This wasn’t about politics or about the art of negotiating
or about government spending or about the deficit or any other bullshit the GOP
spin doctors will attempt to make it about in the weeks ahead. This was about a
group of terrorists who commandeered the House Republican caucus and held a gun
to the heads of about 300 million Americans. Period! A group that
couldn’t accept the results of two elections and a Supreme Court decision and,
in the end, made themselves and their colleagues – especially their beleaguered
leader - look like buffoons to the entire world.
Comparing this movement to a cancer in the body politic
doesn’t begin to adequately describe it. Cancers can at least be removed
surgically. Thanks to gerrymandering, this malignancy is for all intents and
purposes inoperable. Even with all the damage they caused in the last couple of
weeks and the catastrophe they damn near brought about, Republicans will
still likely hold onto the House next year. And that means this sick and
twisted group of sociopaths isn’t remotely done with inflicting their brand of
terror on the country.
Forget next January and February. Try imagining this circus
occurring every three to six months for the next three years; longer if
Democrats don’t take back the House in 2016. The two characteristics all insane
people possess are a relentlessness that knows no bounds and a complete
inability to be reasoned with. Those two characteristics define the Tea Party
to a, you’ll pardon the pun, tee.
And Ted Cruz, the self-appointed emperor of this movement
and master architect of this siege, who deliberately and maliciously sprinkled
itching powder all over the House of Representatives and then split like a bat
out of hell, stood on his soapbox in front of reporters, unabashedly and defiantly
proclaiming victory while his party was imploding. He didn’t even have the
decency not to upstage his own leader who was at that very moment addressing
the Senate. But who cares about little things like class when you’re locked in
your own private echo chamber. Self-justified and self-absorbed, he has become a
rock star to the bubble people. Right up there with Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint,
Mark Levin and all the other Orcs in Mordor.
But the real villain here isn’t Cruz and his cronies; it’s
the Republican Party as a whole. It’s one thing for a delinquent child to act
up; it’s quite another when the parents enable him. I don’t want to hear
anything about how Mitch McConnell came through at the 11th hour and
forged a deal with Harry Reid to save the day. Where was McConnell weeks
earlier when Cruz was staging his fake filibuster on the floor of the Senate?
And for that matter what kind of Speaker of the House permits
a junior senator from the upper chamber to ostensibly usurp his authority over
his own caucus? All we kept hearing from pundits over the last few weeks was
that John Boehner was no ideologue, that he didn’t want any part of this
stupidity. You coulda fooled me. Boehner’s inability to lead this fractious
caucus was the primary reason the nation almost hit its debt ceiling.
Indeed the entire leadership of the Republican Party was AWOL
throughout this ordeal and must bear the brunt of the responsibility for the
damage it allowed to happen. According to S&P, the U.S. economy lost
roughly $24 billion during the shutdown. That is inexcusable.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the underwriters of
this freak show: the rich and shameless who built the Frankenstein monster,
turned it loose on the village and then sat back and watched it almost burn to
the ground. If ever there was an argument for campaign-finance reform you saw
it clearly over the last few weeks. The love child of the Koch brothers,
Sheldon Adelson, Freedom Works, Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation ran
roughshod and unchecked over the Congress. They are as complicit as the
spineless leaders of the GOP.
Even now, they are plotting their revenge in the form of
primary challenges to any and all so-called RINOs who caved on their “principles”
and abandoned the cause. Not only haven’t they learned anything from this
near-death experience, they are ramping up for another skirmish. They already
have January 15th marked on their calendar. To a man and woman they
were willing to shoot the hostage this time around just to prove a point. Next
time, you can bet the ranch they’ll pull the trigger.
That’s why I know this isn’t over, not by a long shot.
Forget the polls; these people don’t read them anyway. Forget facts; they could
care less. You can’t reason with people
who are mad enough to crash a world economy over a bankrupt ideology.
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