To the Very Brink — What We Learned from the Republican Shutdown

I've been thinking about what's happened this past week. I put off doing a post because of all I had to say. Then I thought it might be easier to do a bunch a smaller posts about what happened.

So here goes.

The Tea Party said over and over they didn't want to shut down the government. Well to put it mildly this was a falsehood if not an out and out right lie. On several of the news shows Tea Parties were shown speaking in front of supporters or in interviews saying their goal was to shut down the government. Essentially saying if they didn't get their way that's what they would do. I also remember video of a meeting of Tea Parties chanting like they were at some frat beer chugging contest shut it down shut it down.

The notion that they did not want a shut down simply doesn't stand up to what Tea Partiers themselves said.

Another thing that I thought was very interesting was the Tea Partiers reaction to when the government shut down. They seemed genuinely surprised at some of the things that were shut down. National Parks. Who knew? NIH. Who knew? Kids loosing Head Start money. Who knew?

Gee Congressperson Tea Partier you should have know. Slogans are great. Shut it down. That's great red meat for the people who support you and for raising money. But when reality comes along, it is a little different. Real people were actually impacted. Who knew?

That was the incredibly cynical approach the Republicans took to open parts of the government. As you went through the list of what Republicans wanted to reopen, it was those parts of the government that would cause the Republicans the most embarrassment. People being turned away from memorials, the World War II one being the epicenter of this one. Clinical trials at NIH for people with cancer. The Veterans Administration. All of this to show that Republicans weren't heartless bastards. The fact that they went to these lengths just show how heartless they were. Some people were worth calling back to work everyone else well they could just suffer.

More thoughts a little later.