The latest display of government dysfunction by design provided this writer
an opportunity to connect the dots, and the finished product wasn't a pretty
picture.
Since Republicans took control of the House they used the legislative
process without success 42 times and at a cost of over 50 million dollars to
repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), i.e., Obamacare. In June of 2012 the Supreme
Court decided that the ACA was the law of the land and in November
of 2012 the presidential candidate who pledged, if elected, he would repeal
Obamacare, lost the election.
Failing to get their way legally, the political right then threatened to
shut down the government and in effect deliberately subvert the economy and
inflict more suffering on a society still in a state of recession recovery
unless Obamacare was "delayed" for one year. The political party that holds
"individual responsibility" in high esteem then resorted to blaming the
President for not negotiating with the self-proclaimed hostage takers.
In the end the Republican House shut down the government and threatened to
default on our national debt. In the process they exposed their blatant
disregard for a legislative process that served us well for nearly 250 years,
displayed an absence of any respect for the rule of law, and with sheer
contempt ignored the will of the people as expressed in the 2012 election.
This same political party that also claims a monopoly on "fiscal
responsibility" cost our economy 24 billion dollars to put a right-wing ideology
above country and destroy our standing in the world in the process. China now
wants to "de-Americanize" the global economy. The E.U. has doubts about our
political stability and the Philippine press recently suggested that America has
a problem accepting a man of color as president. Given that the Affordable Care
Act was initially a Republican idea that Republicans now adamantly oppose, perhaps the Philippine press is onto something.
It's time for the Republican party to put country before party and speak
out against those among them whose words and deeds divide us as a people,
disgrace us on the world stage, and destroy this republic from within. And it's
time for Republicans to understand that silence is complicity.
To achieve a political goal through intimidation meets the definition of
extortion as well as terrorism, but the act of shutting down the government,
adversely affecting the our economy, and threatening the stability of the global
economy were examples of a right-wing American extremism that aides and abets
our enemies, and which compels this writer to dare call it treason.
After connecting the dots, the big picture, is to quote Pogo: "We have met
the enemy and he is us". How we address that reality today will determine what
we will become as a nation tomorrow.
