Lean Left

October 1, 2013 dawned today. The sun rose in the sky, most people headed off to work, and the Pee Party held a champagne celebration. So, why are we facing another politically manufactured crisis? There are a lot of people running around Washington, D.C today pointing fingers. Of course, it wasn’t their fault.

It is always easy to point blame. It is always easy to make people afraid of something and then point a finger at who is to blame. After all, that has been the political gamesmanship since Richard Nixon at least. But that doesn’t answer the question of who is really to blame.

Well, I am going to tell you who I think is to blame. I will even give you reasons why I am pointing the finger at them. To be direct, it is the fault of the Republican Party, the Supreme Court, and Racism!

Our nation has faced political divisiveness before. Hell, we even had two members of the government including the Vice President who fought a duel! But through all of that, we somehow managed to maintain some sense of the common good. Unfortunately, that has all passed us by.

The mess really began in 2008. That is when the Supreme Court gave its decision in the Citizens United case. With this ruling, the doors of unlimited anonymous spending were thrown open and special interest groups began organizing politically in order to get their candidate elected and their agenda forced on the American People.

This escalated in 2010. Two years after Barak Obama was elected president and the Affordable Care Act was passed into law, certain elements of our society began raging over the so-called “illegitimate President”. Some of these people called themselves the Tea Party (note: this is the last time I will use this patriotic phrase in reference to them.  I prefer to call them the Pee Party since their belief is “I got mine, piss on the rest of you). We even began to see “political events” being attended by people carrying weapons and the cry of “we need to take our country back” began in earnest. Of course, no one ever said exactly what we were taking it back from, though, the meaning was crystal clear to anyone with half a brain! As a result, the Pee Party rallies started looking more like KKK or Arian Brotherhood rallies than political gatherings.

Of course, the newly empowered Political Action Committees started throwing money in their direction. Additionally, states where the Republican Party gained the majority in the State Legislators began gerrymandering districts to ensure they maintained their control. If you manipulate the district properly, you can make sure that the majority of voters in the majority of districts are whoever you want them to be.  In North Carolina, where I live, we have a district that on the map looks like a squirming worm just to ensure the proper majority of the right kind of voters.

Once the gerrymandering districts were in place, the Pee Party saw its chance to make a statement. They recruited Conservative Political Action Committees to support their nonsense and began putting together candidates.

Of course, it worked. The money donated by the PACs, the gerrymandered districts, and their coded messages won them up to 80 seats in the House. This meant that the Republicans were back in control of the House of Representatives.

Seeing his chance to become the Speaker, John Boehner courted these Pee Partiers for support and in 2011 he was elected as Speaker of the House. Unfortunately for him, in 2012 President Obama was re-elected president. The Republicans lost seats in the House, but not enough for the Democrats to take it back. The country was spared because the Pee Partiers who ran for the Senate shot themselves in the foot so much there was no way any sane person would vote for them. So, the Democrats held onto the Senate.

Now is when the real fun began. It seems that the remaining Pee Partiers ran their election against the Affordable Care Act. They didn’t let the truth get in their way either. They even accused the Act of having “death panels” to get rid of the old people in the country. They put their stock and promises in the idea of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

But, something happened along the way. The President won his re-election and the Democrats kept control of the Senate. So there was no way the Act was going to be repealed. Undeterred, they bullied Speaker Boehner into holding 43 votes to repeal the law over the next two years.

During this two year period, Mr. Boehner totally lost control of the Republican Caucus. And of course, it got even worse. This year the House passed a budget which the Democrats in the Senate voted down. So, in an attempt to make sure all blame went to the Democrats, Mr. Boehner went on television and told the Senate to pass a budget. Then, he said, they would form their joint committee and hammer out the differences so a complete budget could be voted on.

The Senate did just that. They passed a budget that was less than 10% higher than the House budget. Did Mr. Boehner keep his word? Nope! Eighteen times House Democrats put forth resolutions calling on Mr. Boehner to form the joint committee with the Senate. All eighteen times he refused. Therefore, no budget was ever passed and the possibility of a government shutdown loomed on the horizon.

Why did Mr. Boehner reject his own promise to work with the Senate and get a budget deal done? Answer: The Pee Partiers threatened him with the Speakership if he negotiated with either the Democrats in the Senate or with the President. Wanting the TITLE of Speaker more than actually BEING the Speaker, he gave in again.

So, now we have come to main event. The government shutdown that Mr. Boehner said over and over he did not want has come to pass. As a result of this childish behavior, over 800,000 government employees are being furloughed without pay. Millions of small business who depend on the tourist trade at our National Parks, Museums, and National Monuments have lost business and maybe even their entire business. Women and Children who depend upon WIC for food, especially baby formula will soon have to do without. Senior Citizens who depend on Meals on Wheels for their food will have to do without. Retirees of the Military and other government agencies will not receive their pensions and, like the furloughed government employees, face either depleting their life savings or possibly losing their homes, cars, life insurance, and everything else. And wounded veterans who depend on the VA for assistance will soon be turned away including from crisis centers which are vital in helping prevent suicides.

Why is all of this happening? Because the Pee Partiers want to form their own little dictatorship in this country. They refuse to accept the 2012 elections and will do everything to enforce their will on the rest of the country that already rejected them and their absurd ideas. Plus, making that black man who happens to be president look bad is the most important agenda item they have. No matter what it costs everyone else.  Hell, their still getting paid!!!

So, in my opinion, the Supreme Court got the ball rolling. The Pee Party used racism to get a foot in the door of power. The Republican Party embraced these nut jobs to gain control of the House. And, Mr. Boehner who is the weakest Speaker of the House this country has ever had has totally lost control. All that totals one thing. Anarchy and a government shutdown.

That doesn’t even begin to touch on the simple fact that the Pee Partiers actually wetting their pants over their wish to DEFAULT on the government debt which they helped to create.  Madness doesn’t even begin to describe all of this.  I guess they figure once they completely destroy the country, they fantasize that everyone will turn to them to save the day.

By the way, does all of this remind you of anyone else who used these tactics in the past?