This debt-ceiling thingy seems to be playing to perfection for Obama and the democrats. Republican leader, John Boehner, despite strong language, threats and perhaps, perhaps everything short of bodily harm, failed to get enough votes to get his debt reduction proposal through the republican-led house. The teaparty membership held strong.
The teaparty is in lala-land. Their belief system is like that of a drunken megalomaniac. They are drunk with power over the republicans and believe they can do the same with the country. They are not rational, they see no compromise and they are driven by hate for a black president.
Mark you, I’m not saying that every teaparty member or politician is racist. But the teaparty was born out of hatred for Barack Obama. Even before he was sworn in, teaparty members were saying that their sole purpose was to remove him from office. He has had more assassination threats than any other president.
They went after his family, his character, his race. Racial epithets were used to describe him and his family. He was never given a chance. There was a racial backlash despite Obama trying to defuse his racial factor. And the GOP joined in the fun, going along for the ride. How is that working out for ya, John. How thrilling is ride now that you are crashing? Guess what? When you lie down with dogs, you are going to get up with fleas.
So the teaparty’s hatred has maneuvered the GOP into a position of splitting apart. The moderate faction of the republican party is displaying increasingly open disdain for the ‘new nuts on the block’. Rational people know that there is a great possibility of default and the possible disastrous results that could follow. They don’t want to take that chance.
The teaparty believes that the rest of the world will just give America a bligh. I wonder where they get that idea from. They still believe in American superiority, invincibility and immortality. Sorry freaks, but that is history. America is not as beloved as it once was. If nothing else, Ronald Reagan and George Bush put paid to that.
So here is what is likely to go down. Boehner and moderate republicans will have to draft a bill (probably drafted already) totally cutting out the teaparty, but which will get ‘reluctant’ democratic support. He knows that a ‘teaparty’ plan will never pass in the senate and so the republicans will be blamed for failing the country. You cannot base a plan on screwing the poor and middle-class and not expect a bloodbath next election. Especially when as a republican, you are getting entitlements of your position while advocating cutting for everyone else’s.
So Boehner’s plan that will increase some taxes and have some budget cuts. It will be liberal enough so some democrats will ‘reluctantly’ agree in the interest of the country. The president will sign it, shake Boehner’s hand and make him look like a reasonable man. And the teaparty will go bonkers, stark raving nuts.
They will cut their own throats by rebelling against the moderate republicans… which is a bad idea… but they will have no alternative. They are already calling for Boehner to be replaced as House leader by a teaparty member… despite them not being in the majority amongst the republicans. Nitwits… but they are the poster-boys for megalomaniacs.
They will expose themselves as the extreme reactionaries they are, become ridiculed in the press, lose backing from the GOP and big money will fund ‘reasonable’ candidates. And next year under the leadership of the Bachmanns, the Joe Walshs, the Grover Norquists, they will be swept out. Some form of insane sanity (as against insane insanity) will return to the political spectrum and life will go on.
Will life be any better for the rest of us little people? Hell no! There is an African saying, “When the elephants make love, the grass suffer. When the elephants make war, the grass suffers”. How true.
To its credit, the teaparty was trying to bring a real problem to the fore… that of the continuous overspending. But nothing driven by racial hate can come to any good. If they had done this during the George Bush era, then they would have some credibility. But their racial hatred turned into intransigence and they forget the first rule of politics… be prepared to compromise, to give and take. They wanted to take. And Obama played them for the fools they are.
