First, check out this new article from David Brooks. The more I read of this writer, the more I like him. He's asking the same questions many of us are.
The Road Not Taken - NYTimes.com
When a "win" over the Federal Budget and cutting spending was within reach, the GOP turned away. I believe they did so because accepting the framework Obama was offering would've likely increased his chances of re-election.
So much for all this bullshit ranting and raving about "...we owe it to our grandkids to reduce this out of control spending."
It was never about the grandkids, was it? It was useful to use them to ratchet up emotions among the normal folks who don't follow politics on a daily basis. The whole premise of why we had to vote the Progressives out of office in the Mid terms was to change things in Washington and have the people's Will be done. Cut spending! Cut spending!
Wait, that's evidently wrong.
As this unfolds, the most likely option to survive seems to be one where the GOP forces the President to ask Congress for three separate debt ceiling increases. Which the Republicans will reject each and every time, thereby enabling the President to force the increase through the Executive Branch, which is cowardly. We'll give you your increase, so we don't default on our debt, but we're going to make you ask us in three little bits and in the end allow us to vote no every time, knowing that you Mr. President, will ultimately force it through so we can pay our bills.
The beauty of this is that its just complicated enough to fool most of the voters, but still be legislatively legal.
It's shameful.
The silence from Conservatives except for voices like Brooks and Frum is deafening. The silence from my Conservative friends on facebook and other social media is quite telling. Running up to the mid terms, I could predict the arguments I'd read that night. Straight from the day's broadcasts of the Limbaugh, Beck or Hannity show. Ripped from the headlines and scary talk from the Fox News talking heads. I'd hear it in the car during the day, then read it on someone's facebook wall that night. Consistently. On and on we read spending was bad and Obama the Socialist was destroying the Country. I haven't heard bo-peep from most of these folks. Its amazing to me just a few months ago they were weeping on their keyboards about reducing the debt but when the GOP tells Obama to stick it, and a smaller deal will be "just fine, thank you," they're no where to be found. What happened to all the passion?
Smarter people than me are confirming a massive, multi-trillion deal was in the works to really curb spending. Cuts And it was rejected in principle two Saturday's ago. I'm left to figure out what could've been more important than accepting such a huge offer?
The answer is obvious, isn't it?
More important to the GOP leaders, Republicans in general, far right rabble rowsers on talk radio, Fox news and last but not least the facebook voices I'd heard so passionately, so determined, so patriotic. 18 months ago is apparently one thing and one thing only.
Barack Obama must be defeated in his re-election bid.
Barack Obama must be defeated in his re-election bid.
Barack Obama must be defeated in his re-election bid.
Period.
If you are of a right leaning mindset, understand what's happened here. Since the day of Obama's election, we've heard the rhetoric about how dangerous this man is for our Country. That his spending is out of control and his Socialist/Marxist pals are in cahoots with him to turn us into a different kind of Country. Non stop, 24 hours a day the warnings were spread. After his election, Obama said that "...elections matter. We won..." Fast forward to the mid terms, Obama again said the "...people spoke loud and clear and that he heard them." Now, with the debate on the debt ceiling, Obama steps up and offers unprecedented spending cuts and cost control moves to entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, plus cuts in payroll taxes.
And your guys told him no thanks.
How you feeling these days? Had you really believed the Republican candidates and Tea Party voices when they said they were coming to Washington DC to take our government back? Did you buy it? I know a few folks who went to rallies in the Capital and felt like change was on the way. Not the kind of change this black, probably muslim, probably kenyan community organizer, socialist talked about. Good change...good conservative, patriotic, Christian change.
If I was a Conservative who had walked that road the last few years I would be furious as to why the GOP isn't pushing for the largest deal possible. It would fulfill a campaign and platform promise the Conservatives made to the people prior to the mid terms. It would embolden the Conservative base like nothing else could. "We told you what we'd do if you elected us and we did it!" It's pretty hard to top that for re-election fodder, eh?
Why pass on such a chance to fire up the Conservative base when its handed to you with an offer that capitulates to your desires so strongly? Because there's something else that can fire up the base even more. Its having something to hate. Its having something to be afraid of. The budget is an abstract. Who can really grasp what trillions of dollars means? But having an enemy of the State in the White House? That's pure. That's in your gut, isn't it? This sonofabitch fast-talked his way into an election and now look where we are? Its visceral. Its just makes you sick, doesn't it? Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell says
he refuses to help Obama get reelected. Which pretty well sums it up, doesn't it?
That's the manipulation that many of you are a part of. Its insulting and offensive to those of you who are true sincere Conservatives.
You realize this, right?
