by Allen Clifton
For
years now, liberals have referred to the tea party as the “American
Taliban” for their policies which almost certainly would devastate
millions of Americans. But for the most part I’ve refused to call them
that because, while their partisan obstruction was obvious, the
comparisons just seemed a little too radical for me.
Well, not anymore. Not with this continued insistence by repugicans
that “Obamacare” be defunded, and their willingness to take down our
nation to do just that.
Weeks ago when I heard people like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul talk about a
push to shutdown the government to try to force the defunding of
Obamacare I figured it would make news — but I thought it was so radical
that I wrote it off as their push to set themselves up for their 2016
presidential campaigns.
I never thought it would be taken seriously by “mainstream” repugicans because even they would know it was a horrible plan, right?
Wrong.
It appears now that House Speaker John Boehner is prepared to move forward on a proposal that will fund our government only if Obamacare is defunded.
This in response to repeated comments by the president that he will
not, in any way, sign anything that defunds the Affordable Care Act.
So basically what Boehner is saying is that his “plan” to fund our
government proposes something that the president has clearly said he
will
never sign.
In other words, Boehner, and fellow Republicans, are willing to shut
down our government (hurting millions of Americans in the process) on
some futile attempt to defund something that was passed by Congress,
signed by the president and declared Constitutional by our Supreme
Court.
And this is just their first plan. There’s still talk that if this
ends up falling through, they’re going to use the debt ceiling vote as
another way to try to “defund Obamacare.”
A vote which, if not passed, could send our economy straight into an economic depression.
It’s one thing when these types of things are discussed among the lunatic fringe members of the repugican cabal and dismissed by anyone who would
even consider themselves someone to be taken seriously nationally, but
these ideas are now being fully embraced by the repugican cabal.
Just think about that for a moment. A political cabal that’s willing
to crash our economy or shutdown our government to avoid complying with
a Constitutionally-upheld law.
And they don’t want liberals to consider them the “American Taliban”
or some other form of domestic terrorist? Not all terrorism involves
the killing of innocent people. Terrorism can be seen as any
calculated, and planned, attack on the United States meant to
purposefully inflict harm.
Tell me, how is willingly crashing our economy not a “purposeful” act
which would harm millions of Americans? How is shutting down our
government not a “purposeful” act to harm our nation?
Because President Obama has made it clear that
the law of the land as per our Constitution “Obamacare” will
not be defunded. So if the repugican responses to that are proposals
which include it being defunded, they are then willingly threatening to
crash our economy or shutdown our government unless “their demands are
met.”
And repugicans like Boehner damn well know what either of those actions would cause. Oh—and
neither of these actions would ultimately defeat “Obamacare.”
What if al Qaeda came out said they planned to crash our economy if
specific demands weren’t met (say, the immediate withdrawal of our
troops in Afghanistan), then after those demands weren’t met—they did
crash our economy?
We’d call it a terrorist attack and label them criminals, right?
Yet that’s
exactly what many repugicans are pushing for. A
direct attack on our country and our economy if their demands aren’t
met. An attack which would devastate millions of Americans and
potentially send not just
our economy, but the entire global economy, into a free fall.
So tell me, what’s the real difference? Because they’re elected
officials and not Islamic radicals? It seems to me that both seem to
wish harm on millions of Americans if they don’t get their way, and are
willing to go to great lengths to do so.
And if you think the killing of Americans is what makes Islamic radicals that
much different, you’re being naive. Because I promise you, shutting down our government or purposefully crashing our economy
will cost — and irreversibly ruin — American lives.
Let’s not also forget that these repugican acts are in “defiance” of
a health care law which seeks to provide millions of Americans with
health insurance. How many lives would be lost if conservatives got
their way and saw the health care law defunded?
But this isn’t really anything new for repugicans. Since President
Obama was elected in 2008, tea party repugicans and the repugican cabal as a whole
have been going out of their way to try to sabotage our economy in hopes
that they could defeat him last November. Of course that plan failed,
and now we’re left with these same repugicans now fully embracing the
most radical parts of the dangerous tea party agenda.
Or let’s just call them what they really are — domestic terrorists.
People who are willing to go to any lengths, even if it means crashing
our economy, to try to force the president to “give in to their
demands.”
These people are reprehensible. My biggest hope is that next
November, the American people don’t forget these moments when the repugican cabal put the lives of millions of Americans in jeopardy
simply to try to blackmail the President of the United States.
The fact is that the “extreme” is now the “mainstream,” and because
of that I can no longer view these people as belonging to a legitimate
political party. They really have turned into the “American Taliban.”
Mabon: Autumn Equinox - September 21st-23rd
It's
not easy being green. An unnamed 24-year-old man from Zhejiang
Province, China, was hospitalized because he was turning green.
