Oh My! GOPCons "Thinking Inside the Box"

Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen

President Obama recently explained the intransigence of House Republicans as a result of being trapped by "things they have said in the past."

Probably not particularly interested in starting a "rat fight," with Boehner, Cantor and the rest of them, the President left it with that, concluding that no benefit to be derived from making their final approval of the debt ceiling increase any more politically suicidal than it already will be.  

Obama is not one to "twist the saber" once first blood is drawn.

House GOPCons meet 2 Samuel 14 (image source)

However, even in this dark and dismal GOPCon "self-immolation," an important political reality is revealed.  The Republicans have broken Ronald Reagan's "11th Commandment."  They have attacked each other.

No more of the mindless unanimity we saw in the lockstep of the last decade during the autocracy.  In those days, a Republican who spoke out -- or even so much as quietly murmured -- words not entirely consistent with the "party's thought block," immediately joined FOX News' "Cut and Run" cult.

Further, if there were any whimpering over such an outcome, the GOPCon's meat grinding media enforcer, FOX News, would be sharpening its teeth for "Holy Retribution."  Once inflamed, the dutiful hill billies and bigots of the Republican base would take it from there.

Now, in July of 2011, we see something quite new.  The GOPCon "march to the sea" has created a gigantic box, punctuated by political cemeteries and littered with dead end streets, and the Republicans have rushed right past the edge of the cliff desperately down to the very end of the path that led them to it.

The Box

On one side of the House Republican caucus we find the drooling tea bags.  These seats were won in the 2010 with promises of, you guessed it, tax cuts based on spending reductions.  Although there is no shortage of things which can be said about these tea bags, mindless obsession should be somewhere close to the top of the list.

Existing in a gaseous world devoid of any civics classes or recent history, that is, history newer than what can be found in the Old Testament, consequences mean nothing.  In fact, tea bags are convinced that "boldness" trumps "realism" at every juncture.

This means that, although the House tea bags can see the white faces and the slack jaws of the traditional Republicans still ostensibly in command of the party, any thought which departs from the FOX News style campaigns which placed them in office is to be considered heresy.  Spending cuts will be made along previously discredited ideological lines no matter what the consequences may be.

On the other side of the House Republican caucus sit the oligarchs.  These more sophisticated looters want things to move to their own favor.  When the hedge fund CEO's, banksters and trust fund billionaires pick up the phone, they expect the House Republicans to kneel, then jump.

These fat cats have invested "big money" in the purchase of their House and Senate servants, and the expect their "return on investment" to keep on rolling.  But with the introduction of the essentially uncontrollable tea bags, this scheme has foundered on the FOX News rocks.

This hardly means that they won't keep trying.

So, on one side of the box we find the tea bags mindlessly terrifying the elderly with cuts to Social Security and Medicare, while on the other side of the box, we find the fang like avarice of the Wall Street crowd demanding a continuation of the "looting as usual" scam.  Stranded in the middle of an incomprehensible  combat where winning is losing and losing is losing, traditional House Republican looters like Boehner have no place to go.

As the last grains of sand drop through the nexus of the "credit rating hour glass," we can anticipate growing desperation and panic.  Worse, the causes of the conflict, although not only barely penetrating the news media but also somewhat overly complicated for the American public in general, are emerging, that is, opinion polls are careening through an unprecedented shift against GOPCon obstructionism.

House Republicans now enjoy a cluster of negative 70% approval ratings on how they are handling the situation.  (I.e. Gallup: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/gallup-republicans-approval-congress-sin )

Yet, the suicidal Cantorites, seeing how wretchedly unpopular their previous machinations have been, are reaching for the cyanide laced Kool Aide one last time.  They have doubled down the outrage intensity with the "Cut, Cap and Balance" gyration.

Apparently, they have mislaid their lutes and will have to luxuriate in Rome burning with only a shabby, last minute shambles of token debate.

Good riddance.