As we began our discussions last night for today's commentary, our staff members had a good chuckle at the expense of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, as we're sure many people across the nation did. Cruz was foolishly yammering on about green eggs & ham and Nazis to a nearly empty Senate chamber in what some of our colleagues in the media began calling a "fauxlibuster" on Tuesday afternoon.
After all, since there was no bill up for debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate, what Sen. Cruz was doing cannot be accurately called a filibuster.
Cruz' actions, along with those of the heavily divided Republican Party, can be called many things, these days. 'Ridiculous' or 'disaster' - or if you're Steve Schmidt, former political strategist to the GOP - "asininity."As Schmidt noted in an interview this week, people like Cruz are "the freak show that’s been running wild for four years" that has hijacked both the Republican Party and the political right in America.
If America hadn't endured more than a decade of ginned up hatred, bigotry, misogyny, class warfare, at least one unnecessary war, and the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, all at the hands of the modern GOP, we might not be laughing so hard. We might even feel a little bit of sympathy for Republicans who are getting perpetually pounded these days by their own tea party partners.
The fact is, Americans have endured growing, explosive, divisive, right-wing abuse for nearly twenty years now. As the Republican Party is reduced to watching someone they hate like Sen. Ted Cruz usurp their own party's image, some Americans are content to sit back, grab some popcorn, and watch the Republican party fall apart.
After all, for those of us on the left, we've really got it pretty good right now.
Our party leader is not only the President, but is also an amazingly shrewd politician. After the Great Recession caused by his predecessor, President Obama and his economic team were able to stop the economic hemorrhaging and put the nation on a slow and steady path back to economic improvement. Even in the face of a potential shutdown and a potential debt ceiling default, investors on Wall Street don't seem to be worried about America defaulting on its bonds right now.
Some of Wall Street's corporate criminals also finally appear to be getting caught for their crimes - though that doesn't appear to have changed their arrogant attitudes yet. Universal health care is also about to go into effect for the first time ever in America, thanks to President Obama and Congressional Democrats.
President Obama may have delivered one of his most significant foreign policy addresses ever at the United Nations on Tuesday, as John Judis of The New Republic noted. America may even be on the verge of new peaceful relations with Iran, even as our nation helps restart once again the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.
No one is saying everything on the political left is perfect in America. Some farther left liberals still feel minimized and somewhat ignored compared to the currently dominant center-left progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Still, the Democratic Party has had some amazing successes over the past few years, mostly by having its broad variety of members work together for common goals.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party currently pushes its rising stars to audition for Fox, by pointlessly reading Dr. Seuss' rhymes into an empty Senate chamber, all while different factions of the GOP plot the rapid political demise of those same 'rising stars.'
We don't really have a whole lot of sympathy for the GOP right now, as we warned many of our Republican friends to stay away from the crazy far right many years ago, and they didn't listen. All we can do now is sit back and watch them destroy each other.
Pass the popcorn.
