The petulant child-like behavior of Republicans continues, and so does my writing about it. The consequences are just too profound to ignore.
What we are witnessing is the breakdown of the social contract that once held our political system together. It is the result of a nearly five year campaign by extremist Republicans to de-legitimize this president. It started in the Senate when Mitch McConnell got his caucus to oppose everything President Obama proposed, even if they were once for it. Now it has moved to the House, and the anarchists have taken over.
Call it what you will, but I call what they are doing the equivalent of a non-violent political coup, and I do not mean for my words to be taken as hyperbolic. What is going on is a Republican effort to run the government by refusing to let it function unless they do. They cannot depose Obama, so they have decided to depose the political rules that make our political system work – albeit haltingly at times.
Good will, fair play, the acceptance of majority rule, belief in the necessity of government, a respect for the three federal branches of authority (Senate, House, Supreme Court) and for the rule of law, these are the qualities that have sustained us until now. But absent a passionate belief in these principles our nation cannot survive as we know it.
Republican extremists and the citizen extremists who elected them don’t believe in these principles. Thus, they should get nothing from this crisis. They deserve nothing. What they do deserve is our contempt, Indeed, if they are honestly “listening to the American people,” that is the message they will hear!
