Why the Tea Party Hates Democracy

If you want to piss off a Tea Party Republican, try this sentence:

The United States is a democracy.

They'll spit and sputter in rage. The more educated among them might try quoting Alexander Hamilton and say that the Founding Fathers hated democracy and considered it akin to anarchy. Others will point to the Pledge of Allegiance as absolute proof that the United States is a republic and not a democracy (ignoring the simple fact that the meter of the poem, written in 1892, required a three syllable word).

The ignorant Tea Partier will simply yell "Democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." Then there is the batshit insane Tea Partier who will tell you that democracy is a Jewish conspiracy of the Trilateral Commission being used to turn the United States into a fascist/communist dictatorship.

Pruning away the rambling verbiage, their principle difficulty with democracy is universal suffrage. Their preferred form of government, think Roman Republic, is one where only the most deserving have the privileged of voting. They want the 17th Amendment repealed ("It made the Senate more democratic — and that’s not good") because they believe the direct election of senators was a horrible decision and that senators should be appointed, as was done in Rome, without public input.

The new Jim Crow voting restrictions are just the beginning of the ultimate goal. Disenfranchising African-Americans, the disabled, Hispanics, students, even women and the elderly is an intermediate step. Their ideal form of a republic will restrict the voting privilege to taxpayers ("Universal suffrage is immoral"). With that simple change, Mitt Romney wins in a landslide.

Tea Party Republicans believe that democracy is "mob rule." Their mantra is "Voting is a privilege, not a right" and a privilege that only a select minority, the "select" being, of course, themselves, should be allowed to exercise. If only they can keep the common rabble, the hoi-polloi, hysterical females, and coloreds from voting then they will final deliver the nation from the curse of evil democracy.

My Personal Experience With Obamacare

During the course of several weeks starting before the Oct. 1 roll out, I visited the website over a dozen times. Not trying to register, just getting familiar with the structure and what was available. During those visits I calculated the bottom line differences between the lower premiums and higher co-pays as I carefully shopped for the best balance between bargain and service needs. I also downloaded the form in case I wanted to fill it out by hand and file by mail. Early this week, for the first time, I tried to register. Except for a mild glitch that I easily worked around, I was able to successfully register in about 10 minutes.

It was all easy peasy lemon squeezy. And, I think my annual medical expenses will be cut by more than half.

Now the caveats. I was using CoveredCA, not the federal site. There are lots of tech savvy people in California and not a lot of Republicans trying to muck up the works. California is fully invested in making the Affordable Care Act work. People who live in states like Georgia and Mississippi, where the politicians have been doing everything they can to deny their citizens access to affordable health care, are not so fortunate. But for them the problem lies not so much with Obamacare as with their Republicans officials deliberately trying to injure them to make a political point.

The Devil Made Him Do It

Herm Cain is blaming the devil for his sexual harassment problems. Herm is old enough to remember the 1970's comedian Flip Wilson and especially his character, Geraldine Jones. Herm should know that "the devil made me do it" is a piss poor excuse but a very funny routine.

Now We Can Talk About Winners

You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done. ~ The Gambler

The whole budget shutdown, default showdown had winners and losers. Now we can talk about them.

The Winners

Harry Reid
 "Dirty" Harry is by far the big winner. His reputation, among Democrats, had been as a wet noodle who couldn't stand up to a gentle breeze. Now he should be compared to the great Senate Majority Leaders like Lyndon Johnson. He managed the affair masterfully - giving Ted Cruz all the rope he needed to hang his colleagues, ignoring the House radical fringe, and finally allowing Republican senators a fig leaf to cover their surrender. Like Stanley Ipkiss, he's smoking.

President Obama 
Like Reid, had developed a reputation as the Great Compromiser so dedicated to cutting deals he would compromise with himself even before meeting with Republicans where he would compromise himself into untenable positions. Republican radicals, like their Southern predecessors in 1850, were counting on a succession of surrenders from a President desperate to make any deal. Republicans were confident they would get 99% of what they wanted without even breaking a sweat. Instead they encountered a man walking tall; a man steady as a rock. They were stunned and, in the end, cowered by Obama.

