Proximity Muse

It’s the Obama train coming through! OK, you caught me. I have no reason to use the train picture I took other than I wanted too. Still though, the man is at least starting to swing back at the lock-step Republicans (click). And that’s what I’m gonna talk about today, the notion the Republicans have been trying to feed us that they’re somehow saving us from the Democrats.

Let’s start with the obvious. Since Obama took office the Republicans have consistently forced a 60-vote majority in the Senate to get anything done. They’ve threatened to filibuster over anything and everything. Is this because Obama and the Democrats have refused to work with the Republicans? No. Is it because their political agenda has been reduced to simply hoping that Obama fails? *Ding Ding Ding*

The Senate was not intended to require a 60-vote majority on every issue. The Founders would puke if they saw the shenanigans the Republicans are getting up to. If an appeal to your patriotic spirit doesn’t move you, how about some math? When the Senator from Wyoming threatens a filibuster, he’s holding up the business of the United States with the approval of, what, 1% of the population of the country? Does that seem like a legitimate use of power? I submit the answer is no. That’s like a golf cart holding up highway traffic.

What concerns me about these tactics, other than the fact nothing is getting done, is that the Republicans hold them up as somehow being in the interests of the country. How is a refusal to do anything in the interests of the country? Any child can pout, stomp their feet and refuse to get up after they don’t get want they want.