The Shutdown Party. A great editorial from USA Today

[madfloridian]

Last edited Tue Oct 1, 2013, 12:44 AM - Edit history (1)

The Shutdown Party: Our view

In this case, however, the "they're all bums" reaction is off-base. This shutdown is not the result of the two parties acting equally irresponsibly. It is the product of an increasingly radicalized Republican Party, controlled by a deeply disaffected base that demands legislative hostage-taking in an effort to get what it has not been able to attain through the electoral process or the judiciary.

Republicans in the House are making demands that are both preposterous and largely unrelated to budgetary matters. In return for keeping government running (and, even more ominously, for paying its bills), they want President Obama to undermine the health care law that he ran on in 2008 and 2012, and now considers his signature domestic accomplishment.

No president of either party could accept that kind of badgering. No president should, as it would set a terrible precedent.

.."Ending the shutdown will probably require House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to stand up to the Tea Party purists and allow the full House to vote on a "clean" bill to fund the government, without any amendments about ObamaCare. Whether and when Boehner will do so remains to be seen. In the meantime, if the shutdown drags on, the inconveniences pile up and the toll on the economy becomes more apparent, it's clear where the blame is properly laid.

Linked at my Twitter site

[Dawson Leery]

1. Send this to the Washington Post.

[madfloridian]

2. WP has covered this situation poorly.

[JHB]

18. Not merely poorly...

Their continual avoidance of the fact that one side has been acting in bad faith (for quite a long time now) has actively exacerbated the situation.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

40. Well, they did publish the editorial, "Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem."

The excellent piece by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein. But that was April 27, 2012. It was largely ignored by the media at the time. And Ornstein and Mann were banished from the news discussion shows on which they had previously been frequently featured.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-04-27/opinions/35453898_1_republican-party-party-moves-democratic-party

[JHB]

44. True, but how visible have Mann & Orenstein appeared since then?

How many talking heads discuss their point?

They were buried by business-as-usual.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

59. I did already say that in the reply you replied to.

But do pass it on to those who don't know it.

[JHB]

62. One could say it bears repeating. And repeating...

...And repeating.

Did I mention it needs repeating?

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

64. Could you repeat that?

[Qutzupalotl]

49. My guess as to why...

Their location dictates that they must have access to all those in power, but I'll bet they are being told to perpetuate the "both sides do it" meme, or the R's won't talk to them anymore. Like how under Bush, pesky journalists not named Helen Thomas were seated far back or banned from the press room altogether. Talk me down.

[intheflow]

3. The Editorial Board of "America's Newspaper"!

Not a liberal editorial essayist, not a left-wing blogger, but a very mainstream news source putting the blame directly where it belongs, on Republican shoulders. Kudos, USA Today!

[madfloridian]

5. Exactly right.

My thoughts exactly.

[winter is coming]

4. I'm surprised to see this from McPaper.

[madfloridian]

6. Me, too.

Sort of surprising. Beats the terrible CNN coverage and the WP as well.

[madfloridian]

7. Another paragraph from the editorial.

"Today's Republican Party, prodded by outside interest groups threatening primary challenges to lawmakers deemed insufficiently conservative, has pushed out of the center and away from consensus-building. This migration began in the early 1990s when Newt Gingrich, a backbench bomb-thrower from Georgia, rose to the rank of Republican whip and later speaker of the House by preaching confrontation. And it gained even more momentum when Barack Obama's election in 2008 sparked the rise of the Tea Party movement."

[cprise]

13. Being very elliptical there. n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Yup, no mention of the bu$h years

[cprise]

8. Uh, no mention of the 1995 shutdown?

No mention of their majority being un-Representative, a product of Gerrymandering, either.

[madfloridian]

10. Mentioned here in another paragraph.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3756808

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

41. A crucial fact generally ignored by the media and unknown to the public.

The Rs can't win without cheating.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

46. Meaning Gerrymandering and Voter Suppression.

Spell it out for the search engines.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

60. How's this? GOP REDMAP Memo Admits Gerrymandering To Thank For Congressional Election Success

The 2012 elections didn't turn out so well as a whole for the GOP, but the Republican State Leadership Committee issued a memo this month proudly explaining that it could have been a lot worse if not for the successful redistricting push spurred by its efforts.

The report -- drafted as a summary of the importance of the RSLC's Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP) -- serves as a breakdown of the broader GOP plan to take control of state legislatures, giving Republicans free rein to mount an aggressive gerrymandering campaign that allowed the party to keep a House majority, despite getting fewer votes in those races overall.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/gop-redmap-memo-gerrymandering_n_2498913.html

This could not be more important.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

61. Excellent link and excerpt. Thanks! Plus linking raises the article in search engine ranking. nt

[Pretzel_Warrior]

9. Go tell it on the mountain

[madfloridian]

11. Wow,from the Sacramento Bee.

House GOP owns the consequences of reckless government shutdown

They can spin it all they want, but House Republicans manufactured the crisis that now threatens to shut down the federal government and wreak havoc on world finances. Unless they budge, they will go down in history as hostage takers willing to tank the economy if their demands are not met.

