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The video above has played on several news channels. It shows a Republican Congressman harassing a Federal employee. Why can the Congressman do it? Well, because he knows that he can get away with bullying someone whom he can probably get fired should that person show any anger or reply in any way inappropriately on camera. The shutdown of the national parks is partially the responsibility of the Congressman who is making a public play for some type of sympathy on camera. Yet, he tries to excoriate an innocent lower level employee for the faults of Congress. This is typical of Tea Party reasoning. It is everyone else’s fault, that gives me the right to misbehave, to tear down closed signs, to parade in front of cameras harassing the Federal employees still left at work.
Fortunately, a furloughed Federal employee comes to the aid of the working Federal employee. Fortunately, the sickening grandstand stunt by the Congressman is recorded on camera.
I am a Federal employee. I am affected by the shutdown. As an exempt employee, I must work, whether or not I get paid by the government that employs me. I agree with the second Federal employee. Had I done what the Congressman did, I would have been suspended. Instead, he is getting paid for holding up the budget of the United States. He is getting paid for his inaction while many of us are not getting paid for our actions. That Congressman is no hero. He is simply another Tea Party bully.
I don’t think any congressman should be paid during a shutdown either. In fact, I’d be happy if we could fire every single one of them. As for “bullying” I have to disagree because the argument goes both ways considering the totally immature behavior of democrats and republicans alike. No liberals, starting with the POTUS, are willing to consider ANY plans submitted by conservatives regarding OBAMACARE. If republicans are bullies, liberals are hypocritical thugs…and who’s better? The people not dependent on the government are the better!
Having lived through a Government shutdown as an essential employee of the VA and having spent one of those not being paid days up on an icy hospital roof in just scrubs trying to talk a desperate vet out of jumping, I understand the pain of all of this. that being said, I think both sides of the aisle need to stop throwing tantrums, put on their big person pants and work out a compromise that is best for the PEOPLE whom they claim to represent–you notice, I said CLAIM–I long ago got to a “pox on both their houses” position and this shows me that nothing so far has occurred to change my mind. >>>>>Alix off mumbling to herself as the Congress and the POTUS posture for the cameras…..
The congressman got what he voted for and he’s angry that it happened. This is a very childish response, and when a four-year-old does it, the parents gently point out that rules have to apply to everyone, that you need to think through the consequences of your actions (if you break a toy, you can’t keep playing with it), and that the grown-up way to deal with adversity (even the troubles you bring on yourself) is to simply take a deep breath and deal with it. This guy is like the person who punches the postal employee who brings a credit card bill.
Oh, it’s getting weirder.
Over at Internet Monk, there’s an article about a God’s Anointed Prophet(TM) named Joyner who’s Prophesying about the Noble Military(TM) taking over and Restoring America:
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/43625
I used to mark TIME Magazine’s Sequester Shutdown calendars with “(First) Military Coup” about a month into the shutdown, but this guy’s Dead Serious with a Direct Line to Gawd(TM). Apparently God has him on speed-dial or something, he’s So Important.
Why exactly should the President or the Senate agree to dismantle a three year old law (not bill) that duly passed both houses, was signed by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court? Nor is it “negotiating” when one side refuses to make any concessions. Agreeing to let the government operate or upheld the full faith and credit of the US and pay debts already incurred are not concessions. That is, unless you consider agreeing not to shoot the hostage constitutes a concession.
The Democrats already conceded to the GOP demand that the CR be at the sequester levels, something they deeply oppose. And they did so without getting anything in return. So there’s no compromise on the details of the CR left to be made. It was a mistake for President Obama to concede anything at all in the debt limit fight in 2011. Moreover, the political calculus has changed dramatically since then. We aren’t coming off a mid-term election the GOP won. We’re coming off one the President and Democrats decisively won. And it sounds like President Obama recognizes the mistake he made in 2011 and is determined not to repeat it. Allowing a minority to hold the full faith and credit of our country hostage to extort concessions without making any themselves completely undermines our system of government.
Tea Party Republicans (in and out of Congress) need to grow up and stop acting like entitled bullies and spoiled brats.
An intriguing analysis that mentions the above and may shed some light on it.
