Obamacare as such (although that is a preliminary scalp); it is about nullifying this presidency, the way the GOP attempted to nullify the last Democratic presidency by impeachment."
Well said. The TeaPublicans have succeeding in pissing off a majority of Americans so that they could stand on "principle," that principle being only THEY have the right to govern this country. And oh, also -- BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.
But their tantrum and blackmail is going to bite them on their mean-spirited asses.
All we have to do is wait and watch.
Lets add that a majority of the members of both the House and Senate would vote for a clean bill.
Speaker Boehner will not allow that bill to be considered.
How Skud, is the Speaker representing the will of either the House, or the American people?
Let's just call for a straight up or down vote? Would conservatives support that and the bill rise or fall on its merits?
Not a chance... sadly...
Shut down the government because you don't want citizens to have affordable healthcare. Pretty basic: third graders should not be allowed in congress.
BB-Idaho, unfortunately, that's not how a lot of conservatives look at this change. They see it as the government "taking over" health care (it doesn't) and more "socicalism" (it isn't.)
The video I posted above this post shows what the real problem is:
Ignorance.
And certain vested interests exploiting that ignorance.
Everything that fits the progressive template NOT is deemed ignorance, ignored, and mocked. Even when stated by intelligent learned conservatives.
Oh wait. I forgot. There aren't any in the progressive mind.
RN,
Please stop making those leaps.
First, there is no "template." But the fact is that millions of Americans don't know what the hell the ACA is, and they don't know it is Obamacare.
I said the video shows the problem: ignorance. I have no idea what the political leanings are of the people who spoke with such ignorance. YOU made that assumption, not I.
Can you point out who the "intelligent learned conservatives" are in the video I referred to?
At times, you are way too quick to jump to conclusions based on a hasty read of things I've written.
I've NEVER NEVER NEVER claimed there are no intelligent conservative minds. EVER. I've often quoted conservatives here at P.E. who are not followers of the Tea Party.
You are perilously close to doing what you criticize me and all liberals of doing: Painting the opposition with a very broad and generalized brush.
Obamacare doesn't pass the Socialism Test.
If it looks like Socialism,
Sounds like Socialism,
Acts like Socialism,
Feels like Socialism,
Works like Socialism,
Guess what?
It's SOCIALISM.
Why run from the term? -- Why try to deny that it is what it is, since it's patently obvious that SOCIALISM is what most Democrats -- and far too many RINO'S -- have fervently embraced and done everything in their power to promote with increasing speed and intensity for the past hundred years?
"Socialism" is not a dirty word. I, personally, don't like the effects it has had on many societies ours included, but it's a legitimate system of thought that's been around a long time. If it appeals to you, you have a perfect right to promote it, just as I have a perfect right to oppose it.
Not to be corny, but "A rose by any other name ..." Changing terminology does nothing to alter the character of the thing in question.
So, Pace, Pace, figlia mia! ;-)
Socialism would be on the European model: single payer (inexpensive,
universal, efficient) Cheer up, the health insurance companies are still involved, for-profit hospitals are still involved and the doctors are not on the government payroll. I'da thunk
the cons would like ACA.
Shaw said..."Please stop making those leaps."
The leap really wasn't that long or far IMHO but consider it done.
Sorry. The ACA is NOT Socialism.
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