Didn't think I've actually come back and reactivate my Kos diary again, but I guess that's what happens when you've become fed up and need to vent.
It's all a bit narcissistic, but I feel the need to explain what I've been calling "Heads I win, Tails You Lose" style of politics.
The republican party mantra for over thirty years now has been, "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." So, really, nobody can fully be surprised that the federal government has shut down. The republicans have the full control to bring the government to a screeching halt, and they have successfully done so.
Which they've been doing for thirty plus years.
Slowly dismantling and chipping away at the federal government through tax hacks and budgetary malfeasance, the republicans have been instilling this idea that the federal government is nothing but a nuisance and that nothing good will come out of it -- unless we're dropping bombs on Not Americans, at which point our government is second to none.
But with a generation sick of the past thirty years of the destructive force of privatization and an anemic government too weak from three decades of dismantling, the republicans have realized that rather than try to me amenable and compromise, they can stick to their guns. And our government is designed to let them get away with it.
See, when republicans are in power, they do everything they can to dismantle the government; slashing taxes, hacking the post office apart, tearing public assistance programs, and smashing federal regulations and guidelines. Remember, government is the problem here.
Except when they're in the minority, they can still bring government to a screeching halt. Requiring legislation to pass and be signed requires house republicans to get on board, but what house republican ever wants to enact a federal law that doesn't ban homosexuality, drop bombs on Non Americans, or snoops into our privacy? And that's only if the republicans are feeling friendly. Really, all it takes is a budgetary disagreement between house republicans and senate democrats, and all of a sudden our government no longer functions. Once again, the republicans have gotten their way with having no government at all.
Heads I win, Tails you lose.
And it is with these rules the United States could default on its credit (fun fact: Ronald Reagan turned this nation from a creditor to a debtor, remember that the next time Republicans cry about the debt). A minority party, hell bent on anarchism and destruction of the US government, has that much authority to do so. They are perfectly content on tearing the world economy apart and making sure that the US government is no longer the last remaining super power.
Remember this when Chris Christie wins the New Jersey gubernatorial election next month and launches his presidential campaign thereafter. He stands firmly with the "Heads I win, Tails You Lose" guys. Or remember this when someone espouses "BOTH SIDES BOTH SIDES!".
Our government is the last line of defense for the people, and it is besieged by an entire political party hell bent on destroying it.