“We’re not going to be disrespected,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) told The Washington Examiner. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
There’s something profoundly evil and conniving about a political party that would shut down the federal government through what can only fairly be described as a collective temper tantrum. Even worse, the degree of cynicism and mean-spiritedness on display is as stunning as it is cold-blooded. It would be easy to believe that Republicans don’t care about the consequences of their actions…because they truly appear not to care about anything but their own Machiavellian aspirations. The Affordable Care Act was passed into law by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court…and yet Republicans still view it as a bill that can be filibustered to death.
It’s not a law until Republicans SAY it’s a law….
At first it appeared that Republicans shut down the government because of their rabid, inexplicable, and thoroughly dishonest hatred of Obamacare. Turns out that was just a smokescreen for…well, no one really seems to be able to elucidate what Republicans want to achieve. Despite being unified in their devotion to their astonishingly mendacious anti-Obamacare talking points, Republicans don’t seem to know what the endgame is…other than making life miserable for The Black Guy in the White House ©.
It would be easy to argue racism, and the evidence seems clear that racism is at least part of the reason for Republican intransigence. There’s something else at work as well, something far more sinister and evil. Andrew Sullivan makes the convincing case that Republicans simply refuse to acknowledge that the White House and the Senate are in the hands of Democrats. They want to nullify the results of the past two Presidential elections…because their guy didn’t win the 2012 Presidential election.
[T]his 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.
In the end, there’s a pretty good chance that Republicans will end up nullifying themselves. It’s what (deservedly) happens when you care primarily and only for your narrow agenda to the detriment of everything else, including America’s best interests. When you refuse to recognize the legitimacy of a legally-elected President and believe that you have the power (and the right) to nullify that election, you’re no longer serving Americans. You’re working to burn America to the ground.
Republicans LOVE the Constitution…as long as they can use it to their advantage. When that ceases to be the case, the Constitution is about as useful as the Old Testament is to an atheist. Our government is no longer a constitutional democracy; it’s a kleptocracy governed by blackmailers who believe that they, and ONLY they have the right to determine who controls the levers of power. Democracy is an inconvenience that can and should be ignored when the American people vote the “wrong” way. The Far Right feels that power and control is their birthright. If they can’t win elections to achieve that power and control, they’ll do their damnedest to gum up the works until they can.
The Founding Fathers must be spinning maniacally in their graves.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
