That's not a question I ask lightly. Because the patriotism of liberals like me is routinely questioned by some of the same people who are the subject of this blog post, I'm loath to question the patriotism of others.
And yet I have long wondered about people - like many Tea Partiers who emblazon their organizations with words like "patriot" and "liberty" - who bluster about what big patriots they are. It seems to me that the more you talk about how much of a patriot you are, or how humble you are, it often turns out that you're not actually all that patriotic or humble.
With that in mind, we turn to news from yesterday that Republican leadership has again failed to pass a bill. But not just any bill, mind you, but a bill containing Republican-friendly language on an issue - immigration - that has long been a source of Republican bluster about "securing our borders":
Democrats blamed Boehner for chasing after conservative votes for the border bill that were never going to materialize, after he initially proposed a more robust $1.5 billion plan that likely would have drawn some Democratic votes. Instead, as conservatives balked at that price tag, GOP leaders shrank the bill in an effort to grow the Republican vote – while losing Democrats.
“The worse the bill, the more votes on the Republican side,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in the closing minutes of the debate.
The pulling of the bill marked an embarrassing failure in the first real test of the new leadership team that takes office Thursday following Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor’s resignation as majority leader.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/07/31/at-11th-hour-house-gop-poised-to-pass-border-bill/
All of this to block passing a bill that doesn't actually solve the humanitarian crisis at the border, but simply allows Republicans to go home to their constituents and say "Well, we did what we could". They couldn't even pass a bill that's all show and no substance.
This Congress' inability to pass anything thanks to the intransigence of the Republican base has, in my opinion, gone from being infuriating to scary. If our elected officials cannot even pass basic legislation what will it mean for this country as a whole? I fear a number of nightmare scenarios: Americans dying on a highway bridge somewhere because of Congress' inability - refusal, even - to address this nation's crumbling infrastructure, or this country's financial solvency called into serious question because of another big fight over raising the debt ceiling.
The usual suspects, of course, will be quick to blame the president. I'm sure Republican politicians are banking on the American people blaming Obama for the lack of action on immigration. To paraphrase a character from the Disney movie A Bug's Life: as the leader, everything is your fault.
The interesting aspect of this story, however, is the fact that it serves to illustrate that the problem is coming not from the Executive Branch or from the Democratic coalition in Congress, but from the Republicans. The base seems so poisoned against Obama, so set in its opposition, that it is forcing the leadership to reject bills that Republicans would normally like.
You would think that if immigration was truly an issue that was consequential to this country's health and survival, as Republicans have claimed, they would be quick to find a solution to the current refugee crisis. Yet once again, we see politics, as well as pure spite towards Obama, get in the way of what's best for the country. This is a pattern that has, unfortunately, continued to repeat itself since Obama was elected the first time, from Mitch McConnell suggesting that ensuring Obama was not reelected was more important than helping his country to Republican attempts to thwart attempts to raise the debt ceiling.
This history is what leads me to seriously question the patriotism of the self-professed super patriots currently in Congress, who speak in such glowing terms about our founding fathers and their values, and yet seem interested in destroying what our founding fathers created all in a Moby Dick-like quest to "get" Obama.
My country may not survive that quest, however, and I find that I love my country more than I love asinine electoral politics. Shame on Republicans for not feeling the same way.
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