Maybe we know all this--that
But the ones who had to learn? They have learned it too:"Gerrymandering and the 2010 election have hollowed out the old, media-savvy Blue Dogs who used to make public breaks from Rep. Nancy Pelosi. There’s a new, near-total refusal to compromise."
The Republicans apparently have yet to learn it:“It’s based on history,” said Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, a former chair of the House Progressive Caucus. “Every time that we get into these situations, whether it was the grand bargain or the last CR or the debt ceiling, at the end of the day it is all the give on the side of Democrats. I think that pattern is well-documented, and all of us know it. People vote for the greater good, to keep government working. Then you come back around, and there’s nothing left to give. I think we’ve reached the tipping point, with Democrats saying, ‘If you want to bear the responsibility for the crisis you’ve created, then you bear it, and we’re gonna stand firm.’ ”
But when you have dealt in bad faith, broken all your promises and agreements, and have nothing left but empty threats of useless publicity aimed at a public that seems to have figured you out? Well:Some Republicans think they turned the tide, or started to, with the mini-CRs. Democrats think that’s short sighted. It’s easy for the GOP to pass a small bill that “funds our veterans.” What happens if the shutdown drags, and voters start hearing about poor families missing out on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families payments or Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency inspectors going off the clock? Is the GOP going to pass a mini-CR for the EPA? For food stamps?
“Dealing with terrorists has taught us some things,” said Washington Rep. Jim McDermott after voting no on one of Thursday’s GOP bills. “You can’t deal with ’em. This mess was created by the Republicans for one purpose, and they lost. People in my district are calling in for Obamacare—affordable health care—in large numbers. These guys have lost, and they can’t figure out how to admit it.” Why would House Democrats give away what the Supreme Court and the 2012 electorate didn’t? “You can’t say, OK, you get half of Obamacare—this isn’t a Solomonic decision,” McDermott said. “So we sit here until they figure out they fuckin’ lost.”
But... but... but...
ReplyDeleteThe South shall rise again!
I vote for the Bugs Bunny Doctrine. Start sawing off states.
DeleteActually, the EPA being mostly shutdown is and has been a Prime Goal of the Republicans.
ReplyDeleteto the Republicans right now they think they're winning because either the Government stays Shutdown or the Democrats capitulate.
Either way they like the outcomes because a month or so long Government Shutdown really hurts the Poor and Working Class while the Rich have enough resources to hold out and when it does end the Rich will be poised to reap the short-term benefits.
This is a Coup and is a silent but massive change to basic Government.
And upon further reflection, I should expand upon my point.
ReplyDeleteThis is not to say that Southern revanchism is not a powerful element of the current standoff; it most certainly is. Rather, it illustrates the larger point that the GOP in its current incarnation, in throwing this massive tantrum, is refusing to accept the political and demographic changes sweeping them toward oblivion -- they cannot, they just can't bring themselves to admit THEY LOST. To do so is to deny the entire structure of the bizarre reality they've built around themselves for decades. This shutdown is the Confederate flag emblazoned on the pickup truck of their very souls.
Hell, to surrender to Obama at this point would be to cut their Truck Nutz off.
The "South"? Sealevels aren't rising fast enough.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the dick-heads going to do, grow cotton, tobacco?
ROTFLMAO
Grung_e_Gene,
ReplyDeleteThank you for using the word "coup."
I thought I was the only one.
I've been trying to make that point since this shutdown started to look like a reality, a while back - but no one seems to respond to it.
When a political party in the majority of only 1/3rd of the power-structure in a representative democracy, and tries to accomplish its goals outside of the Constitutional and legal means that are carefully spelled out, and have been followed for over 2 centuries, what else can you call it, but a "coup!?!?!?
You're not the only one, Victor, and maybe we ought to ask 'by whom?". It seems to me that most analyses try to figure out what the GOP wants, and comes up with 'crazy or stupid' when It might be more productive to ask what their corporate overlords want.
ReplyDeleteMultinationals may be more concerned with losing billions in health care scams than with whether some particular government shuts down.
The congressmen stand to lose less by going against their puppeteers, who not only hold the stick of campaign money but also the carrot of lucrative post-govt employment, than by going against the voters.