The government shutdown and the threat of default is over--it's over the second the administration finally realizes that the people upon whose cooperation this all hinges have committed crimes which invalidate their legitimacy as Congress-persons. There is no precedent for this. But this is what the one man entrusted to preside over the government of the United States by the majority of voters twice could, and in my strongest of urging, should do:
Look back at America's past and realize that it has not all been tranquility and democratic cooperation internally--it has come to war at one time, chaos and tear gas at others. It has come to the calling out of the national guard, and, if need be, the President is Commander in Chief of the military who can put down any nutty insurrection with ease--it's not even close. Concurrently he must call an emergency session of both chambers of Congress, announce the facts of the law, and call for a vote excluding those who have compromised themselves by the crimes I will detail below. Ready the national guard and whatever armed forces necessary to put down any strife or acts of insurrection and make the case via media as to the precise words of the laws which have thrown the United States so perilously close to default.
President Obama has always seemed to want everyone to like him and for Americans to all like each other--and there are hundreds of millions of good Americans who feel that way do live their lives in a state of generally good will. But President Obama also has a "kill list" where on any given day with enough reason he'll nod his head or press a button or whatever and someone, usually on the other side of the planet, will be "droned" to smithereens as a foreign enemy. I'm not here to question that power, only point out the contradiction of being so soft on Americans out to get him and/or the American government he Presides over twice being elected while seeming to lose no sleep in doing away with what the consensus says are the enemy on the other side of the world. Directly in the Congressional oath of office however is the term "domestic enemy".
Congressional Oath of Office
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God
So, what exactly constitutes a domestic enemy?
How about refusing to honor US Law in the form of the AHCA (a/k/a Obamacare)-- refusing to fund the government unless the law is changed to their liking or done away with all together? How about holding the country hostage under threat of financial harm by gambling with or refusing to sign the raising of the debt ceiling? How about by signing a pledge to a blind ideological totality with language in conflict with the oath of office and not renouncing loyalty to that pledge but instead acting as if that pledge is more binding than the oath of office? How about the fraud of using subterfuge to mischaracterize subsidies and entitlements to steal from the poor to give to the rich? How about colluding with each other to observe a coordinated disloyalty-- to vote to obstruct all legislation not expressly written and sponsored by themselves?
How is it possible that America has put her domestic enemy in charge of defending against domestic enemies? This seems to be yet another case where there needs to be the unlikely law as to what to do when America goes to war with the wrong country. No one would think that possible and laugh you out of the building, yet it happened. And now this--the fox guarding the hen house. The errant war needs a constitutional amendment because the president and VP have a conflict of interest in ending a war they created falsely. But there need be no amendment to consult on this tyranny in Congress called the "tea party"--just existing law asserted in timely and unapologetic fashion.
Has there been perjury in observing conflicting oaths/pledges? Yes. Has there been extortion through the use of partisan media to manipulate the field as to who gets to even run for office? Yes. Has there been extortion tactics asserted by elements of one of two of the two-party system which threatens harm to the country as a whole by refusing to fund the government through means tried and true used for generations? Yes. Has there been extortion tactics used to "shrink government" by attaching unnecessary spending cuts to the signing of raising the debt ceiling which imperils America's and the world's economies? Yes.
If a bunch of hair brain truckers who listen to right wing radio want to get themselves shot or locked up for armed insurrection then so be it. This is was partisan media hath wrought.
But President Obama will be on the firm ground of American law. This is not opinion. Or my own partisan politics. It's clear and plain. The era of irrational want for destruction of the very institution that makes America who and what she is can be over with this kind of decisive, gutsy and perhaps necessary executive action. The President who rises to the occasion righteously and with due verve instead of tossing more concessions to to the bottom-less pit of insatiable con-artists, will be the next Lincoln--a man for all seasons for whom institutions will be named and US currency with his or her likeness will be struck. A folder in chief will be forgotten and close doors for others who would brave the remnants of racism.
Some kind of terrible domestic hostility has been brewing for quite some time with the bald-face lies coming from the right. The law is plain. And court is where America proves FACT. If there is some kind of half-assed violent reaction, the national guard and military will take their orders and order will be restored. Lessons will be learned and right-wing partisan media turned against for its part in egging on America's DOMESTIC ENEMY. Not another moment should be wasted on talks of "compromise" or "negotiation" when all of that was done and concessions far beyond what were reasonable to the progressive side of the political spectrum were made years ago. Every second this continues, deeper becomes the hole the domestic enemy has dug for our country to fight our way back out from. Perhaps they believe in divine providence, but all they destroy was made by Americans through sacrifice of blood and treasure and it will all have been in vain if we must start all over from the smoldering mess they seem to want to make of our government--the glue that bind American civilization together.
And unlikely tyrant, Grover Norquist, must face the music for his part--without him likely none of this would be the way it is. He has lied and self-mythologized his way to massively usurped power level and has never put himself before the public for elected office where to put his ideas forth in American traditional democratic fashion for vote by the people or their elected officials. He is a defacto tyrant who has lied his way to power--asserting he started in the Nixon Administration. He was 11 years of age when Nixon became POTUS--a boy in the 6th grade. I'm a year older and handed out flyers in Brooklyn for Hubert H. Humphrey. That did not make me a 12 year old "operative" of the Democratic Party. Norquist is a sham to whom all of this current misery leads. And until the country unravels his modus operandi and make sure it can't happen again, America will remain in the same manner of peril.
Right now, the crises of government shutdown and debt ceiling are over, IF the POTUS will seize the moment and observe the law as it has been laid out for him. These clowns must not get to get away with another minute of this unconscionable farce.