The Cowards Of Congress by John Myers The Cowards Of Congress “If you win, you win. If you lose, you still win.”–Joey LaMotta, from the 1980 Martin Scorsese movie “Raging Bull” Last Wednesday, the Republican Party caved to the government shutdown and the policies of President Barack Obama. It was not because the Republicans realized that holding out against Obamacare might endanger the Nation. It was not because an imminent default was hours away that would do irreparable harm to America. It was because of their poll numbers. It was because they wanted to save their sorry political careers, during which most Republicans have stood for nothing other than themselves. You might think that the focus of mainstream Republicans would be Obama, who has yet to pass a budget. Instead, their outrage was against Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. As far as old-school Republicans are concerned, those two precipitated the crises with their demands that the Affordable Care Act be defunded. “He’s the one who got us into this. He had no strategy. And it caused us to waste 16 days and get ourselves killed in the polls,” Representative Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said of Cruz. “All for a guy who was fraudulent from the start.” Fraudulent? You might think that King would consider that Obama is the fraud. It was Obama who promised to control spending and then sent American debt spinning out of control. It was Obama who promised a better America but after his 2008 election was hell-bent on installing his socialist ideals, of which Obamacare is his crown jewel. Sarcastically, Senator Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) stated Republicans’ poll “numbers have gone down, Obamacare’s somehow mysteriously have gone up. And other than that, this has been great.” Oh, no! Not the poll numbers, Senator Graham! If this keeps up, you might have to find another job. Wouldn’t that be tragic? As for Cruz, a man born in Calgary, Canada, just as I was, he is no hero either. He put on a 21-hour marathon in the Senate. Yet in the end, he crumbled. There is no courage in what Cruz did. When you prepare and are finally called to go to the mat, you don’t back down — not if you have a modicum of courage. Instead, Cruz’s actions are just one more example of Republicans who in the end believe that their political career is more important than standing up for principals, more important than putting oneself on the line for something bigger than oneself. That is courage.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 16:15:22 +0000
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