The Invective of Loss

Few things amaze me more than the willingness of the reactionary right to use guttersnipe tactics to voice displeasure when the tide of public opinion turns to moderation. The column printed in this space a few days ago was quite vitriolic and used a lot of unsupported statements disguised as logic to make its point. I have noted that since President Obama was reelected that the reactionary right has become even more rabid in its use of adjectives to describe its disgust for him very few of which actually have any bearing on his political performance. My conjecture is that since it is apparent that the voters don't agree with them they are just plain ticked off and refuse to consider that they are just out sync with the majority of the American public.

I don't think you will find too many who are satisfied with the performance of our Congress over the past few years. During the first administration of our President the opposition was content to just block any and all attempts at governing by the majority. They misused parliamentary gimmicks to create an environment that required a supermajority to pass any kind of legislation just to deny the President's party any kind of success being certain that the American people would awaken and refuse to reelect the imposter in the White House. They were wrong. They misjudged the mood of the public and didn't listen to anyone other than people who felt the same way they did. A sure recipe for electoral disaster. Now the American public has reinforced its desire to govern from the middle and the certainties of those who spew hate have been rejected.

One would surmise that would have writ the final word on the matter and reasonable people could get on with the business of governing but one would be wrong. Since the matter could not be settled to the satisfaction of the reactionary right through the electoral process it seems that it must suffice to stir the flames of bigotry and invective. To accuse the President and his advisors of being “power hungry” while trying to undo the attempt to use military might to enforce American “exceptionalism” on the world is laughable. When the Neocons marched us into Iraq to create a democratic bastion as a shining example in the Middle East that may indeed have approached the hubris afforded to another example.

I have long wondered how anyone who sees the desirability of Medicare, Social Security and Veteran's benefits can rail so vociferously against the Affordable Care Act and claim it is a craven attempt by the President to create iron fisted control over the federal government. Without going into the rationale of the ACA is it not enough that the President campaigned on universal health care, was elected, the people's representative's enacted it, it survived a Supreme Court challenge and then the President was reelected? How can anything be more indicative of and subservient to the will of the American people?

Yet, this man who will voluntarily relinquish his office in three years is out to use his cronies and zeal to demolish the United States rather than do his best to make it a more equitable society under the law. Just unfathomable. But what would such rantings from the reactionary right be without the condescending and pejorative adjectives used to describe the individual at the top of our government. Take out the “Hitlers, Himmlers, victim mentality, pencil-necked, Nazi and Gestapos” and what is left to use as a rationale for condemnation? To compare the leadership of the Congressional Democratic party with some of the most despised of war criminals who were responsible for millions of deaths is at the very least irresponsible. It is hopefully the beginning of a dying gasp from a reactionary right that has driven our politics for perhaps a dozen years now supported by the millions of dollars from insanely wealthy people who strive in secret to enforce their vision of a Malthusian state that endows the wealthy with privilege and power while the remnants of the Middle Class work their once proud hands to nubbins just to try and exist in a world that is rigged against them. Into this world came the Affordable Care Act that attempts to allow the people to have access to a glimmer of the health care that is available to the wealthy. An attempt to create iron fisted control over the economy? Oh no! It is one of the very few victories felt by the Middle Class in the past thirty years and it strengthens the concept of the Social Contract that binds the American people in an indivisible union.

Many of us who have tried to stay above the name calling and have tolerated racist and bigoted comments are reaching the limits of tolerance and are beginning to complain when confronted with such negative and demeaning remarks and this further incenses the reactionary right which is used to being able to shout down anyone who attempts an effort at reasonable discourse. For instance, the accusations of having the shutdown in the planning for months drawn from the availability of having signs posted is ludicrous.

My take is this. Take into account the results of the past two general elections. Consider the mood of the country after this last Congressional debacle and witness the disarray of the Republican party and think about what the next general election will bring. It had been contemplated that the House would increase the Republican majority but there is now some talk of the Democratic party regaining the House though that would be unlikely considering the gerrymandering and number of seats up for grabs. The GOP once gloated openly of seizing the majority in the Senate but that is quite unlikely now. And in the Presidential race, if the national polls are to be believed, the GOP is likely to be rejected again. The reactionary right needs to reconsider its tactics and goals and find a membership that can create a national narrative and toss out the bomb throwers. The American people do not need them.