Republicans Must Go in 2012 – They Have Destroyed Our Democracy!

This story pisses me off to no ends. After 8 years of Bush/Cheney madness and exertion of executive power, trampling on rights, starting two wars, gutting regulations, stomping on the most needy and basically running roughshod on our democracy, now they are attempting to bring down our republic. The Bush administration ran up all sorts of debt, lost billions in Iraq (pallets of money), bailed out the unregulated banks and caused millions of jobs to be lost as they handed the keys to the new administration. Thanks for nothing, right.

Not only did they spend money like drunken sailors (no offense to sailors intended), but after handing the keys to President Barack Obama, they all of a sudden decided that it’s his problem to pay for all their drunken spending. They successfully shifted the blame to the new guy, with the very willing help of the media and over the last 2.5 years, they have thwarted or tried to thwart every single solution that the Obama administration has attempted. Not only by opposing him and not giving in a single bit, using constant ultimatums, non-negotiable items and also doing complete 180′s on previously stated positions, but they are also bending and breaking every rule and precedent they can to stop any progress at all. . Hypocrisy has been raised to virtue status within the GOP. They seem to wear their hypocrisy on their sleeves now, proud that they opposed the president, even when it hurts their constituents.

Very few in the media are reporting this story. Sure, we get a piece here and there about their tactics, but for the most part, the media has been letting them get away with completely ruining our government and setting a new precedent that they would scream bloody murder about if the Democrats were to ever do it. Oh, lawd, how they would scream. Steve Benen of The Washington Monthly is a real journalist and has a great post about this subject…

The Constitution, for example, gives the executive the authority to make recess appointments, and dozens of House Republicans are eager to ensure Obama cannot exercise that authority.

The vast majority of freshman Republicans have told House GOP leaders they should block President Obama from making any future recess appointments.

In a letter sent to Republican leaders Thursday, a group of 77 freshman asked them to take any steps necessary to stifle the chance for recess appointments, including blocking any more recesses for the entirety of the 112th Congress.

“As freshmen, we came to the House of Representatives on a wave of public discontent with the lack of transparency in Washington,” the letter stated. “The next logical step in our efforts to restore the public’s trust in their government is to prevent further recess appointments.”

Why recess appointments have been fine for centuries, but now must be considered moves that undermine “the public’s trust,” is unclear.

Why aren’t we hearing about this from major media outlets? Why aren’t they hammering this story, but have hours and hours to devote to Anthony Weiner or the Casey Anthony trial Do you think if the Democrats had done this to Bush that the media would sit there silently? This is just one small example of what they are doing. It is un-American and makes us look like a third world country, WTF. Steve Benen sums up what has been going on like no one else can…

What I find remarkable about all of this is comparing the seriousness of the times and the severity of the GOP’s restrictions. In effect, President Obama is being told, “You have to fix the economy, win several wars, fix the housing crisis, respond to disasters, improve American energy policy, and keep the country safe, all while being fiscally responsible. But you can’t have a full team in place; you can’t enjoy the same powers your predecessors did; you can’t use the same tools your predecessors used; and you can’t expect the Senate to function by majority rule the way it used to. Good luck.”

This is no way to run an advanced democracy in the 21st century.