Tea-Publican Tyranny: ‘Shut ‘er Down!’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The chattering class of media villagers and Beltway bloviators only want to speculate about the pending government shutdown. Conflict is what the media sells after all. There is wild speculation about the 'blame game" – who will the public blame for a government shut down? This is what passes for entertainment between millionaire media types.

There have been several "pregame" polls released this week about what the public wants to see happen and who the public will blame for any government shutdown. More on that in a moment.

Let's be clear: since the Koch brothers' corporate-funded Tea Party front groups (Americans For Prosperity and FreedomWorks) first began, we have had a so-called conservative movement in this country that is "anti-government" – openly hostile to the federal government. They want to "drown it in the bathtub" as their spiritual leader Grover Norquist commands them. They are not interested in governance; they are only interested in destroying the federal government.

Tea-Publicans ran for Congress in 2010 on the ideological purist promise of "no compromise." Many ran on the specific promise of "shutting down" the government (for those of you with short-term memory loss, look it up Caught On Tape: Republicans Touting Support For Government Shutdown). Tea-Publicans bussed in by the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks have been gathering in Washington, D.C. in their silly-ass constumes gleefully shouting "shut 'er down!"

As I posted earlier in Tea-Publican Teh Stupid:

I told you some time ago that the Tea-Publican Congress would agree to short-term continuing resolutions (CR) only long enough to get them to Tax Day where they could use the threat of a government shut down and Tax Day for a Tea Party media event. FAUX News has had their graphics and chyrons and "canned" reports ready to go for weeks now, if not months already. This is all part of a highly coordinated and highly scripted media campaign by the right-wing noise machine and its Billionaires' Coup corporate-funded Tea Party front groups.

The Crazyland Express has left the station.

The Tea-Publican budget negotiating position is a simple one: total victory. Democrats must unconditionally surrender to their every demand to destroy the federal government, period. No compromise.

As you might imagine, this is not how "compromise" works. Nor can the Tea-Publican position be described as "reasonable" in any respect. Tea-Publicans do not want a compromise, their long-stated goal is to shut down the government (despite their feigned denials to the corporate media). This is an insurrection against the federal government by anti-government forces loyal to the Billionaires' Coup.

While I detest "pregame" polls that attempt to predict what public opinion will be in the future should an event occur, I will nevertheless cite the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll as representative of the "pregame" polls released this week. Poll: Possible U.S. Government Shutdown Holds Risk for GOP – WSJ.com:

The poll showed Republicans, especially those aligned with the tea party, ready to fight for budget cuts. Sixty-eight percent of tea party supporters said Republican leaders should stick to their positions on the budget, even if that meant no consensus could be reached. Only 28% advised GOP leaders to compromise. Among all Republicans, 56% called for GOP lawmakers to stick to their positions, while 38% called for compromise.

* * *

When Republicans are combined with independents, forming the universe of people that GOP lawmakers are most eager to appeal to at election time, opinion is evenly split—48% to 47%—between those advising compromises against those urging political leaders to stick to their positions, even if it results in no budget agreement.

* * *

For Democrats, the calculation is more straightforward. By a 71%-to-23% split, Democrats and independents want Democratic leaders to reach a deal. Even the liberal and minority voices that make up the core of the party want their leaders to make the compromises necessary to win a budget agreement.

Democrats care about good governance and the people who will be hurt by a government shutdown. Anti-government Tea-Publicans sneer at this "weakness" of character in Democrats, caring about people. They seek to exploit this "weakness." "F#&k 'em! Shut 'er down!" Total victory in an ideological war to destroy the federal government is all that matters to these radical extremists.

There is evidence in this poll that the public is souring on this corporate-funded Tea-Publican tyrrany:

The Journal/NBC poll suggests there are limits to the tea-party movement's popularity. In the new survey, 29% felt very positive or somewhat positive about the tea party, the same level of positive feeling registered in January.

But 44% felt negatively toward the movement, and the percentage of Americans who feel very negatively jumped six percentage points from January, to 30%.

Some 25% of those polled said they supported the tea party, down from 29% in February and 30% in November. The highest percentage on record, 67%, said they weren't supporters.

It would be both fitting and ironic that the Tea-Publican tyranny to destroy the federal government resulted in its own Waterloo.