OK, the Republicans worked for this, they refuse to even hold a vote on funding the government in the House of Representatives (John Boehner claims that it wouldn't pass, but he refuses to demonstrate that), and they've been arguing strenuously that a shutdown isn't such a bad thing, anyway.
But it's the Democrats fault. Fox 'News' even calls it Obama's shutdown. Honestly, how dumb do they think we are?
But this is the clip I really wanted to post:
You have to sympathize with this woman, don't you? After all, none of the rest of us have every had to live with a "stupid law," right? We've always gotten everything we wanted. No one who isn't a Republican has ever seen laws enacted that we didn't like, have we?
I can't even imagine what that must be like. How about you? It must be difficult, not getting your own way in everything. So it's no wonder they've taken hostages and threatened to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States of America.
Heck, what were they supposed to do? Accept that they lost the fight in Congress, that they lost in the courts, that they lost in the election last year - and just vow to work harder next time? Would the Taliban do that if they lost an election? No, only sane people would do that.
Clearly, this is our fault. We forced the GOP into turning to economic terrorism, because we wouldn't give them everything they wanted. I mean, what did we expect? (You know, maybe this would work with Al-Qaeda, too. If we just gave them everything they wanted, they might stop trying to kill us.)
PS. Note, at the end of this, how Jason Jones figures out the underlying difficulty here. Tea Party Republicans hate government - even the American government (maybe even especially the American government). So where's our leverage?
One way or another, these right-wing extremists will get what they want. We'll either agree to destroy our own government, or they'll do it for us. Remember, they've been trying to "drown America in a bathtub" for decades. During the Bush years, one reason they increased spending while simultaneously cutting taxes was to deliberately bankrupt America, in order to force us to dismantle our own government.
Not all Republicans are like this, because corporate America gets rich from government spending. But the crazies are in control right now. The rest of the party went along with this for political reasons. They simply wanted to destroy the Obama presidency so they could regain the White House (and Congress) themselves.
They thought to use the Tea Party crazies for this, just as they'd thought to use the Dixiecrats when they adopted their 'Southern strategy' of deliberately appealing to white racists, just as they'd thought to use the fundamentalist Christians when they started wooing religious nuts, just as they'd thought to use the anti-immigrant hysteria they encouraged so incessantly (and now are wondering how they'll get Hispanic votes again).
In every case, their goal was simply political power. And they wanted to use that political power to benefit the wealthy, primarily. (Note what actually happened during the Bush years, not what they told their own supporters they wanted. They didn't outlaw abortion, they didn't end immigration, they didn't bring back segregation. But they did give tax cuts to the rich.)
The current situation wasn't intended by mainstream Republicans. But a funny thing happened after they filled the Republican Party with racists, fundamentalists, and other assorted crazies: the crazies took control.
The crazies weren't content with just rhetoric. They weren't content with just an occasional bone thrown their way. And since wooing the crazies bothered many sane people, the crazies became more and more important to the GOP, until now,... they control the party.
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