GOP Shutdown Postmortem

Standard & Poor’s estimates the Federal Government Shutdown of 2013 cost the economy $24 billion.

By comparison, NASA’s budget is $16.6 billion. We're no longer a nation reaching for the stars.

Politics in the US is busted. It's a sad state of affairs when a small but well-funded band of delusional opportunists and hate-filled nincompoops can orchestrate a bogus crisis for political theater of the absurd. Worse yet, both political parties use this theater to stuff their war chests.

It was shameful how many emails sullied my in-box from the DNC or PACs attempting to convert the daily fear & loathing fomented by the GOP into donations.

January 2015

The 113th United States Congress will prove to be one of the most ineffectual in history, particularly the ridiculously gerrymandered US House of Representatives. The Republican Party, and its self-serving leadership, are to blame.

Today's GOP is a small tent political party bereft of rational thinking, and burdened by vitriolic hatred and an irrational fear of the common good. The US will be shackled to the 113th Congress until January 3, 2015.

Let us count the days until November 2014.

November 2014

Come November 2014 many of us will have the privilege and responsibility to vote out all of the delusional opportunists and hate-filled nincompoops who held our country hostage during the Shutdown of 2013.

REFERENCES

• Here’s How Much The Government Shutdown Cost The Economy, by Eliana Dockterman, Time, October 17, 2013.

Dear DNC

Dear DNC,
  We want our peace signs back.
Sincerely,
The 60s

I am a person without a political home. The political landscape in the United States is a turgid cesspool. Elected representatives openly shill for big money at the peril of an overwhelming majority of the electorate. Meanwhile the Democratic National Committee incessantly spams us for campaign contributions.

I'm weary.

In a thinly veiled fund-raising questionnaire the DNC asks,

What would you say to another Democrat to inspire them to get involved with or contribute to this organization?

What would I say? I'm running on empty.

In fairness President Obama has been dealt an awful hand:

A nincompoop-infested, right-wing extremist House of Representatives - dishonorable men and women bank-rolled by the highest bidders. 

The President deserves credit for trying to do the right thing. By all reputable accounts, Barack Obama has been a reasonable, consensus-seeking centrist. Who could have predicted how insanely intransigent House Republicans would be?

Sadly the childishly-stubborn and counter-productive behavior exhibited by House Republicans will not deliver a Democratic majority because American voters don't pay attention to public policy. Many American voters are not critical thinkers. Many Americans' opinions are influenced foremost by fear and secondarily by what they perceive to be their self-interest superseding the Common Good. Some American voters allow their opinions to be deftly manipulated by the fact-averse drivel that is broadcast by hate-filled, right-wing media. For an overwhelming majority, day-to-day living is a proposition of lose-lose and lose some more...

after corporations automate or outsource your job and fudge-pack your sorry ass into poverty.

There is not much for progressives to get charged up about. The rich fleece the middle class and the poor get third-world poorer. Income inequity grows unabated.

I am unsure how we turn the tide. I suppose the Democrats could use more stalwarts like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders.

I would like Democrats to focus more on JOBS and much, much less on elective military incursions into global civil wars and much, much less on electronic snooping into the private communications of its citizens.