Republicans blame Democrats for not agreeing to their terms, but why should the Senate Democratic majority negotiate with hostage takers? Voters in the last election had an opportunity to reject Obamacare by electing Mitt Romney over Barack Obama. By a wide margin, they chose not to do so.

...Obamacare, however complex and imperfect it may be, offers the prospect of medical coverage for nearly everyone, and a shift toward preventive services that will save us all in the long run. House Republicans, instead of offering ideas to improve Obamacare, would rather shut down the government than give the Affordable Care Act a chance to be implemented.

...Yet it is Boehner whose arrogance and weakness is breathtaking. It might have cost him his leadership position, but Boehner could have stood up to the tea party extremists, especially with support from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy. Instead, the three pandered to the most reckless and ill-informed members of their caucus, refusing to send the Senate a clean funding bill stripped of the condition that Obamacare be delayed.

[blkmusclmachine]

12. +1000

[longship]

14. Wow! Fucking wow! This is USA Today!!!

The McPaper of the journalism world.

If USA Today is publishing an editorial like this, that is important.

As Snagglepuss once said, "It's self-inflicted Bar-B-Que. They cooked their own goose."

Of course, those of us who were alive and sober in the 90's remember what holding a government hostage to ideology does.

Unfortunately, the USA has not learned the lesson. The GOP, ever in the hands of religious lunatics and ignoramuses, has convinced people that they have the right way.

What does one do to fight this when so many are willfully and, apparently, joyfully ignorant?

[Uncle Joe]

15. Boehner's leadership skills are sorely lacking, it will have to come from some other Republicans

in the House.

He doesn't have the spinal fortitude required to lead, I would be amazed and happy if he proved me wrong but I'm highly doubtful that he could pull it off.

Thanks for the thread, madfloridian.

[madfloridian]

20. I am doubtful as well.

The leaders all seem too tied to their teaparty base.

[Uncle Joe]

25. ..

Peace to you, madfloridian.

[malaise]

17. Base my ass

All the ReTHUG baggers are funded by plutocrats. They are all on the take.

[B Calm]

19. Think CSpan will read this on air?

[madfloridian]

21. I doubt it.

[calimary]

22. Remarkable! And refreshing! "USA Today" of all publications. EXCELLENT!!!!

"The Shutdown Party"! Well, let's see - what does THAT reinforce, as far as messaging? All the things WE want to see, that's what! Mainly - that this can, should, and MUST be blamed on the actual source of all this grief: the GOP. It's THEY who are pushing us over the cliff. It's THEY who are intransigent, compared to a President who has reached out again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again, compromising, offering concessions, trying to meet them more than half-way, and these bastards rebuff him at every turn. Every time he's extended his hand, since he GOT THERE five years ago, they've spit into it. EVERY time! And some of 'em even shat in it, too. At EVERY turn. And they're trying to pull this bullshit about how THEY have tried to compromise? Man, they've got to be on drugs!!!

I'm VERY glad to see this! With publications like "USA Today" labeling the GOP as baldly honestly as it deserves, that meme - that framing - that MESSAGING - will sink in and take root. THAT'S WHAT WE WANT!!!!!

I also am extremely pleased to hear so much repetition and recurrence of the themes of "hostage-taking" and "extortion" that are in the narrative now. That's how this is being described, and the talking heads, in turn, are also using these terms, and THEY are becoming part of the messaging as well.

This is a GREAT thing!!! Helps make our case. And it has the added benefit of being TRUE!!!!

[madfloridian]

23. Hi calimary. USA Today is one of the few calling it like it is.

I have just been doing a search on editorials. Very few hit the nail on the head. Glad to see this one, but discouraging not to see others.

[mnhtnbb]

27. The Raleigh N&O didn't wait for today. Here are some excerpts from Sunday's editorial

So the people of the United States wait again for tea party Republicans to stop playing this maddening and destructive game.

It should stop Monday. The time for bluffing and feinting is over. Republicans whose intransigence has created a do-nothing Congress must at last do something. They must give up their demand and let the government pay its bills.

<snip>

For now, the nation is left with a House majority that wants to make trouble, not fix it. And on the funding issue the diehards want Speaker John Boehner to take the most destructive course: a government shutdown and a slide toward the United States’ defaulting on its debts, an event that would upset the global economy and could throw the U.S. economy back into recession.


Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina’s 8th District, is one of the members urging the House leadership to drive a hard bargain with the Senate.

“I think the question is, do we go with the carrot or the stick strategy?” Hudson said. “Do we try to do something bad enough to force (Democratic Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid to negotiate with us, or do we do something that we think he can’t refuse?”

“Do something bad enough” isn’t the language of real leaders, real patriots or even real adults. How about doing something good enough? How about doing what’s best for the United States and its people?

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/09/29/3239189/at-the-brink.html#storylink=cpy


I think they make it pretty clear this is the fault, with Boehner's collusion, of the Tea Party Republicans.

