There is a fascinating piece at TPM about the recent GOP failures in the House to push their supposed spending agendas and why these efforts -- or lack thereof -- signal that the emperor has no clothes. Talk about spending is cheap, it turns out. One can claim to want to slash spending, even to burn government to the ground. When push comes to shove, however, the House GOP cannot ever pass bills as negotiating positions with the Senate.
The GOP is splintering. Their share of the political pie is dwindling in the broader context and there is no voice strong enough within the party to unify behind. This is going to get more and more ugly and it isn't good for the nation. Within the context of a two-party system, we need two strong parties bringing their ideas to the table and then hashing out compromises using both party's philosophies. Right now, we have gridlock in its most dangerous form.
The GOP is burning itself to the ground and there is no one to blame but the party itself. It may take a decade or more for the party's decline on the national level to be complete, but it is coming. History may one day decide that this time has already come. We shall see. I just hope something better replaces the Grand Old Party. At this point, pretty much anything would be better.
Certainly, a part of me greets the GOP eating its young with glee. By and large, their ideas today are reprehensible and grossly immoral. Yet real live human beings -- my countrymen -- are being hurt economically, spiritually, and in all-too-many-cases physically. How can anyone cheer that?
1 August 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment