When stubbornness becomes dangerous

I understand stubbornness. I’m as stubborn as they come. If someone repeatedly tells me that I have to do something, I just HAVE to, you can bet that I will not do it just because I don’t like to be told that I have to do something. That is why I have never seen “Titanic” and I have yet to read any of the Harry Potter books. (I’ll eventually cave on the latter...I’ve read too many good things about them, and people whose opinions I value vouch for them quite vehemently. But not yet. I’ve got too many other books I want to read first.)

So I really do get people digging in their heels and refusing to compromise.

What I cannot understand, however, is digging in your heels because of some stupid ideology that has been repeatedly shown to be false, especially when the result of your intransigence is the risk of ruining the good name and credit rating of your own country.

That is what I’m seeing from the Repub leadership lately. Boehner, McConnell, and especially Cantor have shown themselves to be uncompromising and two-faced, refusing to budge one inch on their bizarre ‘no new taxes’ mantra. Boehner has been more willing to compromise, but then turns around and accuses the President of being unwilling to do so. I won’t go into details of the numbers, and what the President has been willing to agree to but has been refused by the Repubs; I won’t go into the reality of how our tax rates are the lowest ever, despite the Repubs saying that our President is obsessed with raising taxes; but when the President proposed extensive budget cuts, even to some programs that someone like myself has a real problem with him cutting, the Repubs walk away and refuse to discuss it. Why? Because Obama is asking for shared sacrifice, asking for a slightly higher tax rate among the richest 2% in the country. This is apparently unacceptable to the Grover Norquist asskissers in our government. A majority in the country—well over 60%—accept a combination of spending cuts and tax increases as the best solution to our economic woes. The Repubs ignore that, and go merrily about their business of totally fucking over our country.

This just boggles my mind. Corporations are sitting on record profits, and the Repubs continue to stick to their guns (so to speak) and say that this will hurt job creation. What universe are they living in? Seriously? Businesses have lots of money, and they are not investing in workers. Cutting their taxes will not change that. DEMAND drives job creation. Allowing the irresponsible Bush tax cuts to expire for the richest, while leaving them in place for the middle class, will allow revenues to increase and put more money in the pockets of the millions of middle class Americans, which they will then spend on goods and services which will then drive up demand which will then result in job creation. This is not rocket surgery, people. I’m no economist, and even I get it.

But not the Repubs. No. They continue to support the corporations and the CEOs who are raking money in hand over fist. They continue to cling to this stupid Norquist pledge (Why do they kiss this guy’s ass? I’d love to know.) and ignore economists’ predictions and analysis of what is going on in our country. They call for less regulation for Wall Street, when those greedy assholes are some of the main players in what got us into this economic mess in the first place.

I rue the day that I ever registered as a Repub and I regret every vote I ever cast for one. I’m even to the point where I’m sick of Dick Lugar, a moderate if there ever was one, and will vote for Joe Donnelly against him (if Lugar survives the teabagger candidate who is running against him in the primaries) in one of my Indiana Senate races.

A deal looks closer tonight than it has recently, but I find it absolutely ridiculous that the Repubs were so puerile and juvenile that they brought us to this point. The world is watching, and the world is worried. It might be hard for some to comprehend, but our economy affects the entire world. A default on our loans would be disastrous, and I am pissed at any Repub who thinks it would be okay. Get over losing the election to Obama and get to work. Address our problems rather than ignoring them, and stop politicizing this entire negotiation. I know you don’t want our President to have a second term. But if you want to win it, do it legitimately and stop screwing over the middle class and our entire country.

Mmm-kay?