271…Same Shit Different Day
There is a part of me that is tempted to just go back and find what I wrote the night before the last shut down and repost it. This is such a fucking ridiculous moment to be having. About 30 minutes ago I got a push notification from both the NYT and WaPo, telling me that the government would be shutting down again because Rand Paul was holding up the vote.
And to be honest I’m not upset with Rand Paul. I totally disagree with everything he believes about governing, but at least he’s (mostly) consistent. He is concerned about deficits, and this budget was going to increase the deficit. I mean, he left that at the wayside when he voted for the GOP Tax Scam, but I’m sure that behind closed doors he was told that they would destroy the social safety net to make up for it.
Not that there’s a bright side to something like a government shut down that hurts thousands and millions of Americans, but if there is, it’s the fact that Republicans own this. One thousand percent. Even without Rand Paul Rand Pauling this shutdown was going to happen, because Paul Ryan can’t control his caucus in the house. He can’t control his caucus in the house because there isn’t actually a Republican party. It’s two parties that happened to be comfortable sharing a seat if it meant that they got to drive the bus.
Nine years ago Republicans embraced the Tea Party, because they thought they could get the votes from these rubes by giving them a little of what they wanted. But the rubes weren’t interested in a compromise that gave them 85% of what they wanted. They demanded 100%. When Barack Obama was in the White House it balanced out the complete dysfunction in the Republican Caucus, because the one thing that establishment and Tea Partiers agreed on was that they didn’t want him as President.
But now it turns out that they don’t want the same things. One group wants to govern in a way that is cruel to the poors, but not deadly. The other thinks that all government is theft, molon labe, don’t tread on me. The fundamental difference between the two is a belief on one side that the government which governs best governs least, and on the other side a belief in FUCK GOVERNMENT I AM A SOVEREIGN CITIZEN.
This shutdown belongs to one party, and somehow, it’s the party that controls every lever of power. It’s a level of incompetence that’s frankly staggering.
This whole thing is so patently absurd that Samuel Beckett could write it and people would say he had gone to far.
