Guest Blog: The Facts Are Irrelevant

A few months back I wrote about the game of chicken that Congress and the White House were playing with people’s livelihood.  They both blinked and the government wasn’t shutdown.  The can was just kicked down the road.  Once that squabble was over the political pundit class said the next big showdown was over raising the debt limit.

I hoped for the best and expected the worst.  Sadly my expectations are blooming.  The one lesson I’ve learned about politics over the course of my political junkie lifespan is never expect a politician to do anything politically selfless.  It’s all a game and we, the general populace, are the losers.

But enough on this topic from me. This week, I’m handing an Uncommon Mind off to a highly trusted guest blogger, Duane N. Scott, to share his thoughts on the latest political crisis…

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The Facts Are Irrelevant By Duane N. Scott

The debt ceiling crises or manufactured crises in my mind brings out the worst possible characteristics of politics.  My ire is mostly directed towards the Republicans, not because the Democrats are a swell bunch of folks, they have their grand foibles too, but because the Republican are absolutely shameless in their zeal to cater to the rich undercut the poor.

First there’s Eric Cantor, the otherwise unknown Majority Leader. Cantor was exposed the other day when he came out saying that he was against the sweeping deficit reduction and revenue generation that President Obama and Speaker John Boehner proposed.  You can count on Cantor saying and doing the opposite of anything Obama proposes.  But the manner in which he was exposed has to do with his previous participation in the deficit reduction talks with Biden.  He walked out of that negotiation too, but now he’s willing go back to the table and hash out the Biden plan because well that’s just what he does.  What Cantor really wants is the Speaker of the House’s chair, which is currently occupied by Boehner.  Unfortunately, he will sacrifice the American public for his like megalomania.

Another person who will go down in flames and likes to play loosey goosey with the facts is the one and only Michelle Bachman.  Her latest faux pas involves the Iowa Marriage Pledge that has as its first bullet point that the black family was better off during slavery.  This smacks of the usual Republican paternalism when it comes to discussing black people.  From Haley Barbour to Bachman it never ceases to amaze me how Republicans try to rewrite history.  As Coates points out so well, the there are so many problems with the vow it’s hard to imagine how anyone could sensibly endorse it.

The debt ceiling conflict will resolve itself, but the players will continue to jockey for position at the expense of American people.

Tagged debt ceiling, Democrats, Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann, politics, Republicans