Sabotage

With three years to go in President Barack Obama's term of office, it appears that the Republican Party, driven to no small extent by the Tea Party factions, fully intends to continue its campaign of obstruction and sabotage of our economy and our country.   Sabotage is a very strong term but it clearly applies to the conduct of the Republicans and Tea Party factions over the past five years.    The plan was clear from the outset of President Obama's administration and was freely admitted to by Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell.   The Number One Goal of the Republican Party was to deny President Obama a second term, said McConnell.   Numerous times we have heard Republicans say that their obstructionist tactics were necessary because "we can't give him a win."   President Obama came into office saying he wanted to get past partisan politics and work with the Republicans.   This approach was met with resistance and obstruction so extreme that Republican legislators sometimes ended up opposing bills that they themselves had sponsored, simply because the President thought the legislation was a good idea and expressed support. After the recent State of the Union address by the President,, who called once again for bipartisan action to consider needed legislation to solve major problems, the Republicans were widely heard whining that the President had stated that "it was either his way or the highway," and that such an attitude would not result in cooperation from the loyal opposition.

The Republicans and Tea Party legislators apparently think that the American public is made up of idiots, forgetful idiots at that.   How can these people so clearly oppose anything and everything Obama or Democrat and then with straight faces insist that the Obama Administration won't cooperate with THEM?   A good example is the government shutdown of 2013.   Tea Party types drove this misadventure to try to extort changes in the Affordable Care Act that they couldn't swing though the legitimate legislative process.   When their bluffs were called, they eventually threw in the towel.   Now Senator Ted Cruz tells us that the Administration shut down the government, not disgruntled Tea Partiers.   Do they really think that we don't remember what happened to cause the government shutdown.  

When Governor Romney and the Republicans/Tea Party lost the 2012 election by a significant margin, one would think that they would rethink their program of sabotage.   What would making President Obama look bad do for them after all?   He got reelected.   He can't run again.   What good does it do them to continue their disreputable program of obstruction and negativity on every imaginable issue?   What I see is a party that has one constituency and one constituency only.   Wealthy people and large corporations and banks.   They have only a one-size-fits-all approach to economic issues:   tax cuts.   What I see is a party that is dishonest in its intentions and in its theories of government and economics.   What I see is a party that is willing, again and again, to put self-interest and party politics above the best interests of our country and our people.   What I see is a party willing to sabotage our economy so that they can come to the next election and blame the incumbent Democrat.   Now President Obama and the Democratic Party have not offered the perfect solutions to all of our national problems.   In many ways, I have been disappointed in the President, for whom I have voted twice.   However, I do believe that he has had the best interests of his country at heart during his term of office, despite the wild claims of the lunatic fringe.   In my judgment, when we have public officeholders who put concern for their party ahead of the good of the country--and clearly know that they are doing exactly that--then those officeholders lack the most basic requirement for holding public office in this country.   At least give us people who will try to do the right thing.