Pathetic
That is the only word that aptly describes Congressional Republicans. This past Sunday evening, March 21, 2010, my son, Pete, and I put our regular viewing of FOX* animated sitcoms on hold to watch the drama – longtime stifling of progress as manufactured by the Republican Party – that was unfolding on C-SPAN.
That is the only word that aptly describes Congressional Republicans.
This past Sunday evening, March 21, 2010, my son, Pete, and I put our regular viewing of FOX* animated sitcoms on hold to watch the drama – longtime stifling of progress as manufactured by the Republican Party – that was unfolding on C-SPAN.
It was apropos that new life was breathed into our Nation on the first day of Spring.
Through it all, the Grand Obstinate Party was in rare form.
Despite the histrionics of Mr. Tanning Bed (Minority Leader John Boehner, who represents .07% of the American people, yet blusters incessantly as though he is the caretaker of a majority viewpoint), reform of the health care system in the U.S.A. put forth its first steps that night.
His “no you can’t” rant showed the pathetic excuse for a leader in full bore incivility at its worst; an egomaniac of the highest order, Boehner is possessed of, and by, an attitude of entitlement to decide what’s good for all Americans.
Based, of course, upon which entity lines his campaign coffers with the most lucre.
It is painfully obvious that Boehner holds no respect whatsoever for President Obama, and each observer can only make his own mind up as to from whence that level of contempt emanates. He certainly shows no compassion for those whom fate has treated in a less fortunate manner.
The fact that Boehner proffered no condemnation toward the angry white protesters who shouted out “nigger” at several Democratic members of Congress, and “faggot” at Barney Frank, is a sad commentary on where this guy’s head truly resides.
Oh, but it isn’t just Boehner; the ludicrous assertion by his personal sycophant and toady extraordinaire, Obstructionist Number 2, Eric Cantor, that bullying from Democrats led to vicious threats (and even some potentially dangerous actions) against Democratic members of Congress only serves to keep the undereducated, misinformed 35% (who are not, as Republicans are so fond of repeating, the majority) pathetically in lockstep to fear-based, fact-challenged insinuations as spewed forth by commenters on FOX(NotReally)News, et alia.
Republicans of the 21st Century seem to have an innate disconnect with and revulsion for truth or reality.
Note the burn notice on David Frum: While not one of my favorite people on the planet, the Right-wing extremist dared to expose the stranglehold that allowed FOX(NotReally)News to control the Republican Party. He later referred to the passage of the health care initiative as one of the worst defeats of the GOP since the 1960s.
For such blatant honesty, Frum was summarily discharged from his long-held position as an opinionator at the uberconservative American Enterprise Institute.
So much for our Constitution and the 1st Amendment.
Imagine… the very idea of this guy invoking Freedom of Speech. What hubris!
It is pathetic that every single Republican in the Senate and the House voted not of his or her own conscious, or for the good of tens of millions of Americans, rather to a person they kept in lemming-like march with the Party above all else.
What is even more pathetic is that, after the bill went back to the senate for reconciliation and a second vote was forced in both chambers by Republican nit-pickers, once again not a single member of the Grand Obstructionist Party offered a “yea” vote – even after getting their own way.
Anyway, as soon as the votes had been counted on the House floor last Sunday evening, I called Pete over to the dining room window and turned on the light at the rear of our house. We watched the illuminated backyard for a couple of minutes.
Nothing happened. The ground didn’t quake; the car wasn’t swallowed up by cavernous cracks in the driveway; no sinkhole opened up to devour the trees; our neighbors’ houses, as well as ours, hadn’t crumbled into piles of rubble.
The next morning dawned to reveal a beautiful early Spring day; it was sunny and warmer than usual for March. We were able to work in the yard for the first time in months – in shirtsleeves and shorts, at that.
This was not, as predicted by Tanning-Bed Boehner, “Armageddon.”
It was, as he and the rest of the 35%ers feared, the beginning of a new American attitude – that hope shall be the spark that lights our way to a better and brighter tomorrow for all.
The politics of stifling progress is nothing short of pathetic.
Shalom.
*The entertainment programming on FOX Network, a mere 16 hours per week, should never be confused with the misinformation spewed forth by FOX(NotReally)News, all day, every day; people who stay glued to the latter virtually never tune in to the former.
(Jerry Tenuto is an erstwhile Philosopher and sometime Educator. A veteran with seven years of service in the U.S. Army, he holds a BS and MA in Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Depending upon your taste in political stew, you can either blame or thank Jerry for his weekly “Out Of The Blue” feature in The Lone Star Iconoclast. Visit his blog Blue State View at illinoiscentral.blogspot.com)
