HCR: Republicans Bitchslapped
Republicans bet the farm on being able to “Waterloo” President Obama (how’s that for a new verb). They waged an all-out propaganda war after seeing that certain base emotions were coming into play as we went into the summer of 2009. When people began saying things like “not my president” it helped kickoff the birther movement, which gave Republican leadership hope that they could not only ride out the wave of pro-Obama sentiment but could negate it completely. It did not help things that certain progressives compounded the wave of negativism by feeding the Fox News news cycle with their impatience.
The best example of this that I can think of is Lt. Dan Choi, who just 60 days into the Obama presidency decided he was already tired of waiting for the promised repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. So he decided to FORCE the issue by violating his oath of loyalty to his military hierarchy, coming-out on the Rachel Maddow show, and publicly denouncing his Commander in Chief for not living up to HIS expectations.
Anyone who has ever worn the uniform (like I did for 21 years) will tell you it is both arrogant and disgraceful for a military member to PUSH the President to act on YOUR timetable, especially when that president has already committed himself to acting in a manner that suits your interests. To say, “Okay times up!” after just 60 days was outrageous and strengthened the President’s political enemies, which made it THAT much more difficult for him to act. Case in point, this was quickly followed with a Fox News medley of pessimism about impatience of at least a dozen special interest groups from (but not limited to) the Hispanic community getting impatient about administration cabinet appointments, to economists getting impatient that the affect of the stimulus was not instantaneous, and to impatience by oompa loompas that there was still no national Chocolate Day. All of this—AFTER SIXTY DAYS! It began to look like the Democrats were going to implode and grasp defeat from the jaws of victory yet again.
Eying this change of fortunes, Republicans doubled-down with the “summer of shame” by fomenting irrational fear and anger where ever possible. They slandered the President in every way they could get away with, stifled the national debate in any way they could, and accused Democrats of “destroying the fabric of America.” After all of that, what has John Boehner, the chief architect of the failed strategy of NO, accomplished? I will tell you. He has taught the Democrats how to unite around a common goal. FINALLY! John Boehner has given Democrats something mildly resembling unity.
The Republican strategy of NO has resulted in THE GREATEST POLITICAL BITCHSLAP IN HISTORY!
Now, a question: With Congressmen being threatened by angry mobs for doing their jobs, AND with far-right nut jobs denouncing majority rule in Congress and in some cases flying small planes into federal buildings, AND with states with Republican governors threatening to secede from the union, WHO exactly is destroying the fabric of America? Though in their defense I guess I can say, no one likes getting bitchslapped.
