Response to The Republican Revolution

(See: Just Above Sunset: The Republican Revolution)

These are odd times we live in -- never being sure who to root for or against in a contest between ISIS and Assad, much less Trump and Fiorina, and it's even come to the point of me defending John Boehner from attacks from those in the Whackadoodle Wing of the Republican Party who might presume to take credit for the downfall of their own speaker.

In fact, we liberals have wondered for years why he didn't just up and quit that job, since it was obvious he was never going to be able to convert the swarms in his minority base into somewhat productive citizens, and it was obvious that, largely because of his own party's gerrymandering policies, his tormentors were not going to go away. In fact, we applauded him for hanging around so long. Not that it mattered, of course; while we admired his efforts, we also knew it makes little difference if he is replaced by someone just like himself or someone more in favor with the radicals, whatever craziness it is that those people are clamoring for has the same chance of passage that it had if Boehner had stayed in place.

Don't they realize that? Probably not. As we all know by now, reality is not part of the Tea Party lexicon. These people are not programed to learn from the experience of losing time after time, and they are programed to ridicule people who do:

“This is why outsiders are all leading in the polls,” said Gov. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), a former congressman who served alongside Boehner. “This is probably a key part of why Boehner’s resigning. They don’t want to hear any excuses anymore – they’re done with that. If you say you tried, they ask, ‘Why didn’t you get it done?'”

I sometimes wish I were a reporter and could ask Ted Cruz this question:

Brown: Senator Cruz, if you had been Speaker of the House instead of John Boehner all those years, what would you have done differently?

To which I can only imagine his answer. He might say something like this:

Cruz: Well, for one thing, I wouldn't have caved in and worked with the Republican Surrender Caucus. I would not have given the president everything he asked for.  

Brown: Fair enough. So what would you have done differently? 

Cruz: I would have honored the promises made by the leadership, of reducing the funding, or at least restricting the funding for bad law, such as that job-killing Obamacare. 

Brown: Well, didn't Speaker Boehner try to do that? 

Cruz: No, he didn't! He needed to stop working closely with this president, who is the world's leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism, a man who is a profoundly dangerous unmitigated socialist who happens also to be the world's most powerful communist! But also, I would do anything, and I will continue to do anything I can, to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare. The test that matters is, are we doing anything for all the people that are getting hurt from Obamacare? And 

Brown: Okay, I hear you. So what would you have done differently from Boehner? Anything he didn't do that would achieve your aims? 

Cruz: Well, I can tell you one thing. If I were stepping down, I wouldn't make a secret and insidious deal with Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to avert another government shutdown when the current annual budget expires. 

Brown: Okay, once again, you're telling us what you WOULDN'T do. Now, can you tell us what you WOULD do? 

Cruz: Well, LOTS of things! For example, I would have defunded Planned Parenthood. Also, I never would, under any circumstance, have allowed the debt limit to be raised, and I never would... 

Okay, enough. Yeah, I just made that stuff up, but I honestly have never heard him say specifically what he and his gang would do that Boehner didn't do, but that would get the agenda passed.

And Planned Parenthood? I mean, can't these people focus on bigger fish?

I mean, with actual problems facing this country, like how to finesse peace in Syria, a war in which there seem to be no natural friends of ours, only enemies, and one that has killed an estimated 200,000 people and sent thousands of refugees out of the country. Wouldn't you think any Republicans worried about their public image could shit-can the idea of defunding federal funds going to some organization performing abortions, given the fact that this organization doesn't use any federal funds for abortions anyway, especially since there really are universally recognized serious problems facing us?

No, they can't, because they're not serious people. Yes, Trump is not obsessed with Planned Parenthood, but his focus has also been on the little things that don't mean anything -- anchor babies, for example. To fix this problem (which is not a problem, since undocumented immigrants really don't get much advantage from having babies here), he's deep into finding ways to do away with "birthright citizenship", which will take some work, maybe involving changing the Constitution, work that's wasted on something that doesn't do what he thinks it does anyway.

(Trump's latest Syrian solution? Easy! Just let Assad and ISIS fight it out, and then we fight the winner -- which is not that much unlike what we're doing already.)

In the New York Times, there's this from David Herszenhorn and Jonathan Martin:

The hardline group has not put forward a viable candidate for speaker and, with only 50 or so members, does not have enough to elevate one of its own.

That's because these hardliners -- who collectively have essentially no real world experience in getting anything done themselves, but only have the experience of pretending they've achieved something of value by pecking at Boehner's ankles like a herd of angry ducks until he resigns -- couldn't organize a two-car funeral. Which, in this case, seems to be their own.

But of course, it would seem any attempts by anybody -- whether the Tea people or the so-called establishment Republicans, whoever that may be -- to break away and start a new party would just insure a Democratic Victory, and even a President Bernie Sanders! So maybe this could be a good thing, especially if the Tea Party becomes a new party.

After all, those revolutionaries over there should by now be used to shooting themselves in their collective foot.