[madfloridian]

29. Wow, thanks for sharing that. Warms my heart to see that from NC country.

[mnhtnbb]

31. The N&O has been riding Governor McCookie and his Popian band of Teapublicans

like crazy. Even though it's a McClatchy owned paper, the editorial board is quite progressive.

[madfloridian]

32. Didn't McClatchy papers take the progressive route in lead-up to Iraq invasion?

I remember posting some stuff, but having trouble finding it on a search. That's 10 years ago, hard to believe.

[mnhtnbb]

33. That is so long ago, I couldn't say. I do remember going to DC to protest

and I remember complaining to hubby that protests around the world were not being
reported in the media. I don't remember specifics of the N&O.

[Blue Owl]

24. A.K.A. the Shitclown Party

n/t

[mnhtnbb]

26. That's pretty amazing from USA Today. Just think how many people--traveling for business--

waking up to the paper outside their hotel door will read that editorial today.

[liberal N proud]

28. Boehner doesn't have the spine to stand up to the teabaggers

[Laelth]

30. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[madfloridian]

34. ......

Thanks.

[Liberalynn]

35. Well written

Agree 100 percent. Enough of this crap that "both sides are to blame." Thank you for posting this.

[madfloridian]

38. Glad to do it. Was so happy to see that at USA Today.

[colsohlibgal]

36. Pretty Startling

But good on USA Today - take a cue Wolf Blitzer, David Gregory, Chuckie Todd.

Oh how I wish Current TV was still on - got to go see how fired up Cenk is

[Starry Messenger]

37. k&r

[madfloridian]

39. .......

and thank you.

[antigop]

42. K&R. Thanks. nt

[BlancheSplanchnik]

43. it's the republicans, stupid.

I've been saying this for years now......the people who don't get it--who are either teapukes themselves, think themselves intrepid libertarians, ayn rand sociopaths, or people just confused by the lying media and so think that it's "all of those bums" drive me wild with fury.

to the point where I'm tired of trying to educate people.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

45. A vote on a clean bill would pass both chambers instantly. nt

[SunSeeker]

54. Yes. That is why the blame is squarely on Boner for not allowing a vote. nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

55. Excellent way to phrase Boehner's responsibility.

To put it together:

The Republican leadership (principally Boehner) is responsible for the shutdown because they will not allow a vote on a clean government funding bill, which would pass the instant it were to be allowed.

[Enthusiast]

47. Thank you, madfloridian!

Excellent article. I hope you are doing well.

[madfloridian]

52. ....

I am getting there, just posting now and then. I use Twitter more.

[FloriTexan]

48. Great Post!

So glad to see you back on here posting.

[madfloridian]

51. .......

Only occasionally so far.

[wiggs]

50. WHY AM I NOT HEARING DEMS AND PRESIDENT LINKING THIS BEHAVIOR

to their tactics of refusing to do their jobs over the last 5 years in any manner of ways: 1) refusing to vote on judicial nominees that should be easily approvable by any measure 2) refusing to OK department heads (since 2009!) either because they don't like the department or they don't like the nominee who should be approvable by any reasonable measure 3) abusing filibuster rules in unprecedented ways thereby obstructing needed legislation 4) refusing to vote on issues that are of high importance to the public such as gun and immigration issues 5) as Maddow has said: in general, the GOP has failed as a party to bring arguments to the conversation that are legitimate, credible, defensible, and negotiable. THEY ARE NOT HOLDING UP THEIR END OF A TWO PARTY SYSTEM AT ALL.

They bring nothing to the table. Not a moderating influence on left wing ideas. Not a sounding board of philosophy based on reality. Not any intent to solve real problems. Nothing.

Maddow has listed the accomplishments of Obama, Pelosi and Reid until 2010. Since Boehner and the TP faction have controlled the house, almost nothing has been done by Congress. An overall case should be passionately made (not only by MSNBC) with facts showing how little GOP reps have done to help with the economy and other issues. This shutdown and lack of progress is an extension of stated intent and past behavior. This is an EASY case to make and I wish they would make it. Those interested in effective government should be outraged.

[wiggs]

56. Agree with Sullivan. There aren't two sides to this argument. Therefore GOP has no argument and

isn't part of the solution, isn't part of the real discussion...just the sideshow.

[pangaia]

53. Correct me if I am wrong,

which I hope I am, but-- doesn't USA today print 2 opposing views in its editorials? Or is that another section of the rag?

Either way, thanks for the great post...

[Uncle Joe]

57. That might be the case, but the keywords are

Last edited Tue Oct 1, 2013, 09:30 PM - Edit history (1)

The Shutdown Party: "Our view."

[madfloridian]

58. Let's hope that Shutdown Party catches on.

It's a great name to call them right now.

[B Calm]

63. Republicans were doing their blame game yesterday, but I don't think it's working!

You'd have to be pretty damn stupid not to realize that it's the republicans that shut down the government!