Ted Cruz

Surprise! Sure, he can't walk down the halls of the Senate without his Republican colleagues trying to spit in his face. But he doesn't care. He's proud about not going to the Senate to make new friends and he hasn't. He's a winner because he used his quixotic mission to build a sucker list of over two million gullible patsies willing to sell their sisters to fund whatever campaign he's interested in. Cruz doesn't just resemble, he the the living embodiment of Alex the Large from A Clockwork Orange.

The Losers

Republicans and the Tea Party

I've made the comparison before, Republicans are the kids from Lord of the Files. They've been childish, tribal, cultish, and vindictive against adult authority. I won't be surprised if Republicans politicians begin wearing war paint.

John Boehner

He was whipsawed and humiliated by the Republicans House caucus and ignored by both parties in the Senate. He has been made less than insignificant. Given where most of the Tea Party congressmen hail from I am certain that more than once during those party conferences Boehner was instructed to "squeal like a pig." And he did.

Tea Party Has a Plan

I've have my head in the Tea Party Echo Chamber^TM the past 24 hours (and, yes, I have a terrible headache) and I'm here to tell ya', they've got a plan.

They have learned their lesson and are going to do it all over again.
They will attach repeal of the Affordable Care Act to every piece of legislation that hits the House.
Their mistake this time was letting the leadership know what they were doing. Next time they are going to spring their plan to default on the debt completely by surprise.

Defeat in primaries every Republican that showed the slightest sign of disloyalty to the Tea Party.
Even staunch conservatives like Sen. Thad Cochran and Sen. John Cornyn have been labeled treasonous RINOs.

Recall John McCain.
Even though it can't be done. I mean legally, it's impossible.

This purge will result in veto-proof Republican majorities after the mid-term elections.
I don't know how the Tea Party can balance a budget if their math says that 46 minus 28 somehow equals 60.

Repeal ObamaCare in 2015. 

Impeach the President.

The John Birch Society had similar insane goals fifty years ago.

Elect Ted Cruz President.
Or Sarah Palin.

Finally, arrest and imprison all the traitors in Congress who didn't support Cruz and the Tea Party and the news media members who disrespected Cruz.

It's a big agenda but Tea Partiers agree it's the only way to "Save the Republic" from democracy.

Republicans Going to the Dogs

Have you ever seen feral pack of dogs being led by its smallest member? Some overactive Jack Russell intimidating a pack including a pitbull that could, were it so inclined, eat the terrier in four bites? Or a pack where an 80 pound German Shepard is cowering in terror from the yipping of four pounds of chihuahua named Buttons?

That's what the House Republican caucus reminds me of. The handful of Tea Partiers most closely resemble the droogs from A Clockwork Orange. These anarchists have John Boehner repeatedly peeing himself in servile terror. If Boehner thought it would sate their bloodlust even for a moment I've no doubt he would give over his two daughters for the mad pack to tear to pieces.

Past Speakers, think Sam Rayburn, would discipline rebellious backbenchers by assigning them broom closets in the sub-basement for offices and putting them on only the sub-committee for Litter Abatement. Any bill they sponsored would disappear without a vote and appropriations for their districts would be scarcer than bacon at a Muslim hunger strike.

But in the 113th Congress the whelps are running the pack.

Economic Brinksmanship

I haven't felt like this since I was ten years old, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fascinated, in a morbid "will I survive and will I want to" fashion. Energized by the suicidally egotistical attitudes of a handful of megalomaniacs using the fate of everyone on Earth as chits in a high stakes game of tiddlywinks. Desperately wishing we could give the people involve switchblades and tell them to go out back and settle things among themselves and stop involving the rest of us.

P.S. If I hear anyone on either side this pissing contest ooze the phrase "We're winning!" one more time, I'll scream.

