Sifting through the debris of political madness

Day One - No shutdown...

Dial down the hysteria.  For now. Hundreds of thousands of government workers back on the their  jobs.  Shutdown costs of $24 billion.   America's prestige as a can-do country damaged.  Rush Limbaugh, foaming at the brain, describing a bi-partisan  agreement as an insufferable GOP concession, calling it the worst political disaster in American history.

Closer to home, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, who didn't get the memo on the rising floodwaters sinking the GOP,  voted no with 144 other Republicans. The wealthy freshman congressman,  who leap-frogged to Capitol Hill from  a gerrymandered district custom-designed for him, thus confirmed his allegiance to the hard right that has caused mayhem in the Republican Party...

Insurrection among self-styled "freedom loving" anarchists was openly embraced  at the recent anti-Obama gathering at the D.C.war memorial.  Larry Klayman, a lawyer and ultra right-wing blogger who heads an outfit called Judicial Watch, is recruiting  a mob to  rise against the president on Nov. 19. Klayman accused Obama of "kneeling before Al-Qaida"  to the delight of the protesters,  whose speakers included Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin.  "Mr.President," he demanded, "get up off your knees and come out with hands up."  Klayman widened the goalposts  with multi-choice epithets aimed at Obama,to wit:  "Muslim, socialist,  anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-white,  pro-illegal immigrant, pro-radical gay and lesbian agenda."  (You'd think that Presidents Cruz or Palin would quietly urge him to save some of the bile  for their campaigns against Hillary.)

One of the biggest GOP mistakes (as well as that of  some liberal Democrats) was assuming that Obama would cave at some point.  Instead, he tapped the mood in some quarters of solidly standing his ground.  It would have been a disaster for him to give up his health-care reforms in the face of a bunch of unruly Obama haters who ended up shattering the Republican Party. Obamacare was ruled constitutional by the highest court in the land and, regardless of what your dissenting neighbor might think, it's the law.  And as I recall, he was elected twice .  Do you think this theater of the absurd could have been played out with  a white Republican in the Oval Office?

Finally, I was reminded of Albert Einstein's observation as the Republican resistance movement to Obamacare drove the nation to despair until the last moment:  "Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds."

Seems about right these days.