"They'd Never Do It Again!" - Think AGAIN!

The problem with too many Americans, as I've often observed, is that they are unpracticed and untutored in deep politics (which is why so many adhere to the "middle") and they have the political memory of gnats. This is why politicos can play them over and over again, and they never advance their insights as to what is happening to them and why. It is also why author Gore Vidal once referred to our nation as the "United States of Amnesia".

Yes, yes, when one tuned onto the nightly news one beheld the usual procession of interviewed 'Muricans, as in Milwaukee last night (on NBC nightly news) professing how disgruntled they are with "those politicians" in D.C.  Who? WHICH politicians? The sentiment of most of these Beer City Burghers is that they are "all" to blame and "they need to learn to compromise".  HUH?  Don't any of you have any clue at all as to who the perps were in this fiasco?

Can you say T-E-A    B-A-G-G-E-R-S?

Such nonsense responses by Milwaukeeans caused me to despair that the rank and file of Americans, voting Americans even, will ever get it. Their consistent inability to separate the political wheat from the chaff and pin the tail on "all of 'em" - as opposed to being able to discriminate, is disheartening. Why? What is the problem? Are they so overworked in their jobs they can't access basic facts? Or is it because too many are brainwashed by watching FOX News? Well, that is sad.

Any normal functioning brain, of even normal IQ,  exposed to the facts of the past three weeks ought to have processed that a bellicose clique in ONE PARTY nearly succeeded in bringing the U.S. government to default, which would have been catastrophic. Why was this so hard to grasp by those interviewed Milwaukeeans, and why did the idiotic term "compromise" even enter? Compromise over WHAT?

As Rachel Maddow accurately (and assertively!) pointed out last night, there is NO THIRD WAY! You don't get to fucking threaten to shut the government down because you want to impose  your will to stop Obamacare! If you lost in the forum of a 2012  general election and the Supreme Court also ruled against you, then you need to pack up your little toys and go home and cry alone. You don't get to extort concessions you couldn't get honestly in the other two venues. In other words,

YOU LOSE!

Go back, regroup, get set for another general election, where you can take the Presidency, and oh - also the Senate, THEN try again! If them apples don't suit your sorry little ass or fancy, then try for another Supreme Court ruling to overturn the Roberts one. But don't threaten government shutdown by pressuring your House reps with being "primaried" if you didn't get your way in legitimate democratic forums. And don't hand anyone the unmitigated,  proto-Confederate codswallop that you are entitled to do it because "this ain't a democracy, it's a Republic!" Uh, no Jethroe! It may be a Republic but it still operates on democratic principles!  As in majority votes win elections (except in 2001, but Gore would have taken the electoral as well if 170,000 African-Americans in Florida hadn't been put on felon rolls by Choicepoint.)

So the question becomes: What are the chances we all have to go through this bull shit again in three months? Many talking heads this morning, including several on 'Morning Joe' and also  Sen. Chuck Schumer,  think it's out of the question. Given the Repukes' political damage (they suffered a lot more than the Dems and Obama as they SHOULD have!) the argument is that they'd not do it again in a million years: hold the gov't hostage to nix Obamacare.

But the people that make such assertions have no remote idea of the morons they're dealing with. They also don't seem to grasp these people hail from extremist, backward districts with backward, ignorant and extremist people - many who pine for era of the old Confederacy. They detest that a black man holds the highest office in the land, and with every fiber of their being. Given they are at least semi-clever they realize they'd be seen for the knuckle draggers they are if they espoused outright racism - they use the subterfuge of attacking his signature law instead.

They are also enraged they've been losers in the last general election and haven't been able to swallow it since. So, no, they aren't going to go gently into that good night - they're going to return in ways that'd make "Freddy Krueger' proud.

Last night, Chris Hayes asked one of the Georgia tea bagger reps what he and his clique gained over the past 16 days.  As Chris put it, "the CR (continuing resolution) could have been passed over two weeks ago without all the damage." The guy looked Chris in the eye with a weasel's grin and actually said:

"Well, we showed our beliefs and our BRAND. We demonstrated our principles to the country"

Your brand?! Your principles? At the expense of the principles of the country?  He also implied this could go on again, and another Dem rep later interviewed by Chris agreed. According to that Dem, "they will do this every few months, leading up to the 2014 general elections, and they will pay dearly".

Make no mistake they will! Their ignorant, half-educated constituents will demand no less. If their current reps don't comply, a dopier ass right wing nut will be found in some backwoods moonshine joint to primary the original rep....on the right. Recall the original "model" for the primary on the Right tactic was unleashed in Delaware when Mike Castle, a nine-term Republican House Rep  and former governor was "primaried" by a bimbo name Christine O'Donnell (See below).


That success energized the Tea Party morons and made them realize they could threaten any "establishment" Republican with political extermination  - by picking some nitwit to run against him - if he failed to comply with their demands.  That model has since been used with enormous success and there is no sign - not one, the denizens of the Tea Party will cease and desist.

That means that in another few months we will likely face another economic Armageddon and more economic damage, Ironically, these fools who bitch so much about the national debt have-  with their silliness  -  increased it by over $22 billion. They've also slowed growth and ensured we have a deeper hole to dig out of, not to mention world markets' confidence being  undermined by our crisis politics. Do they care? Hell no!


An article on salon.com  ('GOP's Huge Tea Party Mess Has Just Begun') noted this morning:

"Republicans can spin it among themselves as a Democratic concession, but they can’t rightly look back at the ruin of the past month, and the content of the deal, and expect that they can extort unreciprocated concessions from Democrats next time around.The questions on everyone’s mind are, Will they try anyhow? And what will the coming months look like if they don’t?

Republicans didn’t just sacrifice an incredible amount of public cachet in this fight. Their leaders also revealed, for the second time this year, that they’re not willing to actually allow the country to default just to preserve party unity or pressure the president to cave. Unless they’re stricken with a nihilistic sense of bitterness and the feeling that they have nothing left to lose, there’s little reason to think they’re going to approach coming deadlines the same way they approached these past two. Before you object on the grounds that the past month’s events won’t make conservative House hardliners any less bloodthirsty: I agree. They can’t fight their nature, or their incentives, and they don’t even seem to want to.

My suspicion, though, is that the right will have about the same amount of sway in the months ahead as an erratic general who led his soldiers into a massacre, then re-assimilated unnoticed far down the chain of command. He’s still there, he’s still cranky, but other officers can now point to the slaughter and everyone will ignore his guidance."


Well, many other percipient observers, such as on MSNBC last night (interviewed by Chris Hayes) believe Boehner has emerged as more powerful politically for backing down, and also that he may use this leverage in the upcoming battles. So  no, don't look for the Tea Party faithful to "overlook his guidance". If those of us who are suspicious are correct, we will see an even more bitter replay in January - with another shutdown - and in February, with another debt ceiling face off.

We are informed by the pundits the ongoing discussion will now be about cutting "entitlements" but don't believe the ACA won't also factor in. Obama has held strong so far, without folding like a two- bit suit, but we must expect that he will continue to preserve his spine and not become too mesmerized with a "bipartisan deal" with proven hostage takers!