While the widely-made point that a government shutdown will have significant negative consequences is correct, frankly, I see no other way, unless President Obama wants to be the Neville Chamberlain of the 21rst century and the Democrats in Congress want to be his assistants in a shameful surrender. Obama's two-and-a-half years of concession "strategy" has already greatly empowered the Republicans and Tea Partiers, and they think they're on a roll.
World War II, not the American Civil War so often cited, is the appropriate analogy for our present situation. In it, the Allies were fighting fascists --- fascists in control of the power of the state, and who were initially supported by a large portion if not the majority of the populations of the Axis nations. One need only look at the newsreel images of the German crowds cheering for Nazism and its initial gains in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium, France, and Russia to understand the exhilarating effect on the masses of a seemingly-winning strategy, irrespective of its immorality and long-term inviability. Only when German soldiers met enough resistance in Russia, enough dead and wounded started coming back from the front, and consequences began to drop from the sky, did the average German start to have second thoughts. Should the Allies have not fought WWII because of the collateral damage they would inevitably inflict?
As an unabashed progressive, I believe that the consequences of a government shutdown, felt by right-wingers advocating massive governmental cuts, are now the only forces capable of stopping these traitors to the American Dream.
Democrats in government, do not forget that your party was once known as the party of FDR's New Deal. Do not destroy that legacy --- and the party's future prospects --- by agreeing to debt-reduction strategies that no matter how spun, are no more than obscene cuts that will produce massive damage to long-standing social programs and the poor and middle class of this nation.
The problem with Obama is that he has caved into irrational Republican demands at every turn. Of course, the Right Wing bullies continue to expect the same. The writing is on the wall; if Obama gives more of Social Security and Medicare away, a few more months down the line, these same Republicans will use the next debt ceiling as another excuse to hold the Democrats and the country hostage again. Obama is either spineless or corrupted or both. The thought of him being re-elected after his shameful leadership fills me with despair.
ReplyDeleteThe country is longing for an uncorrupted person with courage to fight on behalf of the American people. But we have to stand strong in our support if such a person stands up to lead. If we keep allowing people like Ralph Nader and Elizabeth Warren, who are fighting hard for the Middle Class, to be marginalised, we will never attract the leader we need. We need to understand that a working Democracy won’t just be handed to us on a platter. We have an obligation to remain informed and to take an active part in that Democracy.