GOP and The Fizzle

The second thing today is something that has been going on for a couple of weeks or so.

The shutdown.

I haven't been on here as I said before. But I did want to say a couple of things about this.

First of all, what was the damn point?

There was none. That's right there was absolutely no point to shutting down the government at all. 

I generally side with the Tea Party and have come to detest establishment Republicans who are so mealy mouthed and wishy washy they can't ever seem to take a stand but this? 

A complete and total waste of time and capital spent for nothing. 

Second of all, was there any point to any of it? Did we, the American people get anything out of it at all?

The answer is again no and none. 

When this started there was absolutely no chance of anything being done to Obamacare. NO CHANCE. Not some chance or a good chance but no chance at all.

Why because Obama and the democrats have already funded Obamacare for the foreseeable future. 

Obamacare is a disaster for America, I get that and it is but even if the democrats and Obama gave in on most of what the Republicans were asking guess what would have happened to Obamacare? 

Nothing, again.

That is because unless the Republicans put up a total repeal of Obamacare retroactively then it wouldn't do a damn thing and they never even tried that because that had even worse chances of getting anywhere than what they did ask for. 

They went ahead with this government shutdown and what do they have for all this drama and spectacle?

Nothing, again.

In the end after going to the brink, the very edge, the Republicans got nothing, nothing at all. 

It was a total waste. 

Why they did it I do not know. It has been obvious that Obamacare is worse than anybody thought. It has been even more so since they rolled it out.

This was said by someone else in the news and I'm basically restating it but we could have sat back and basically smirked and said "I told you so" while the train derailed but we didn't. 

We instead jumped on the "Shutdown" bandwagon with no real goal in mind and in the end for nothing. 

We could have waited until Obama was asking the Republican party to raise the debt ceiling and then expended that capital and fought to cut the democratic spending and do something to get our budget back on track along with getting our debt started towards a reduction. 

But that didn't happen. The Republican Party and yes the Tea Party shot its wad way too early. Instead everyone got screwed and only the democrats enjoyed it. 

So now the democrats have passed a deal and the House has voted for it. 

In the end all that capital was wasted, all the possibilities that come with a showdown like that were spent on nothing instead of real fights, fights the Tea Party and Republicans can actually win, on real issues, substantive issues.

Sadly that didn't happen. The debt is going up as well as spending, all unchecked, and what did we end up with out of this?

Nothing.

What is even worse is the fight went on with no clear goal in mind after the first few days if that and it damn sure looked like it was no more than a bunch of children throwing a tantrum for no reason. 

In the end with no clear goal, with no nothing they gave in. Sadly they never should have started but the lack of cohesive goals for their actions makes it even worse. 

Somebody needs to tell me exactly what was hoped to be accomplished by this because I never did figure it out. 

The worst part is what will happen now. The Republicans don't have any capital left to use. No one is going to take them seriously because of this debacle. So what's going to happen next?

What's going to happen with immigration? There is something they desperately need capital for in order to fight it. They don't have any. The question becomes not only what are they going to do but how in the hell are they going to do it? 

Or are the establishment Republicans after this going to run the show and give in on the issue as so many of them have been saying they are going to do?

What about environmental stuff that Obama et al want but is so detrimental to the US? They don't have anything remotely resembling credibility left to fight it with. 

Then we can visit this issue again in December, January, and February and guess what, we're back where we just were. 

And they have no nothing with which to fight even if they find their asses from a hole in the ground and come up with something to fight for. 

In the end the big bang ended in a big fizzle and no one is the better off for it, especially the Tea Party.

Onto another note after seeing an article by Dave Frum the other day. 

His theory is that the Tea Party is some tiny fringe group that should be forced out of the Republican party and left to form their own party or something but they shouldn't be a part of the Republican party at all. 

One thing I think Mr. Frum is forgetting are the sheer numbers who would go with them. I have been a life long Republican but I agree with a great deal of what the Tea Party does. I also hold in contempt the establishment Republicans who won't take a stand and won't fight for us or this country on important issues. The establishment Republicans have caved in on immigration, environmentalism, and many other things of huge importance to this country's future. 

If the Tea Party should go this lifer will go with them and no longer support the Republican party in any way, shape or form. I also will never ever vote for a Republican again no matter what circumstances may exist. 

John McCain and the many others like him do not represent me and haven't for some time. If I want what are essentially centrist democrats I would vote democratic at the ballot, I don't.

So I think Mr. Frum should take notice and watch what he says for supposedly him being a Republican he sure wants to see the downfall of "His" party an awful lot. 

Now that I've said that I want to make it clear the Tea Party needs to get their shit together and stop idiocy like what has been happening these last couple of weeks. They need to look for the battles and choose those which are actually important and that can be fought for. If they keep doing stupid shit like this I will not vote for them either. But if they can get it together then I think they'll be a formidable force to be reckoned with. 

As Dr. Laura used to say "Pick very carefully if this is the hill you want to die for." My version is pick which hill to go to war over a hell of a lot better than you have been lately.

As my daughter is fond of saying "To hell with all of them" and if the Tea Party doesn't learn when to fight and more importantly when not to then I think I'll join her.