Dear Republicans in Congress,
I see you have decided that re-election in your little ideological enclaves trumps sound economic policy for the nation. Apparently, you're more likely to be worried about a primary challenge than about the consequences of bad governing. Maybe you claim to hate government, but you sure do want to hang on to your job!
This explains a lot. Even though the president began by meeting you halfway, you won't budge, because you just can't seem to see beyond your own next campaign. You evidently have no conception of the greater good. You may be a flag-waving zealot, but that doesn't mean you'll stand up for the nation you claim to love, or say "Boo!" to the corporate and plutocrat sponsors who put you in office in the first place.
What do you care about recession--it hasn't touched your super-wealthy friends, so why should you care? Your friends own the damn sandbox, and we'd be crazy to expect them to let their little puppets (ie, you) talk about playing nice, let alone making room for a few other kids. The job of the factotum is to protect the big man. And that's what you do.
'Tis the season of selfishness, it seems. Here we are, as a nation, teetering on the brink of the fiscal cliff. You've got your orders. Money, money, money, is all that matters. Don't give back to the nation that supports and nurtures businesses. Don't pay for the infrastructure that gets products to market. Don't support higher education for a trained workforce. Don't provide for the unemployed, the elderly, the sick. Money is the god you serve.
How foolish of us to expect you, as GOP members of Congress--you who have proudly declared your opposition to the principle that those who have gained the most should give back to the country--how naive we were to hope (or even fantasize about the remote possibility) that you might stand tall, have a spine at all, think about your neighbors, let alone your nation. Obviously you bow at the altar of Money. That's all you serve.
Oh, and that little oath you recited when taking office, to "well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office" to which you were elected? To represent the people? You've got that figured out. You've decided that you best represent the people by doing nothing! Yes, all of us pay you a nice salary, and sterling health benefits, to do nothing. To obstruct the business of government!
And, maybe, to destroy the credit of the nation you claim to serve.
ps, OK, my title might suggest a different diary. But I knew as I began typing how useless it would be to ask you to take the principled position, to stand for the country, for the ordinary people who fully expect you to do what's right. I no longer expect you to grow up. I just want you to know that I see you for who you really are.