Sunday, October 6, 2013

Views of the Shutdown



By Jeff Simpson

Some interesting reading today regarding the republican shutdown.

Michael Cohen from The Guardian:

 While the government shutdown is nominally about the Republican crusade against Obamacare, the issues at stake are far bigger than one law or even one president or one Congress. In reality, the psychodrama playing out in Washington is about the future of democracy in America.
And no, I'm not exaggerating. Unless the GOP's brand of extortion politics is thwarted, America's democratic institutions will be so badly subverted that the nation will simply find itself in the position of staggering from one manufactured crisis to another with potentially both political parties threatening economic and political Armageddon if they don't get their way. That is, quite simply, no way to run a democracy and it's why the only option facing President Obama and the Democratic party is to win this showdown and force the GOP to concede defeat.

From Stonekettle.com, a former US Navy Chief Warrant Officer Jim Wright :


The President cannot give in.

He. Can. Not.

And you don’t want him to.

No really, you do not want him to.

There can be no compromise on the government shutdown.

No matter what happens, the House must not win this fight.

Notice that I didn’t say the House cannot win, I said the House must not win.

Any you don’t want them to.

You, whether you are a liberal or a conservative, whether you are for or against the Affordable Healthcare Act, whether or not you hate Barack Obama’s stinking guts with every fiber of your being, if you believe in the America of your forefathers you do not want the House to win.
Because if they win, if this precedent is allowed to stand, then America as you know it, as you have known it, is over.

The fallout of the republican shutdown with the American public?

 Twenty-four new surveys in GOP-held House districts, commissioned by MoveOn.org and conducted in the wake of the government shutdown, make clear that Republicans could easily lose control of the House if the next election were held today. The surveys challenge conventional wisdom that gerrymandering has put the House out of reach for Democrats and indicate the shutdown has significant electoral implications.




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