It does not happen often, but Ezra Klein is wrong. Klein has taken the position that we should cheer on the government shutdown so that the Republicans get it out of their systems, see how unpopular they are and raise the debt limit without incident. This is not going to happen. Remember that Republicans operate from a faith-based point of view. When facts contradict their beliefs, the facts must be wrong.
Last fall, after poll upon poll upon poll said that President Obama was going to win re-election, their response was that the polls must be wrong. Governor Romney had no prepared concession speech, and how could we forget Karl Rove's election night meltdown? Stephen Colbert tells us that reality has a liberal bias. Conservative fans of the show don't know he's joking.
These are people who don't think government does anything. That is, until their flight is delayed or their constituent's White House tour is canceled, or the hotel in their district loses reservations due to the closed National Park. How many people have been on television this week telling us how the sequester has not been a problem?
In the aftermath of the last election, the RNC commissioned post-mortem analyses as to why they lost. When these reports came back saying that people perceived the party as racist, grumpy, and anti-poor, they spent not a minute wondering why they were perceived that way, and decided that they needed to improve their messaging. Six months later they decided that no, not enough white people voted.
Give that some thought. We are not racists, but we do not need to attract black and Hispanic votes to win. We just need to drive the base. The same base that is not racist, but thinks that Blah people (h/t Rick Santorum) get all of our tax money to improve their lives, and would rather receive food stamps than paychecks (h/t Newt Gingrich).
The Republicans do control the House of Representatives. As Senator Rand Paul said, "More Republicans voted for our members." Senator, if you cannot win the majority of your party in a general election, it's time to close up shop. More Republicans won in House races, but more people voted for Democratic representation in the House to the tune of 1.4 million votes.
There is a famous business poster that says,
"Rule # 1: The Boss is Always Right!"
"Rule # 2: When the Boss is Wrong, see Rule # 1."
Now, substitute the word "Republicans" for "The Boss" and you will understand why we are where we are. Senator Cruz has already convinced many Republicans that the shutdowns of 1995 and 1996 were awesome. Republicans run further and further to the right, lose in purple states, and say they weren't far enough to the right.
There was a skit on Saturday Night Live with a medieval barber who, when confronted with a patient weak from blood loss, tells him he'd feel better after a good bleeding. When the patient says that he is already bleeding, the response is that the butcher, um er barber knows better. Cruz is the barber here.