I read this CNN Poll here and If the Neoconservatives - because neoconservatives and their ilk are the only ones who want a government shutdown. About 3/4 of the rest of us say no. Some question who will be to blame. It is not the Democrats. Democrats have already compromised not only on the budget but on dozens of other issues. It's time we stand on those. President Obama says that we need a combination of cuts and investments. Yet if it happens and we blink and compromise again we will fail twice. Not only will our economy spiral downwards but we will have destroyed the chance that perhaps comes once in a generation to show the stark differences between
liberals and neoconservatives.
I realize the pain from a shutdown will be enormous, particularly for those at the bottom of our economy - which will include more than a few teabaggers given their general apparent level of education - but this may be the strong medicine America need if we are to prosper in the 21st century. Hard medicine like chemotherapy. But the neoconservatives have bred a cancer of knee-jerk division in our country for the last 30 years and it's time to excise it from the body politic. It's time for those under the spell of that already failed ideology to see what it really means to do without the government.
There's a difference and it should be spelled out as I do below.
All rational folks with some understanding of economics agree that the best thing for our economic recovery is to keep rolling. Once again Obama has made an assertion that we must have investment as well as budget cuts. Everyone, myself included, expects that a shutdown of the government means another victory for the right. Because they know if people are really hurting, those in government on the left - those that actually have a record of governing - will save them. Sad to say, perhaps we need to not come to the rescue this time. That must require the GOP to take the blame and initiate the rescue by compromising.
Because too often Obama and our leaders don't do what they say. They don't stand up for what liberals in general ..It's time for the Professor In-Chief to teach this hard lesson and point out during the shutdown that it will be the fault of GOP neocons.
Most of the GOP cuts proposed do not even directly effect the deficit! They are short term measures at best and most will actually destroy our fragile economic growth. A shutdown would be grim and do extend it would be hard to do but we as liberal activists should be ready to draw a line in the sand. To proclaim it that strong stance the president and our representatives in congress and to the media and most of all face to face. It is time for the GOP to begin serious compromise.
We may need to show what it is like to have the government shut down. If our hand is forced we will have the perfect demonstration that government is not an impediment to success but the tool that creates the very business and social environment for all growth. Perhaps we will need to resemble Somalia or Afghanistan or Iraq or North Korea economically for a few weeks. Do you really want to demonstrate to the Swing Voter, to the Tea Partier, to the Libertarian, to the Conservative and Neocons who might have already glimpsed the truth under GWB (and I know a handful no longer so sure about their ideology) what the government does for them or those that they love? If we really want to make an impression on most voters, as has already started in places like Wisconsin and Ohio and Florida with activists and Unions and best of all the regular folk. What the logical conclusion of Neoconservative policies are if let them kill the golden goose.
It will be extraordinarily hard to watch our brothers and sisters suffer but sometimes the truth is only won through hardship and pain. The the truth has taken a beating under the last 30 years of neoconservatism. And we must not forget that the GOP is a house divided. Their veterans fear what their teabaggers want. If you are a moderate conservative your only choice right now is the Democratic party where some of them would fit better on the other side of the aisle, a good for both parties. But there is no room right now for moderates in the GOP if they wanted to go there.
But if we extend a GOP initiated shutdown, and they will never see this coming. They haven't planned to have the potato left in their laps! If Obama and our representatives stand on their record of compromise, and hold their ground it will be the GOP moderates who will be the heroes. This could even be the beginning of the end of Neoconservatism. If such a choice towards more moderate Republicanism, joined to some extent with the Democratic party, to bring growing prosperity over the next few years under a liberal worldview. Otherwise austerity cuts will undo everything and things will get a whole lot worse. This is not ideology, this is governance.
I believe it's up to us to raise the ruckus now and demand, if we must, to force a turnaround on the GOP once and for all.