Progressives complain that Americans largely oppose government shutdowns as another failure of Washington politicians to do their jobs. Democrats, up to their usual tricks, still remain focused on their long term goal, a Socialist America. They have long played Republicans by demanding ‘bipartisanship’ to pass their plans or blaming Republicans for their failures by engineering a government shutdown and making it look like Republicans did it. That’s always been their game plan because it always works and Republicans, until Trump, always cave. In this case, Trump has bravely said he would take responsibility for any shut down.
When word came out that the Republican Congress colluded with Democrats to pass a “continuing resolution” to fund what’s left of government until February 2019, Trump did what he promised. He called in the leaders of both parties and told them he would veto the CR if it didn’t contain his five Billion dollars for the wall. Panic all round. After January, Trump can, and probably will, hang any failure around Pelosi’s neck. The House has passed a bill with Wall funding. Now its Mitch McConnell’s turn to shine or….
Media experts would have us believe that shutdowns contribute to an erosion of confidence in our political institutions. Maybe once! That confidence was eroded a long time ago and it was Trump alone who revived the American voters with hope to hang on a bit longer. Those failures however, have encouraged an abandonment of the political process that now expects unelected Judges to decide what’s constitutional or not. Populist uprisings among both Democrats and Republicans will only intensify as political institutions continue to fail. to do their jobs.
That lack of confidence came when our GOP politicians failed to keep their promises, i.e.: failure to protect our borders from invasion by illegal immigrants. They failed utterly their promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Their weakness was apparent when they failed to create a budget as required by the constitution instead of passing Continuing Resolutions, and worse, by failing to support President Trump who has done more in his first two years to save America than any President has accomplished before him except perhaps, Abe Lincoln.
The clash between these opposing ideologies empower the extremes of both sides because neither side sees any benefit in compromising. For Democrats, compromise is a one way street, “do it our way!” For Republicans compromise is weakness but, Republicans never fight for the conservative principles they claim to embrace anyway. They’re weak ninnies!
Democrats see themselves as capable of imposing their will on Republicans, which has always worked, because Republicans will always rationalize as a way to avoid conflict. Those who demand an all-or-nothing position find approval from party activists, while the risk takers are ridiculed by their own base. As we have seen in this past 2018 election, elections normally don’t provide enough power for one side or the other, sufficient to impose any policy. Let’s hope so!
Republican House Leader, Paul Ryan is all but gone so his opinion no longer counts. Mitch McConnell however, in this border wall debate has turned to an old country homily: “You remember my favorite country saying: There’s no education in the second kick of a mule. We’ve been down this path before, and I don’t believe we’ll go down this path again.” These same attitudes between the two parties tell us one thing. Both parties will use the issue as political cover. The Democrats will deny everything, admit nothing and blame Trump, while Republicans will go running around in circles looking for the reason the earth is shaking. Go figure!
Remember, Liberty is the goal, the Constitution is the way. Now, go get ‘em!
