Some on the Right are advising against the defund Obamacare scheme, thinking it will come back to bite the party.
The Senate fight is quite public, with one GOP senator calling the defunding plan the “dumbest idea†he had ever heard. Senate GOP leadership, now that Cornyn has slunk back under his rock, will likely just ignore the nihilists, and can probably slap the idea down between now and the fall, when the funding debate happens. House Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Cantor, however, might have a bigger problem on their hands. They’ve got a letter from more than 60 members telling them to have this fight.
Lest you wonder where the impetus is coming from for the yahoos:
Atop the letter it reads “supported by Heritage Action and Club for Growth,†in all capital letters, and highlighted in yellow, referring to the conservative outside groups.
The Republican Party made its bed with these groups, or lined their pockets with them anyway. And now they’re feeling the pain. Doesn’t it just make your heart bleed for them?
Now Sen. Tom Coburn is warning his fellow Republicans the scheme could backfire and cost them the House. But you can’t tell a bagger anything.
Elsewhere, some on the Right speculate that onerous voter suppression efforts could backfire, too, by giving Democrats and minority voters something to rally behind. Steve M. links to some articles about this, and adds:
If this is accurate, it’s not the only example in recent life of a powerful group choosing to punish the less powerful at a cost to itself. Look at the economy over the last six years. Yes, the rich are doing fine, but even they must realize that they’d be doing better if the rest of us had a little more money to buy goods and services. But here and in Europe they’d rather work the system to make sure it keeps punishing us. It’s as if hurting the people they hate — us “takers” — is so soul-satisfying to them that they’d rather do it to us forever than have a sustained economic recovery.
The Republican Party clearly feels the same way about non-whites: let’s keep alienating black and Hispanic voters, let’s abort all attempts at outreach, and let’s sustain that effort even if it means the GOP can’t win another presidential election for the foreseeable future. It’s as if the hate is just too satisfying not to indulge, no matter what the cost.
Well, yes. Because, deep down, the current Republican party isn’t about promoting conservative government policies. They don’t give a hoo-haw about conservative government policies. The current Republican party is all about acting out. It’s about pushing back against everything and everyone they resent and fear. It’s about maintaining a world that is a perfect reflection of the old white patriarchy. That’s all they really care about.