Lately I have been reading an increasing number of blogs and comments blaming President Obama for not compromising more with the Republicans. I call BS. I want to start moving forward economically, environmentally, socially and globally as much as the next guy, but to place the fault at Obama's feet is to disregard the will of the vast majority of people on issues such as gun control, immigration, taxation, Social Security, climate change, energy, and fairness to women. Am I a total apologist for everything Obama is doing? Nope. Do I wish some things were being handled differently? Of course. But none of that changes the fact that Republican obstruction is an intentional delay tactic that gives the big bold middle finger to most of America. This power hungry, arrogant gridlock in Congress in but one piece of the Republican's great and terrible plan. The plan involves a simple dynamic, but will take years even decades to be fulfilled, and that is what makes it so insidious. Republicans are more than willing to wait for their long-term plans to hatch as they hold all of America hostage. They simply cannot afford to allow any business to take place in Congress until they have redefined the very meaning of the voting electorate. In the meantime... almost nothing gets done in Congress.
Conservative think tanks have for decades now been privately and nervously projecting the truth about America's demographics: without voter numbers being reduced, the day will come (has arrived?) when Republicans cannot win at the national level. Redistricting, gerrymandering, voter suppression, Electoral College reform, Fox News--these are all designed to redefine the numerical majority of American voters. Not by presenting ideas that appeal to most people nor by winning anyone to their existing conservative ideals. They have concluded that they cannot increase their own voter numbers relative to the Democrats. Their plan is to marginalize the legitimacy of the ever growing opposition to Conservative thinking by either a) making sure that the opposition doesn't/can't vote or b) reducing the value of the opposition votes themselves. And in the meantime nothing of substance gets done until the newly and narrowly defined majority gets back in power. In their selfish righteousness they are convinced that any victory for the Democrats, no matter how beneficial to the nation, is bad for the ultimate goal of regaining power.
Paul Ryan is the champion of this. He readily admits that his budget assumes the repeal of ObamaCare. His budget assumes he has the majority. His budget assumes his party is the will of the people. And he is absolutely wrong on all counts. His budget cannot get passed. And he knows it can't. So he waits while his party manipulates its way back into power.
But how do the Conservatives justify this near total lack of accomplishment, after all, their approval numbers flirt with single digits? Simple. They have a Crusade mentality that justifies everything. They are fighting a spiritual war against Islam and Socialism and Science and Enlightenment. (Remember that European leaders had no problem going broke to fight a Crusade.) There is something Messianic in their view--which is probably why they defensively attack Obama as a false Messiah. Conservatives are so sure they are right, and that nobody else is, that they live in perpetual denial of the opinions of the actual majority of Americans. Doubt me? Think Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry, George Bush and Dick Cheney, Pat Roberson and Rush Limbaugh. They are a diverse coalition of political symbols that favor a single political, economic, social and empire-building agenda. Some of them are "right" with their God, but they are all "right" with their corporate donors.
In this modern Crusade, the strategists and disciples are Karl Rove and the Koch brothers and ALEC and the Five Supreme Court Justices who are anything but an independent judiciary.The foot soldiers and serfs who end up as casualties in battle are the Tea Party members and Fox News faithful and those who sit in the pews of Evangelical churches--and most unfairly of all, the rest of us who didn't want a Crusade in the first place. The Captains and Kings of this Crusade either ignore majority views--think background checks on gun purchases--or claim the majority opinion is so evil that it must be denounced--think gay rights--or make up their own Dark Age thinking--consider global climate changes. Without question, the overwhelming majority of Americans have united views on these issues, yet the Crusaders ignore or deny this in their obstinate tunnel vision. And they continue to block any legislation in opposition to their Crusade.
Understanding the Conservative Messianic mindset makes it simple to see why the Republicans refuse to allow the majority of Americans to get what they want. The only question left is: Will the real majority of Americans allow it?
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