“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister
Now that the government shutdown and world threatening crisis has temporarily ended, it’s time to take stock of what we have learned. First, if a president refuses to negotiate, refuses to make any concession, refuses to enact legislation that would protect the most vulnerable among us, it is principled. However, if the opposition offers compromise after compromise and concession after concession, they are obstructionists and the moral equivalent of al Qaeda and the Taliban.
When Republicans offer to fully fund the government in exchange for delaying the individual mandate of Obamacare for one year, they are at best anarchists and at worst racists. Ignore the fact that every poll shows the majority of Americans do not approve of Obamacare. Ignore the fact that Kathleen Sebelius and Health and Human Services spent three years and over $500 million to build a website that doesn’t work. Ignore the fact that seventy percent of Americans were happy with their health insurance. Ignore the fact that the president said we would have an average decrease in premium costs of $2,500 per year but we are facing continued increases in both premiums and deductibles with fewer options. Ignore the fact that the president said we could keep our doctors but that is not true for millions of Americans. Ignore the fact that the president unilaterally changes the law by carving out special treatment for his cronies and supporters. Ignore the fact that Congress does not have to live under the law they are imposing on others.
We’ve also learned that Harry Reid would rather sacrifice children enrolled in National Institute of Health clinical trials than consider funding by Republicans on a matter of political principle. We’ve learned that the national parks and memorials do not belong to the people but to the president. He can now close them at will and employ armed guards against the citizenry. Members of his party have even suggested martial law. He can take his ball and go home by blocking access to open air memorials and blocking veterans from the site that citizens built specifically to honor them. Of course, as Nancy Pelosi noted, he can also open them to gatherings of illegal immigrants if it suits his whim and political purpose. We have also learned that patriotic Americans, like the Fisher House, will step forward to care for families of our warriors who die in battle when the president and the Secretary of Defense default on their obligations in reprehensible and immoral fashion.
We’ve learned that Thomas Jefferson should be ignored when he said “I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” We’ve learned that Senator Obama was just kidding when he said: “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.” We’ve learned it’s okay for him to vote against raising the debt limit when it was “only” $9 trillion but demand another increase even after it’s soared to $17 trillion under his leadership! We’ve learned that after exceeding the first ever trillion dollar deficit level (for four years in a row!), you can claim to be a fiscal conservative by finally not exceeding that trillion dollar level this year.
We’ve learned that when George Bush’s approval rating drops to 37%, it’s a crisis of confidence but when Barack Obama drops to the same level, it’s a non-news event. It’s apparently not news when only 13% of Americans think we are on the right track and 78% think everyone in congress should be dismissed. It’s also not news when Harry Reid has the lowest approval rating of the four congressional leaders. It’s also not news when we have the highest percentage of citizens living in poverty since the War on Poverty began back in 1965!
We’ve also learned that when you believe the government should not spend more than it has, that government policies should support free market capitalism, that the Constitution should be the supreme law of the land, and that the United States is an exceptional country, you are either an anarchist, terrorist, bigot, racist, sexist, misogynist, or quite likely, all of the above. We’ve learned they have no shame in repeating the big lie over and over and over….
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