America’s Longest Temper Tantrum
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Parents, think back to when your children were young. Remember the terrible twos and threes? The frustrating fives? The seriously surly sevens? The arguing, the whining, the screaming, the tears spilled over every little thing, thus making it difficult to figure out what was real sorrow and what was just “you won’t let me stay up late?” Welcome to the new GOP.
Young children are difficult to handle sometimes. They can be selfish, believing the world revolves around them, and whatever they want is important and necessary. It’s impossible to reason with a young child, simply because their brains have not reached a level of maturity that can handle compromise and cooperation. And, shockingly, we now have an entire political party made up of children.
We have the most obstructionist congress in recent history. They have been joined by quite a few Republican senators in their obsession with making President Obama a one term leader. In October of 2010, Senator Mitch McConnell made the following astonishing statement while speaking with Major Garrett of the National Journal:
MCCONNELL: We need to be honest with the public. This election is about them, not us. And we need to treat this election as the first step in retaking the government. We need to say to everyone on Election Day, “Those of you who helped make this a good day, you need to go out and help us finish the job.”
NATIONAL JOURNAL: What’s the job?
MCCONNELL: The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.
Got that? In the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the right wing went on record, making it very clear to the American people that helping America out of this mess was not a priority.
According to a book by Robert Draper, the plot to destroy the Obama presidency began in earnest on the evening of the inauguration. The book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives,” begins with a list of 15 men who attended a secret meeting the night of President Obama’s inauguration and goes into details about how these men planned to make Mitch McConnell’s goal a reality. From Huffington Post:
According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith. Notably absent were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) — who, Draper writes, had an acrimonious relationship with Luntz.
Notice the third name on that list. Paul Ryan. The current Republican vice presidential candidate allegedly attended a secret meeting held hours after President Obama was sworn in, a meeting dedicated to a single topic: destroy this president and his presidency. John Ensign, as we all know, was forced to resign after a bribery scandal and facts about his adulterous affair came to light. Ensign resigned the day after he received a call from Rick Santorum, letting Ensign know the scandal was about to break and federal charges were pending.
More on Draper’s book, again from Huffington Post:
For several hours in the Caucus Room (a high-end D.C. establishment), the book says they plotted out ways to not just win back political power, but to also put the brakes on Obama’s legislative platform.
“If you act like you’re the minority, you’re going to stay in the minority,” Draper quotes McCarthy as saying. “We’ve gotta challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign.”
The conversation got only more specific from there, Draper reports. Kyl suggested going after incoming Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for failing to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes while at the International Monetary Fund. Gingrich noted that House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) had a similar tax problem. McCarthy chimed in to declare “there’s a web” before arguing that Republicans could put pressure on any Democrat who accepted campaign money from Rangel to give it back.
John Kyl went after Geithner the very next day, famously saying “Would you answer my question rather than dancing around it-please?” And eight days after the meeting, Eric Cantor would hold House Republicans to a unanimous No against President Obama’s stimulus plan.
Our credit rating was dropped because the Republican party has only one goal-destroy President Obama, make this a one term presidency and get someone in the White House of whom Grover Norquist approves. The GOP will let America burn before they allow President Obama to succeed. Even what he has done that help this country-healthcare, ending DADT, the Lily Ledbetter Act, middle class tax cuts, helping veterans, sticking to the timeline in Iraq, trusting our amazing Navy SEALs and ordering the assault on Osama Bin Laden-they fight. They whine, they complain, they lie, they cry and they pout. They accuse President Obama of butchering welfare, which is a lie, of taking $716 billion from Medicare, which is a lie, of being a socialist, which is a lie, of being a Muslim, which is a lie, and as a Tea Party leader put it during an interview on CNN, he doesn’t love America like “we do.”
From what I see, the GOP loves America the same way a batterer loves their victim: beat, demean, buy flowers, beat, demean, buy flowers. Eventually, one of two things will happen. Either the batterer will kill their victim, in this case, America, or the victim will stand up and fight back. So, what are we going to do, America? Take the flowers, or take our country forward?
Thank you to Think Progress and Huffington Post for contributions to this article.
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It seems like they’ve (the GOP) given up on winning the Preisdency this go-round, since they’re going out of their way to alienate and totally piss off all black, hispanic and women voters. Of course, a tiny minority (so to speak) will still vote with them – the idiot syncophants who are too oblivious to realize they are only screwing themselves. Which is, strangely, behavior that most of them would consider disgusting, if not an outright abomination.
I expect they will use this election to solidify their positions in the States, via Governorships and Senate/House races. Then they’ll repeal or withdraw from “Obamacare” on a state-by-state basis, just so as to prevent it from functioning or being implemented. Then in 2016, they’ll bitch and moan about what aqn ineffective waste of taxpayer dollars it was, when they run Jeb for the top spot. Which he might win, since peoples’ political memories these days seem to be about 2 years long, if that.
Remember 2000, when the Supreme court elected GWB and we complained about it? Remember all the clever wingnuts who attached bumper stickers to their cars with the slogan “Get Over it”? Well, we got over it, regrouped, and wiped the floor with their sorry butts in 2008, and it’s going to be an encore performance this year. But the wingnuts can’t and won’t follow their own advice. They are physiologically incapable of accepting defeat. They are unable to “get over it”. And I take immense pleasure in seeing them suffer so greatly : )
As I was writing this, I thought exactly what Francine wrote-if my party did this, I would be flabbergasted. I have never in my life seen more people blind to the truth than right wing American voters. It’s bizarre.
I would be appaled if my party did this, but the GOP supporters see nothing wrong with this, they feel the same about the GOP voter suppression scheme. Karl Rove was said that his goal was to acquire a one party rule in America. If they are able to lie and buy this election with such a flawed candidate, Rove just might see his dream come true. If anyone is interested to understand the way the republicans use religion and propaganda to control and dupe the public, I would like to recommend a FREE ONLINE BOOK, by Robert Altemeyer who has been studying the rightwing since 1966. “conservatives without conscience” was based on his findings.
Theauthoritarians.com
One step further: They are traitors.
I can’t disagree there L. Kern.
For all their flag-waving and supposed patriotism, their actions, both political and personal, show no love for the US of A. Offshore bamk accounts, offshoring company’s and jobs, soliciting foreign funds to influence our elections, bragging about dual citizenships (in the case of one Repub presidential candidate) and Congressional gridlock are actions that are not helping our country one bit.
Everything you wrote, all of it, is true, true true.