"Extremists' obstructionism in pursuit of "our way or the highway" is no vice."Eyes Wide Open
- Parody of Sen. Barry Goldwater
The general population is beginning to see the depth of the civic depravity of the TeaPublican agenda and the thrust of the American Legislative Exchange Council so much a part of the threat the Bush economic implosion thrust upon you and I, ordinary Americans. Two well-placed men from inside the GOP have helped us see the corrupt and malevolent nature of current TeaPartisanship:
1.) David Stockman has asserted that Bush and his cabal created a civic crime "Worse Than Watergate." Former Reagan Budget Director, Stockman was in the heart of the Regan regime and understood the guts of the "Cult of Reagan" far better than most. It was Stockman who enlightened the nation that Reagan cultists were willing to use the huge debt that Reagan ran up to control and defeat social spending in America.
Author John Judis writes this confirming Stockman's "worse than Watergate" assertion:
"Over the last four decades, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS TRANSFORMED FROM A LOYAL OPPOSITION INTO AN INSURRECTIONARY PARTY THAT FLOUTS THE LAW WHEN IT IS IN THE MAJORITY AND THREATENS DISORDER WHEN IT IS THE MINORITY. It is the party of Watergate and Iran-Contra, but also of the government shutdown in 1995 and the impeachment trial of 1999. If there is an earlier American precedent for today's Republican Party, it is the antebellum Southern Democrats of John Calhoun who threatened to nullify, or disregard, federal legislation they objected to and who later led the fight to secede from the union over slavery." "Emphasis added"
2.) Now comes Mike Lofgren. Lofgren ended his career as a Congressional staffer after years as a respected professional staffer for Washington Republicans in both the U.S. House and the Senate and having served on the GOP Senate Budget Committees. From Mike Lofgren' s essay "Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult" on September 3, 2011:
Lofgren:
"It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, THEY WOULD USE THAT FISCAL CRISIS TO GET WHAT THEY WANTED, BY LITERALLY HOLDING THE US AND GLOBAL ECONOMIES AS HOSTAGES."Lofgren:
"...the attitude of many freshman Republicans to national default was 'bring it on!'"
"It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS BECOMING LESS AND LESS LIKE A TRADITIONAL POLITICAL PARTY IN A REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY AND BECOMING MORE LIKE AN APOCALYPTIC CULT, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant."The cultish TeaPublicans around the country have made every attempt to rally the civic slackers, those
Lofgren:
"The only thing that can keep the Senate functioning is collegiality and good faith. During periods of political consensus, for instance, the World War II and early post-war eras, the Senate was a "high functioning" institution: filibusters were rare and the body was legislatively productive. NOW, ONE CAN NO MORE PICTURE THE CURRENT SENATE PRODUCING THE ORIGINAL MEDICARE ACT THAN THE OLD SUPREME SOVIET HAVING LEGISLATED THE BILL OF RIGHTS.Lofgren:
"Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. AS HANNAH ARENDT OBSERVED, A DISCIPLINED MINORITY OF TOTALITARIANS CAN USE THE INSTRUMENTS OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT TO undermine DEMOCRACY ITSELF."
"A couple of years ago, A REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE STAFF DIRECTOR TOLD ME CANDIDLY (AND PROUDLY) WHAT THE METHOD WAS TO ALL THIS OBSTRUCTION AND DISRUPTION. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.
"A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. THESE VOTERS' CONFUSION OVER WHO DID WHAT ALLOWS THEM TO FORM THE CONCLUSION THAT 'THEY ARE ALL CROOKS,' AND THAT 'GOVERNMENT IS NO GOOD,' FURTHER LEADING THEM TO THINK, "A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES" AND 'THE PARTIES ARE LIKE TWO KIDS IN A SCHOOL YARD.' This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s - a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn ('Government is the problem,' declared Ronald Reagan in 1980)."
Lofgren:
"THIS TACTIC OF INDUCING PUBLIC DISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT IS NOT ONLY CYNICAL, IT IS SCHIZOPHRENIC. For people who profess to revere the Constitution, it is strange that they so caustically denigrate the very federal government that is the material expression of the principles embodied in that document. This is not to say that there is not some theoretical limit to the size or intrusiveness of government; I would be the first to say there are such limits, both fiscal and Constitutional.Lofgren:
"But most Republican officeholders seem strangely uninterested in the effective repeal of Fourth Amendment protections by the Patriot Act, the weakening of habeas corpus and self-incrimination protections in the public hysteria following 9/11 or the unpalatable fact that the United States has the largest incarcerated population of any country on earth. If anything, they would probably opt for more incarcerated persons, as imprisonment is a profit center for the prison privatization industry, which is itself a growth center for political contributions to these same politicians.
" Instead, they prefer to rail against those government programs that actually help people. And when a program is too popular to attack directly, like Medicare or Social Security, THEY PREFER TO UNDERMINE IT BY FEIGNING AN AGONIZED CONCERN ABOUT THE DEFICIT. THAT CONCERN, AS WE SHALL SEE, IS LARGELY FICTITIOUS."
"UNDERMINING AMERICANS' BELIEF IN THEIR OWN INSTITUTIONS OF SELF-GOVERNMENT REMAINS A PRIME GOP ELECTORAL STRATEGY. But if this technique falls short of producing Karl Rove's dream of 30 years of unchallengeable one-party rule (as all such techniques always fall short of achieving the angry and embittered true believer's New Jerusalem), there are other even less savory techniques upon which to fall back."Lofgren:
"This legislative assault is moving in a diametrically opposed direction to 200 years of American history, when the arrow of progress pointed toward more political participation by more citizens. REPUBLICANS ARE AMONG THE MOST SHRILL IN SELF-RIGHTEOUSLY LECTURING OTHER COUNTRIES ABOUT THE WONDERS OF DEMOCRACY; EXPORTING DEMOCRACY (albeit at the barrel of a gun) to the Middle East was a signature policy of the Bush administration. But domestically, they don't want those people voting."Lofgren:
"If Republicans have perfected a new form of politics that is successful electorally at the same time that it unleashes major policy disasters, it means twilight both for the democratic process and America's status as the world's leading power."
(Emphasis added throughout these quotes)
See Also the previsous posting "Our Guides to the Bottomless Pit: Wolfram, Von Hayek, Lewis F. Powell, & A.L.E.C.".
Original.
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