P.P.S. If any more rich Tea Party bastards complain their health insurance is going to rise under ObamaCare to where it will be half of what I am currently paying for health insurance I'm going to beat him to death with this very laptop.

Modern Republicans In (Mostly) Old Pictures

The greatest political cartoonist in history was the 19th century's Thomas Nast of Harper's Weekly. Among other things he created out current image of Santa Claus and assigned to elephant to Republicans. But there are a couple of his drawings that speak to today.

This 1871 drawing recalls a scene from Oliver Twist where master pickpocket the Artful Dodger ran down the street screaming "Stop Thief!" to hide the fact he was, himself, the thief in question. Republicans are causing all the current economic threats yet they pretend to be innocent bystanders.

Then there is this classic also from 1871 as every Republican is blaming every other Republican for the mess they've gotten themselves into. However, Congressional Republicans are not so polite as the crooks in this drawing. A more accurate depiction is this modern pic...

Since Republicans are mostly intent on destroying other Republicans who deviate even by a hair from orthodoxy. Tea Partiers talk of "removing RINO traitors."

Old Joe Stalin called them purges but, really, no difference.
 

In the Company of Cowards

Union forces fleeing the First Battle of Bull Run, 1861
"Retreat is a weak term to use when speaking of this disgraceful rout … The terror-stricken soldiers threw away their arms and accoutrements, herding along like a panic-stricken flock of sheep, with no order whatever in their flight."

The moderate wing of the Republican Party talked a good game about how they would support a clean Continuing Resolution until the threats from the Tea Party became to terrifying. They then started a mad retreat from reasonableness into the warm embrace of madness.

It a certain way I have more respect for the Tea Party radical than I do for mainstream Republicans. Tea Partiers, at least, have the courage of their lunacy. While Boehner, Peter King, and Devin Nunes have redefined the concept of abject cowardice. If they go down in history at all, which is doubtful because history tends to forget the excessively timid, they will be remembered as the Americans who made a joke out of the slogan "Home of the Brave."

I don't recall I ever heard that bugle sound retreat,
I could only hear the thunder of a hundred scamperin' feet.
It was forward into battle they came marching one by one
But I guess they thought it over, and they thought it best to run ~ Company of Cowards

How Do You Negotiate With a Mob?

Some Republicans are complaining that President Obama is "not negotiating" with them to end the government shutdown. Who, exactly, ought he negotiate with?

• Not Ted Cruz, who was vilified by his own Republican colleagues for getting them into this mess and now admitting he has no clue about ending it. Ironically, Cruz is now terrified that the government shutdown he orchestrated will lead to a successful terrorist attack.
• Not John Boehner, who is clearly just a puppet being randomly manipulated by the 80-member Tea Party caucus. When he suggested some undefined "grand bargain" was possible all sides laughed at him.
• Not Tea Party congressmen, which is a leaderless mob that has no clue what it wants except that it doesn't want to be "disrespected."
• Not moderate and sane Republican congressman who are so terrorized by the Tea Party that label as "traitor" and threaten any Republican that dares to be less than an enthusiastic sycophant.
• Not Tea Party rank-and-file, who are a bunch of anarchists who want to burn down the government and cheered the shutdown.

The Republican Party has become a real life "Lord of the Flies." There is no negotiating with a crazy mob. The only hope is that their mad frenzy exhausts them before too much damage has been done.

House Republicans in caucus.

Tea Party Anarchist Rule Republicans

Listening and reading about all the Tea Party Republicans who are cheering a government shutdown, from Michelle Bachmann to FoxNews to commenters on conservative blogs, the celebrating over the (temporary, I hope) end of government has been boisterous, and probably drunken.

Ted Cruz will go down as one of the most famous American anarchists, along with Emma Goldman, Sacco and Vanzetti, and Ted Kaczynski. Cruz's hero is certainly Leon Czologsz, who changed history by assassinating an American president.