There's been something nagging at me throughout the latest Republican-manufactured budget crisis, but up until now it was unclear what that is. Now, it's becoming increasingly clear. It's the Republicans' cavalier attitude toward everything and, most particularly, about their claims that they aren't doing anything that hasn't been done before.
One of the Republican talking points throughout this latest budget crisis, a talking point that virtually nobody has questioned, is their claim that there's nothing unprecedented about the tactics they are using. And what's been nagging at me is how they seem to have been successfully allowed to get away with this.
As usual, in Republican-speak, they have decided to try to use the mainstream media to convince everyone that the extortion and hostage-taking currently underway is not only not the least bit unusual, but is, in fact, the same thing as has been done by both Democrats and Republicans many times in the past.
Of course, as usual, the facts simply do not bear that out. Unfortunately, the mainstream media continues to allow Republicans to get away with their blatant lies, distortions and propaganda, all part of their plan to try to bully the entire country into doing what they want.
The fact is that never before in American history has this country been forced into a so-called “sequester,” whereby austerity spending falls into place if the Congress can't agree to an actual budget. This sequester's been going on for a while now. And Republicans are probably chortling behind everyone's backs about how they have deceptively manipulated everyone into thinking that living under sequestration is somehow the “new normal.” No wonder they think they can simply rewrite history, redefine words and continue to try to get away with anything they possibly can.
Not only have we never had sequestration before, but we've never had sequestration AND a government shutdown simultaneously. So...not only is the sequester unprecedented, so is the combination of that and a shutdown.
On top of that, we have never had the Republican-forced threesome of sequestration, a government shutdown and a possible breaching of our national debt ceiling.
Everything that is going on and being forced on this country is completely unprecedented in American history. We need to start getting the news media to start telling the American public the truth about the fact that Republicans have predicated everything on one giant lie—that there's nothing unusual or extraordinary about what they're doing.
When psychopaths commit violent acts against others, even as they are doing it they often console their victims, telling them that “everything will be all right” and that there's “no reason for them to worry” as long as they do exactly as they are instructed. It's how psychopaths try to take complete control of their victims.
Well, America, this country has become the victim of psychopaths, Republican psychopaths who are trying to commit budgetary rape. And they are trying to soothe everyone's feelings even as they are in the act of committing their act of budgetary rape.
We must start putting an end to all of their lies and undermine their credibility completely. We cannot continue to allow them to get away with all of the lies that are the very underpinning of their strategy.