This is no time for anyone to rejoice.

I don't claim to be any kind of authority on what the Republican Party should do now. The problem is, neither is the Republican Party.

My efforts to cease blogging have once again been thwarted by my long-winded nature, and once again I've written something that's just a bit too long for a meme. So it's another blog post for me. For you, too.

(A bit of background, if you need it: The Republican Party's attempt to hold the entire government hostage hasn't worked. In fact, it has failed dismally. The Republicans are looking for anyone other than themselves to blame, while the democrats are gloating. I can't speak for the Republicans, but the Democrats shouldn't be lighting the fireworks just yet.)

A friend posted a cartoon today on Facebook; a cartoon of a donkey serving an elephant that elephant's own ass on a platter. The symbolism was obvious, and I don't especially object to it; after all, that's pretty much what happened. (Actually, I thought that the cartoon was quite clever.) But the cartoon isn't what I wanted to talk about.

What I want to talk about is a comment that was made on that post. More precisely, I want to talk about an attitude that I see quite often now among people on the left, an attitude that I don't think serves either the Left or the nation. And at the same time I want to make an observation or two about the Right.

Along with the cartoon, there were a few "comments." And among said comments was this:

"I hope we can repost this after the 2014 elections. I hope the republicans get crushed to the point that they completely dissolve."

I responded, but I felt that my response needed a bit of clarification. So here we go. This is my (expanded) response:

Actually, I don't hope for that at all.

I've said that I hope that the Tea Party continues to boil until they float away in a cloud of their own steam, but that's just hot air on my part. In truth, I think that the US is best served whenever reasonable voices of dissent are fully given their forum, and fully participate in the government. Unfortunately, the Republican party of late has abandoned reason and instead has chosen to govern by forcing the government to deal with one manufactured crisis after another, reason be damned.

The thing is, this strategy hasn't worked (not this time, anyway). I'm sure that the Republicans thought that the Democrats would cave in like they've repeatedly done in the past, but this time they were buoyed by a President that finally said, "This far, and no further" and lent them the resolve they needed. I'm sure that the Republicans expected to win this conflict. I'm sure that the Democrats' failure to meet Republican demands sent the GOP reeling in disarray. And that's where they now find themselves.

(Please remember, this is a "card carrying" Liberal talking here. I really feel that the Republican Party, in all of the policies that led to this mess, was entirely wrong, but that isn't the point. The nation is far better served by a government of and by both Liberals and Conservatives. If a certain degree of mutual antagonism has evolved with the system, if not actually built into the system, then we also require a certain degree of cooperation to make it work. And while I see the Republicans as having been the more obstructionist of the two major parties, I can't hold the Democrats entirely blameless.)

The Republican Party's stance (and in particular the stance of the Tea Party Republicans), which started out to be over Obama's health care laws but morphed into something unrecognizable and formless as it became clear that the Republicans weren't going to get their way on health care, has cost this nation dearly. The phrase, "the full faith and credit of the United States" means far less today. But along with that, it has cost the Republican Party just as dearly. The approval ratings of the Republican Party are lower now than they have ever been. This debacle has put the Democratic Party within reach of controlling both the Senate and the House. (I don't think that's all that likely, but one more mess like this and that could change.)

But the worst thing about all this is the likelihood that they're going to try it again in a few months, when this "temporary" agreement to fund the government and suspend the debt limit expires. I can only hope that the Republican party abandons this costly and ineffective uber-confrontational practice, and sees that reasonable discourse is a far better way to achieve their ends.

But I don't think I'll hold my breath.

The Blues Viking
The opinions herein expressed are mine and if you don't like them you can get your own damn blog.


Oh, by the way, here's the cartoon in question:



EDITED on 10/19/13 because one damn sentence was bugging the hell out of me.