In a bit of truly absurdist political theater, Tea Partiers are apparently staging protests against…you guessed it…the government shutdown.
The protesters, including veterans and truckers’ groups, have apparently broken through barricades at various memorials around town, egged on by Tea Party stalwarts including Sens. Lee, Cruz and former governor Palin.
So the Tea Party didn’t just bring you the shutdown, they’re leading the fight against its impacts, at least the ones they really dislike.
Perhaps they’re onto something. Shouldn’t this inspire a bunch of low-income parents and their kids to storm a shuttered Head Start classroom?!
I can’t speak for you, but I’ve just about lost the capacity to make sense out of what’s going on in the nation’s politics. Time to put on the headphones and head out for a run. I think I’ll avoid the Mall.
TO THE BARRICADES, COMRADES! WE MUSTN’T LET THEM…um…us…SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT!
Source: WaPo
“…but I’ve just about lost the capacity to make sense out of what’s going on in the nations politics.” That sums up the state of frustration I’ve felt in trying to talk with Republicans. I always come away feeing “WTF?”
Ahem, it wasnt the House that announced a refusal to negotiate, or refused to vote on over two dozen bills that fund essential functions of the government over the past 2 weeks. That would be King Obama, who used the Park Service to close open air memorials in a blatantly political manner to turn the public against his foes. There’s blame on both sides for overreach for sure, but the memorial closings make an even better case why we should rein in the power of the Federal Governnment.
The parks have to close when there is no security — liability. Just like web sites that aren’t monitored by staff have to be turned off because they are required to be maintained by law. To not do these things would actually be an act against the wishes of congress, which is the executive’s duty to carry out.
You did notice that when people went past the barricades they did not get pulled out by the cops didn’t you?
Power of the government is the people’s check and balance to the power of corporations, yet the Tea Party does not appear to realize that they are handing that power over to companies (get government out of my Medicare! — better to let a private company spend your insurance bucks on advertising and giving their CEO a $1B payout).
Checks and balances are the keys to a reasonable government. We need a functioning and rational conservative party in this country to help restore the middle class and keep our country strong. I just don’t see how the plan by the GOP for the country that does not involve investment in infrastructure and education and a safety net for the unfortunate keeps us from falling behind the other countries that are doing these.
The House has refused to negotiate since 2009. You lost track.
You are allowed to have your own opinion of the world, not your own facts. The government was shutdown by Republicans and Tea Party congressmen who refused to negotiate a budget due to the fact that they wanted to defund Obamacare. When they realized that shutting down the government included things such as shuttering access to memorials and monuments, which caused a backlash against them, they evaded responsibility for their reckless behavior and tried to blame Democrats for the problem. When the Republicans/Tea Party then tried to parley their extortion into getting concessions from the Democrats on the details of the budget, the Democrats rightly refused to negotiate for anything other than the budget in which they had already given concessions to, far more than the Republicans. You take a hostage, you discover you are in a losing situation, you don’t get to make any more demands and paint yourself as a victim. The police, who are pointing guns at you, are not violating your civil rights for treating you as the criminal that you are.
But that is the Republican/Tea Party in a nutshell: no matter how much they blather about personal responsibility and the rule of law, it always applies to someone else, never them.
The country is more polarized than at any time over the last 100 years and this is just manifesting itself in politics.
The chronic weakness of the economy, going back to at least the crash in 2000 is a big part of it.
The core belief that the next generation will do better than the next can legitimately be called into question and it’s not something we as society are prepared to grapple with.
“Chutzpah: that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.” – Leo Rosten
This is too funny….
There are reports that Park Service staff in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are installing locks on outhouses.
No not real bathrooms, outhouses.
Apparently the Obama administration cannot afford the high cost of keeping the outhouses in operation. :)) But can afford staff to install locks. Duh.
This from an administration that displays more respect to illegal aliens than to veterans.
Elmore Leonard could not write this plot or these characters.