Even Republicans Know They’re Failing: Call GOP Run Congress A Rickety Ship of Disasters

mcconnell-boehner

All those big campaign promises evaporated the minute Republicans took control of both chambers. Once they had to actually do something instead of just pointing fingers, all of the big talk and swagger quickly turned to dust. One member described it to the National Journal as “It’s kind of like we’re an old rickety boat trying to get out of the dock… We’ve bumped into some other boats. We hit our own dock once.”

If they thought it was bad thus far, Republicans are about to hit an iceberg by the name of homeland security. They are but five legislative days away from an unfunded department of homeland security with no solution in sight.

Daniel Newhauser, in a National Journal article entitled “So Far, a Congress About Nothing –Republicans thought they’d get easy wins at the start of the 114th Congress. Instead they got internal strife” pointed out, “So far, the 114th Congress has yielded just one Public Law: a measure reauthorizing the terrorism risk insurance program.”

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As members head home after a very unproductive, concerning six weeks allegedly “in session”, Newhauser got some gold from GOP members speaking anonymously:

“It’s been ugly,” said one conservative member, speaking anonymously to discuss internal conference dynamics. “It’s kind of like we’re an old rickety boat trying to get out of the dock. … It’s been kind of ugly getting out of the harbor. We’ve bumped into some other boats. We hit our own dock once. … If we can just get to sea, then maybe once we start sailing, get that main sail up, it will be a lot smoother ride.”

Detailing the ride on the SS Titanic that is the Republican control of Congress (my words, not his), Newhauser pointed out that Republicans thought they’d be pulling together and creating unity but instead went from an attempted coup over Speaker Boehner to the GOP House V GOP Senate on the Department of Homeland Security funding, to the humiliating defeat brought on by the “females” in their caucus of their attempt to deny even rape and incest victims any compassion with more womb legislation, and lastly, they pulled their own border security bill after they failed to get enough support from their own people– a fate with which Speaker Boehner is already very familiar. (They are also now playing around with the idea of not granting the President power to fight ISIL because they “don’t trust” him. Apparently this is yet another thing they believe they would handle better; see the last six weeks for a reference, and also see Bush’s Iraq War.)

“Nobody’s brought up border security, which died,” said a second member, also speaking anonymously to be more candid. “The pain-capable thing was a disaster. The DHS thing—we thought we were being smart, but all that happened is we sent it to the Senate and it’s going to come back with a clean [continuing resolution].”

Republicans have ginned up more self-inflicted wounds in six weeks than Democrats managed in years. And of course Democrats aren’t the masters of trolling that Republicans are, and this comes partly down to ideology. It’s easier to troll the opposition when your ideology informs you that the less government gets done, the better. The less efficient it is, the better. The more stymied and dysfunctional, the better. It’s all about the slow drown for Republicans.

Democrats don’t have that luxury because their belief in government being used for the betterment of the people dictates that they make it work. They must pass laws and get things done.

Republicans are also suffering the result of their heavy handed gerrymandering which renders their caucus full of members who are immune back home, and don’t need to get anything done. All they need to do is be seen on Fox News calling for Obama’s impeachment or birth certificate and that’s another election won for them. That’s fine for the individual but not so great for the Republican Party as a whole, and certainly not good for national elections.

In other words, it’s tough to live and die by the sword of selfishness that is the mantra of Republican ideology. It turns out that their members have taken that to heart and they don’t care about the whole/the party. There is also no way to punish them or keep them in line except by taking leadership positions away from them. They can’t even withhold money because the Koch brothers et al are waiting in the wings to fund the best trolls of government.

This implosion was a long time in the making and it will be a long, slow burn as Republicans attempt to get control back over their members.

If Republicans have been using government as a political football, they might wish to try not scoring touchdowns for the other team.


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