UPDATE: The Republican’s plan to shut the government down has succeeded. The huge irony here being that the government shutdown doesn’t even slow down the implementation of The Affordable Care Act, (ObamaCare). There is literally only one reason the Republicans have shut down the government: Because they can. There is no other reason. This only hurts people and accomplishes nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. As long as there are enough Republicans in our government – on any level – to obstruct; America will not move forward. Remember this next November when you are voting.
Speaker of the House John Boehner has made the calculation that his job is more important than the well-being of millions of Americans. Speaker Boehner and the Republicans in the House will not send over what is called a “clean” Continuing Resolution Bill, (CR), to the Senate for the Senate to vote on. A clean CR is one where there are no amendments. It would be a CR to fund the government at the levels we are funding it now.
There are enough Democrats and sane Republicans in the House of Representatives that if Speaker Boehner were to bring up a clean CR it would pass. However, then he would be breaking a Republican “rule”. The rule is called the Hastert Rule. The Hastert Rule is an undemocratic rule imposed by the most decidedly undemocratic party in American history – that says unless you can get a majority of Republicans to support a bill, the Speaker shall not bring it to the House floor for a vote even if were going to pass.
Democracy is built on the premise that both sides are willing to compromise. That is what democracy is about. When one side or the other is absolutely unwilling to compromise on anything; democracy ceases to function.
When the Republicans say either you repeal The Affordable Care Act, (ObamaCare), or we will blow up the economy; that is not a negotiation. That is a hostage crisis. There is no compromise to be had in a hostage negotiation.
Democracy no longer is the overriding principle in the House of Representatives. Speaker Boehner and the Republican Party have thrown out the American democratic process in an attempt to have their ideology imposed upon the American people.
Democracy works like this: One political party will come up with a bill. The other side will then come up with their own version of the bill. The two sides get together and work on a compromise until they can get a majority of Representatives to vote for it. That is the democratic process. This is the way our democracy has worked for over 200 years.
Now we have one party who says since they can’t get what they want through the normal democratic process, we are going to use a different method to get what we want.
Guess what? If you can’t get what you want through the normal democratic process, that means you lose. Either figure out a better way to explain what you are selling, or try selling something else. Anything else is outside of; and so not a part of; the democratic process.
THIS IS HOW AMERICA WORKS PEOPLE!!!
The Republicans are angry because we have a black president. It is that simple. He is black so, in the Conservative mind – this being a White Christian Conservative Nation and all, (or so they have told themselves) – he simply cannot legitimately be president. Everything they have done since President Obama has been elected is in an attempt to erase his presidency from history. Failing that, and they are failing at that miserably, they want to make sure that during President Obama’s presidency as many American as possible get hurt so the next time they have a chance to vote for a black president, maybe they will have second thoughts.
The sad fact is that the modern day Republican Party is more interested in imposing their right-wing extremist ideology on Americans than they are in democracy.
Some say the Republican Party of today has changed from the Republican Party of yesterday. The ONLY difference I see between a Ted Cruz of today and a Newt Gingrich of yesterday is the amount of truth being told. Newt Gingrich knew how to hide his true intentions: Ted Cruz does not. So the difference is that the Republican Party of today is just being truthful about what they want, where the Republican Party of yesterday just flat-out lied about what they wanted all the while dragging America to where we are today.
