The Inept and the Useless

Who can forget the unfortunate election of 2010 that swept hordes of Tea Partiers into office eager to “Take back the country,” from the terrible “Other” and his Muslim friends. How eager they were to solve all our problems and restore fiscal sanity, motherhood and apple pie. For the most part these were individuals with little or no experience in government but who had become very proficient in bitching and moaning. When confronted with the reality of governing they of course proved to be inept, and being so inept made them also useless in terms of actually doing anything that would benefit either the nation or any of its citizens. During their tenure in office they have failed to pass any meaningful legislation, some of them apparently sold out quickly to special interests, and most of them have been almost completely ineffective. They seem to have believed that democracy works through blackmail, a technique they tried more than once to get their way. Although they haven’t always gotten their way they have managed to block most everything President Obama has attempted to do to help our country recover from the terrible blow it suffered at the hands of Bush/Cheney. You might say they have been useful Republicans by being otherwise useless.

More importantly, the whole Republican Party made a conscious decision to render themselves useless. Of course they didn’t announce they were going to be useless, they said they would refuse to cooperate and would vote “no” on everything Obama proposed. They have been more than faithful to this rather treasonous vow, even voting no on bills they had themselves initially proposed. When one party in a two party system refuses to cooperate in the governing of the nation it seems fully justified to conclude they voluntarily made themselves useless. So during the entire tenure of the Obama administration they have blocked virtually every positive move Obama and the Democrats attempted. This is, of course, why they are now being described as the “Do nothing Congress,” and have achieved a positive rating of an historically low 11%. It is quite amazing to me that Obama has been able to accomplish as much as he has in the face of such determined and unprincipled opposition.

Republicans made it clear from the outset they were determined to make Obama a one term President. They have set about this with a single-mindedness I would have thought impossible to maintain for so long as they have had to act in lock-step with many bills I would have thought not worthy on the part of at least some of them. They have agreed virtually unanimously that for them “Party comes first.” This is so important to them they have at times risked outright disaster for the nation. As they have made no secret of this I wonder why it is we have continued to pay them all this time. After all, if you are supposed to be paid to participate in governing, and you refuse to do your job, why should you continue to be paid? I don’t know who would have the authority to insist they either do their job or quit, or at least not be paid, but someone should. As I have said previously, I think what they have done is close to treasonous as it is a blatant attempt to undermine the President of the United States for their own personal gain, and has both endangered our nation and rendered it ineffective as a functioning political system. As near as I can tell, in the more than three years of the Obama Presidency, Republicans have not passed a single positive bill that would help either the nation or its citizenry, and in fact have repeatedly supported further tax breaks for the filthy rich and corporations at the expense of the middle class and the working poor. Their apparent dream of a full-blown Fascist government (a marriage of government and corporations) is dangerously close to fruition. But not to worry, it will no doubt be realized if Mitt Romney (the Gauche) manages somehow to get elected President. I said previously I thought he would pick New Jersey Fats as his running mate. I hope he does. Image a ticket of Romney the Gauche and New Jersey Fats (the Bully), a ticket even a mother couldn’t love.

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power
Benito Mussolini