Cut It Out

I'm not really a biology guy. My expertise, such as it is, is in the physical sciences. I know just enough about the life sciences (plus a little organic chemistry) to get by.

I do know that in living things, sometimes something goes wrong. A part of the body, through injury or illness, ceases to work the way that it should. It may become deformed or diseased. In extreme cases, it may even become malignant and begin to threaten the life and health of the whole organism. In such cases, the only way to save the body is to remove the malignancy--to cut it out and cast it away.

This sometimes happens in political bodies, too. The current crisis in government tells me that it's happening right now to my party--that is, to the political party with which I happen to be registered.

For the sake of the survival of the Republican Party, the time has come to excise the Tea Party and move on without them.

Let me say at the outset that I am not a strong or dedicated Republican. My political loyalty, if any, is to my own views of sensible government and not to any political organization. Many Republicans would probably call me a RINO (Republican In Name Only). I know that term is meant to be pejorative, but I'm not offended by it. I've been called worse. It actually describes my political position pretty well. My choice of party affiliation is more pragmatic than dogmatic.

My opinions about government are personal and likely unique. I believe that governments should do for their citizens those things that citizens cannot do for themselves. I also believe that responsible governments will encourage and even require citizens to do for themselves all that they are capable of doing. I believe in low taxes, a balanced budget, controlled spending, a free-market economy that is regulated as much as necessary but no more, a strong national defense, viable infrastructure, individual liberty and personal accountability, effective law enforcement, and protection of the free exercise of conscience. And I believe that effective government is like the umpire at a baseball game: If he's doing his job correctly, you'll hardly even know he's there.

Above all, I believe that government exists for the singular purpose of serving the needs of its citizens. Any government that ceases to do that is a failure.

Right now, the United States government is failing. It is not serving the needs of its citizens; it's not really doing much of anything at the moment. And while I acknowledge that the current government shutdown is bigger than any one person or faction or issue, I place the lion's share of the blame on the obstinance and recalcitrance of the Tea Party.

I know that a lot of people aren't thrilled with the Affordable Care Act (colloquially called 'Obamacare'). For various reasons of my own, I'm one of them. But despite my personal opinion, I understand and respect that this is the law.  Let me repeat that: the Affordable Care Act is the law. It was passed by both chambers of the Legislative Branch, signed into law by the Executive Branch, and upheld as Constitutional by the Judicial Branch. It's a done deal.  The debate is over. Yes, it was an acrimonious and often vicious debate, but it's over. It's the law now.

Refusal to implement the law at this point shows a lack of understanding of, and a lack of respect for, the entire legislative process.

There is an old saying: "If the law is against you, argue the facts.  If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law and the facts are against you, yell like Hell." The Tea Party folks have chosen to shut down the government as their form of yelling.

We are taught in elementary school that winners never quit and quitters never win. But those who never win and never quit are idiots. At some point, reasonable people realize that they're just not going to win this one. They cut their losses, learn from their mistakes, and move on. But Tea Party leaders, as best I can tell, are incapable of acknowledging or admitting that they've even made mistakes. There are no losses for them, only preludes to the next fight. This, in my opinion, is the defining characteristic--and the definitive failure--of the Tea Party movement: their absolute assurance of the rightness of their cause in all things, and their resultant unwillingness to compromise, even in the face of catastrophe.

The Tea Party, as a whole, seems to operate on the assumption that it is always right and that its 'enemies' are always wrong. (Side note: If we're all Americans, we may be opponents, but can we ever truly be enemies? That sounds wrong.) How comforting it must be to operate with such political certainty! And yet, how futile as well.  Nobody in politics is right all the time, because nobody speaks for every single one of their constituents.  Good leaders necessarily realize that some of the people they lead will disagree with them a lot of the time. Great leaders will seek to represent the best interests of those people anyway.

Shutting down the government to protest a legitimately passed and Constitutionally sustained law serves nobody's best interests--not even the ones doing it.

As much as I dislike saying it, I have to agree with the President on this one. One faction of one party in one branch of government is primarily to blame for this shutdown. Worse, that faction has dug in so deeply on this issue and committed itself so completely to this cause that they've left themselves no practical way out. They've burned any bridges they may have used to get out of this debacle without completely losing face. It's death or glory for them.

And they're dragging the rest of the Republican party down with them in the process.

So it's time for Republican leaders to take back the party. It's time for them to decide that the party is more concerned with the best interests of the nation than with the loudest shouts among their own most radical members. It's time for Republican leaders to call out the Tea Party for their obstructionist tactics and get them back in line. It's time for Republican leaders to do what the majority of Republicans want done: to get the  government back up and running and get government employees back to work.

And if the Tea Party folks aren't okay with that, it's time for the rest of the Republican Party to show them the door.

Will this hurt the Republican Party? Oh, absolutely. In the short term, this will be extremely painful for the GOP. It will very nearly kill the party, I expect. Surgery is like that sometimes. Republicans are going to lose a lot of elections in the short term. But Republicans are losing a lot of elections already, in no small part due to the fanaticism of a small number of its members. And continuing to kowtow to the most reactionary faction of the party is unsustainable in the long term.

We don't need fanatics and demagogues in government. We need people who can get things done.

The Republican party is fractured and doesn't have a coherent message or agenda anymore.  The party needs to sit down, take a good, hard look at itself, and decide what it really wants to be about. If the Tea Party wants to be a part of that conversation, that's fine. But the Tea Party can no longer be allowed to control the conversation.    If they do, in the end, they'll be the only ones left.

It's time for the Republican Party to excise the malignant narcissism of the Tea Party movement and leave those people to their own devices.