The
American Weapon by public domain
The
American Weapon by public
domain
This how the Republicans wage politics. They shove a
hand grenade in our faces and say, "Do it our way or we pull the
pin." We tremble, chastise, plead and pray. And then,
at the last second, after dangling the nation over the edge of the
zombie apocalypse, they pull back. Two months later they do
it again.
Maybe this is the time they pull the trigger. Or maybe, once again, we dodge a bullet. But does anyone think the House Republicans will stop shooting? They like this chaos because they hate Obama. The American people are just collateral damage in their endless, obsessive, paranoid schizophrenic war against one man. A man who beat the snot out of them. Twice.
I'm sick to death of playing this game. But the Republican reactionaries have gotten used to our passivity; they count on it.
Here's the script. The GOP fixates on an issue. It doesn't matter which; the issue is merely an excuse. It can be privatizing Social Security, the Great Benghazi Conspiracy, the Keystone pipeline, a tiny tax increase on the superrich, or the perils of Obamacare. The plot never changes; they threaten to trash the government, crash the economy, and sink the ship of state unless they get their way.
We play our part submissively, crying, "Oh please Republicans, pretty please, don't huff and puff and blow the house down! Don't cut our throats, cluster bomb the economy and wreak havoc on America, we're begging you! We don't want anything, we just want you to play nice!"
And, after the markets have a Grand mal seizure and wipe out about a trillion bucks in assets and drop our credit rating another foot down the toilet, they say "Okay, we'll give you a two-month truce. But we'll be back."
And we meekly go along, until the next phony, self-inflicted Tea Party crisis, and then we do the psychodrama all over again. We're their enablers, and with each performance, democracy dies a little.
Blowing up the government to insist upon a political position that the people comprehensively rejected eleven months ago is borderline treason. The Mullahs must envy them. Crashing the American economy to prove an ideological point is an act of war far beyond the feeble powers of Al Qaeda.
Am I calling the tea party wing of the Republican Party terrorists? No. Terrorists knew they were committing suicide when they blew up the World Trade Center. The Republicans are suicide bombing the world's trade.
If the United States defaults, I mean really defaults and stops paying its debts, the world's economy won't have time to crash. It'll explode. I say let it.
The Republicans, who see themselves as the true believers of capitalism, the chosen people of the god of money, are about to learn the horrible lesson of hubris. Thou shalt not default on the markets, lest the gods rise up and smite thee.
Debt ceiling default is self-crucifixion. When the Republicans drive a spear into the heart of capitalism, it will be they who find themselves on the cross, crying "Oh Lord, why have you forsaken me?"
Global capitalism will disintegrate. For many, even most, that will be a tragic disaster. It is also an opportunity, if we're bold enough to take it.
When the world economy is in free-fall, and the radicals who call themselves conservatives are in full-screaming panic, begging us to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, at that exact moment, we dictate the terms of surrender. We make them an offer they can't refuse.
You want an end to the crisis you made? Fine, here are our terms.
Repeal the Second Amendment, we want to be safe on our streets. Health care for all and if you don't like the term socialized medicine, get over it. Health is not a business you insure, it's a right you enforce. We won't bail you out of your debt crisis until we get it.
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