Burn it all down!

[ljm2002]

That is the message from Republicans: We didn't get our way at the ballot box, so Burn It All Down. (Oh, and then blame it on the black guy.)

These people are nihilists, extremists, and (of course) nut cases. They do not deserve the time of day from serious people. They are filled with hate, and they have spread their toxins into the body politic. And the G** D*** media continues to kiss their collective ass!

I am as pissed off as I've ever been about anything political. When the United States loses its privileged place in the financial world, as the de facto "safe haven" for investors, we will also lose our pre-eminence in other ways. And really, that is what we have been sliding towards for the last 30 years, as the Reagan Revolution took hold and policies went more and more to the right: less money for infrastructure, less money for education, more privatization of everything, more money for prisons -- in other words, we have been destroying our own country from within for decades, and now that the bottom is dropping out, we are self-destructing politically as well. It was probably inevitable, but it doesn't make it go down any easier.

Well anyway, maybe the world's powers will look at it as a cautionary tale. Unfortunately, what they take from it may not be what we would want. If I were China, for example, I'd be saying "Yeah, democracy doesn't look all that great right now, does it?" And what, really, is a good answer to that observation? Sure, you can say our democracy has been subverted by money -- but that was done using our Constitutionally-defined democratic processes.

Honestly I'm having a hard time refraining from violent metaphors in regard to the Republicans in this matter. If I were in DC right now, I'd be heckling them at every public news event. They ARE the takers in this country, and right now they are robbing every single citizen of this country by what they are doing.

[ljm2002]

1. Here is the letter I sent to my Representative...

...Dr. Joe Heck:

Greetings Dr. Heck --

I am in your district, I am one of those Americans you are supposedly listening to. So here goes: The ACA is a duly passed law, upheld by the Supreme Court, and the American people's opinion on it was made abundantly clear when they re-elected Barack Obama as President by a margin of 5 million votes. Not to mention, the Republicans lost seats in BOTH the Senate and the House; and finally, even though the House maintained its Republican majority, you must acknowledge that Republicans attained fewer votes than Democrats did in the House, by a margin of 1 million votes.

So please, Dr. Heck, start REALLY listening to Americans, and do your bleeping job of keeping the country running without the ridiculous posturing we have been subjected to for the last couple of weeks. We already ran up the bills, now we must pay them. You know the Constitution has something to say about this, right? Something about the "full faith and credit of the United States", and how our debts MUST NOT BE QUESTIONED.

You do realize, don't you, that this default will mark the end of the U.S. as the world's only superpower, right? Once we lose our position as the only guaranteed secure place to invest, we have undermined our position in the world and it will be an inevitable slide. Do you really not see this?

Well in any case, please keep in mind: this country has a well defined democratic process for enacting laws and for the day-to-day running, and financing, of our government. None of what is happening shows any respect for that. In other words, your party, and particularly the Tea Party contingent in the House, is indulging in nihilism. Shame on all of you for that.