If you’re nauseated, confused and/or outraged at the federal government shutdown in the United States, you’re not alone. It’s nauseating, confusing and outrageous. What is more outrageous but predictable enough is that the people who have created the crisis are blaming the people they’re inflicting that crisis on.
I would rather watch Cialis ads all day than have to see these gasbags belching out lies about the Democrats not coming to the negotiating table. They know that Obama, love him or hate him, got reelected; they know Democrats kept the Senate, which is an actual endorsement of the direction that things were headed at the time of the election.
Those who try to pass for Republicans today know their plan for existence was voted down — and to this hour they are proceeding with gritty, antagonistic contempt for human beings. They must have to pound down a lot of Johnny Walker Black to fall asleep at night.
This weekend, The New York Times published a lengthy article about a federal budget crisis months in the planning, with a guy named Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas basically designing and spearheading the whole thing. OK with help from Ed Meese, an old Reaganite creep, and many conservative organizations.
And a lot of help from House Speaker John Boehner, a demon in human form, and the lean, hungry Eric Cantor, who is not wise, caring or melodic enough to have that last name. This is not just something that is happening — people are making it happen. It may not, however, be the people whose faces we see associated with it.
One of the top comments to the NYT piece expresses exactly what I was just thinking: “I came away from reading this article with the feeling that there’s something deeply subversive going on here. The phrase ‘grey men in grey suits’ comes to mind as I envision the likes of the Koch brothers pulling the strings on the likes of Sen. Cruz.”