Democracy is filled with heated debate, political rivalry, and, at times, bitter partisanship; but that can be okay, because it's all part of the process. However, there is one implied rule that all of this democracy of ours relies on: that no matter how bitter our fights or how angry our debates, it's understood that all of us want to do what is best for our country. It is this rule that makes democracy work, and it is this rule that conservatives have repeatedly broken. Whether it's the conservative talk show hosts, senators, or congressmen, these people have made it clear that they are more concerned with political games and their own political power then the well being of the country and its people.
The problem is not that they have different answers for the problems we are presently facing, or that they want to help the country differently, it is that they do not want to help at all. Even before Obama took the oath of office there were conservative members of congress saying that they would stand in the way of President Obama's plans, pretty much preemptively obstructing an agenda they had yet to see, and so far they have kept their word. They took this stand not because it was what's best for the country; rather because it was what's best for their party. The Republicans don't see the stimulus package as a threat to the economy; they see it as a threat to the party, because if it were to succeed, God forbid, it would mean that the country avoided a depression and climbed out of the recession under *gulp* a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic President, and they just can't afford to let that happen. They want the Democrats to fail, they want Obama to fail, and they have clearly stated it. Their veritable leader; Rush Limbaugh, spewed those exact words onto the American people, making sure there was plenty for his conservative lapdogs to eat up.
So they obstruct, they vow to stop everything they can in order to assure failure for the country. They change the bill into something less effective, something that is weighed down with tax cuts that have proven not to work, and cut off valuable funding that could have helped ordinary Americans get work and put food on the table. They obstruct, to flex some political muscle, even if it means that this money doesn't get to the hands of the people who need it, even if it means more people losing their homes and their jobs. They obstruct, just to spit in the face of a president who has done a thousand times more to reach across the aisle than the previous president had. They obstruct, just to make it look like the president is being partisan, even when they know it is a lie, even when members of their own party thanked the president for doing so much to reach out to them. They obstruct in hopes that an American depression caused by them, but under the term of a Democratic President will mean big political wins for them in 2010 and beyond. Destroying America for the sake of Republican political victory, this is not how a democracy works. In fact the tactics used, as Republican Congressmen Pete Sessions proudly admitted, are closely akin to a Taliban style insurgency, something that is designed to destroy democracy and something with the serious potential to destroy this country.
This is outrageous, seriously outrageous. This is torches and pitchforks in the streets outrageous. When the large majority of one party is in no way interested in what is best for the country, but is instead concerned with their own power, it is time that the party loses its power completely, because they have no place in a democracy. When a party wants the country to fail so they can score cheap political points, then that party has no place whatsoever in governance. The petty games have cost the senators and congressmen nothing, and thus they are not hesitant to keep playing them, but it could cost us, the American people, our livelihood. These Republicans have relegated themselves to be the roadblocks on the path to a prosperous democracy; and as such we need to do whatever is within our power to get passed them.