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-punishers-want-to-run-country-or-we.html
I consider the article you cited to be a great analysis. One of his best quotes is:
“The right boundaries for workers are that they know their place, that they can be fired capriciously, and that they exist primarily to make the employer feel good about himself …”
The thrust of the Republican Party for many years has been to restore that correct balance by destroying unions and repealing labor law after labor law. They do this while arguing that their changes actually help workers to have jobs. Actually jobs keep being lost to other countries where owners of multinationals can finally treat workers in the way in which they wish to treat them, as poverty-wages drones who start working when they are children, never finish their schooling, and die having given their all for the owner.
Ronald Reagan argued for a theory of economics that was unfairly nicknamed the “trickle-down theory” by its opponents. But nearly forty years later, as more and more bits of that policy have been implemented, one can see that there has been no trickle down. Rather, the gap between rich and poor have increased. Worker wages have actually gone down in relation to spending power, etc. Nevertheless, Tea Party members, in particular, continue to argue for that which the facts prove to be wrong.
Yes, they want their tame waiters, little realizing that they, too, are slowly becoming tame waiters.
You know what the Tea Party reminds me of more and more?
The Communists. Or their funhouse-mirror reflection the Objectivists.
Purity of Ideology, and the only reason we failed was Our Ideology Wasn’t Pure Enough. Increase Purity of Ideology! Increase Politicial Consciousness Indoctrination!
I saw a similar pattern in the “Bush Derangement Syndrome” of the Democrats after Indecision 2000, when they doubled down onto Purity of Ideology and Purge the Traitors. Now we have “Obama Derangement Syndrome” among the GOP. GOP Birthers succeeding Dem 9/11 Truthers. It seems that’s become the normal response in either party after losing the White House.
HUG, that’s an example of another problem we’ve been suffering for a long time now — false equivalence. It’s been endemic in the media and too widespread among our population. The Democratic Party had no purge after 2000. They didn’t ‘primary’ their own members. They did not filibuster every single thing and every single nomination. They didn’t reflexively oppose everything Bush proposed or endorsed as the GOP has done, even to bills they themselves have sponsored, once President Obama endorsed them. (That’s been the ultimate head-spinning, I was for it before I was against it, result of all.) And while the GOP has been increasingly dysfunctional since the 90s, we were still able to govern our country.
What we are seeing now has not been seen in our country since the days leading up to the Civil War. No party has been this dysfunctional and opposed to basic governance unless it got its way in everything since the antebellum Democratic Party. (And though the parties have flipped, if you look at a map, there’s certainly a lot of correlation between the present and the past.)
While the Democrats are far from perfect and there remains much truth in Will Roger’s famous quote, the problem today is — hands down — the Republican Party. They have become a reactionary, radical right-wing, uncompromising entity.Unfortunately, not just our country but the entire world might end up paying the price for their dysfunction.
Acting like both parties are equally the problem is a way of sticking our heads in the sand, ignoring reality, and choosing some sort of fantasy world instead. I have no idea what the solution might be. My best hope is that the GOP implodes without too much collateral damage, but I think that’s a slim hope at best at this point. But the current GOP is the problem.
Thank you! I have railed against the ridiculous false equivalency-especially in the current media. It enables and encourages those who are the most ill-informed to ignore what is going on in front of them and to continue voting for those they perceive to be “fighters”. I understand there is alot of fear, particularly among the low-information voters and those who have benefited the most from white supremacy, but there comes a time when you need to face facts and accept that the world you remember and want back was never truly real in the first place. It was a construct for the benefit of the white male…the rest of us-women, children, people of color, LGBT, poor- did not share in all those benefits. I truly do not understand just why all these people are so hateful and absolutely refuse to accept the fact that there are alot of Americans that do not agree with them…as a matter of fact, 5 million more voted for President Obama than their standard bearer. What part of “you lost” do they not understand? I guess the rest of us just aren’t real Murikans. BTW, great points! And on a happier note: my son went back to work today (DoD) and I am so thankful b/c I had no idea how I was going to help his family (he lives in Maryland with a huge mortgage). I continue to pray for the rest…