Making Things Worse
The official GOP strategy
--
I was not aware that the primary, if not sole, objective of legislative efforts by a certain faction of elected right-wing officials was a punitive one. Who knew?
Perhaps it’s just me, but assuming our individual and collective future still matters to at least half the population (there’s admittedly some doubt about this), that motivation doesn’t seem to be an especially brilliant one. I’m being kind: it’s actually destructive, dangerous, idiotic … and feel free to insert your own characterization.
Several weeks ago, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank set out one of many examples of how the Republican Party is slowly — by that I mean quickly — making clear that enacting legislation and governing in general for the benefit of at least its own constituents, if not other Americans as well, is not on their Priority List. Here in the real world, where voters expect their representatives to … you know … represent their interests (what a concept!) and not those of said reps’ wealthy owners, that obligation is no longer an obligation or even a suggestion.
Citing just one example among so many others, Milbank spotlighted a first-term House Republican who correctly noted that proposed GOP hostage negotiation demands (sorry, what I meant to say was … no, no, that’s correct) to prevent default of our government’s financial obligations meant the loss of various tax credits and investment opportunities intended to benefit her very own constituents. Millions of dollars, worth, it should be noted. Another way of stating that is to point out that what she advocated while seeking office was what got her elected … to, you know, represent her supporters and the community at large. Investments and credits worth millions of dollars tend to do that, after all.
But in order to be a team player on the team that really mattered, this unfortunate example of the GOP’s hostility to the needs of those among us not supremely wealthy and exceedingly privileged as is, and bearing, as Milbank described, “the haunted look of a woman about to walk the plank,” this same Congresswoman cast a vote against her very own constituents’ interests. When the primary objective is to assert authoritarian rule to benefit the few at the expense of the many, wrecking America’s financial…
