My plan was not to comment on the government shut-down. I'm, of course, sorry for those workers who have been furloughed and hope, for their sake, that cooler heads prevail sooner rather than later. I'm also sorry for people who still think the media has any knowledge of what it is they are reporting on.
As easy as it might be to say that "we've been failed by our politicians" (we haven't) it's much easier for a group of rich, white liberals to sit down at their keyboards and bang out some tripe that's been force fed to them about how our system of democracy is somehow being threatened.(It's not)
The fact is, I rarely read either Andrew Sullivan or Thomas Friedman any longer and neither should you. Certainly they have the right to say whatever it is they want to say, just as we have a right to ignore it. They go on the opinion scrap-heap alongside such deep thinkers as Donna Brazile who has little reason for her political being now that Al Gore's not around to teach how to be more manly.
The point is, I'm fine if you're on the left and feel a insatiable need to blame the Republicans, at least that's based on a healthy dose of honest partisanship. I don't agree with you (listening to Obama talk about not having to "give up anything" and then going into a corner to throw a 2 year old fit is certainly not helping the case, neither is Harry Reid) but I respect your right to view things through partisan shades should you so desire.
I also am not a fan of the Democrats are 100% to blame argument. That they share some of the blame, when they decided to pass the Affordable Care Act on a party-line vote they all but insured this was going to happen, the Republicans did decide that this was the point to draw a line in the sand. Obama arguing about ideologies is ridiculous on its face. This entire debate is about ideologies, asking one party to give up theirs is childish, immature and reveals a lack of leadership ability in our current chief executive.
If anything, I like the ideas of William Kristol who advises the Republicans to not panic, and calmly state their case. If you truly believe that the ACA is a horrible bill (it is) then you should feel strongly enough to be able to articulate why. For this reason I would advise the Republicans to find another point man besides Speaker Boehner. There are plenty of Tea Party Republican congressmen who could do a much better job.
The biggest problem in all of this is the media, not just anti-intellectuals like Friedman and Sullivan, but a media who has decided that civics is unimportant and that the mechanisms of governance that have powered the US through thick and thin are somehow faulty right when they're needed most. You would do yourself a favor to read more of writers like C.W. Cooke and less of blowhards like Sullivan. Only then will you realize that there is a reason we have the system of governance that we do, and that what we're currently witnessing is the way things are supposed to work.
Locally, in Texas, I sadly cannot provide you with any such example of clear thinking. Sure, you have the Apple Dumpling Gang who not only cannot shoot straight but who also don't understand the cognitive dissonance under which they are weighted. It's one thing to praise State Sen. Wendy Davis and chastise Sen. Ted Cruz for doing what is, politically speaking, the exact same thing but it's another to waste two editorials and a Nick Anderson cartoon so poorly conceived that he had to label the thing, berating a man who is doing exactly what he said he would do in his campaign. You might not agree with either Cruz or Davis, but to draw distinctions between their actions is solely a policy decision and not something based on action. If you, like Davis, have come to the decision that abortion should be available, on-demand, with no restrictions, then you (Texas Lock-Step Political Media) have decided that she was correct to filibuster. If you, unlike Cruz, see no fiscal damage as the result of the ACA being enacted then you (Texas Lock-Step Political Media) have decided that Cruz was incorrect to filibuster. That the TLSPM is incapable of intellectual honesty regarding this has everything to do with why they are so bad, and why the Democratic Party political operatives behind the Texas Tribune rightly concluded that their brand of advocacy journalism would not be revealed in a State whose current main-stream media is so poor.
After all of that let me conclude with this. What concerns me the most about the 27% Apocalypse is that it is being used by those who don't like our Democratic system to launch attacks against it. I blame a lot of this on the lack of good civics education in public schools. Since the 1960's victory of the radical left over civics curriculum, we've lost a generation of citizens who understand how and why our system of government works. Noble concepts such as the separation of powers and the right of Congress to go against the President have been lost in favor of emotional pleas to help those who supposedly "cannot help themselves". We've lost, as a country, our focus on what it is that made us great. We've lost the understanding of the social contract, the fact that, in America, you are allowed to try and fail just as you are allowed to try and succeed. We've mistaken equality of opportunity with equality of outcome. We've also taken our eye off the ball of government at all levels. This has resulted in the election of those with enough savvy to understand how to gain personal wealth at the expense of the populace. While we weren't watching our system of government was sold to the highest bidder (usually large corporations) and we've become so lazy as to determine that the only way to stop this is to freeze them out of the political process. Campaign Finance Reform is a solution that only works for a lazy electorate. For an engaged, active citizenry it wouldn't be needed at all.
Sadly, America is not engaged. We're asleep at the wheel while both parties sell our interests away to both corporations and special interest groups. All we seem to be doing in response is throwing our hands up and surrendering. For as much trouble as we give them, at least the French put up a fight.
In America, we've devolved to a point that a "fight" is considered an attack on our system of governance.
