Wednesday, February 12, 2014

If Republicans Do Win the Triple Crown

Right now, Republicans winning all three branches of government in 2016 is being treated as almost a foregone conclusion.  I think that prediction is a bit premature, but let us suppose that it turns out that way. What would I think?

Well, on the plus side, presumably the fever would finally break.  Republicans would be forced to come up with a governing strategy and would presumably recognize that insanity is not a good governing strategy and would hurt their future prospects.  I could even hope that once a Democrat is no longer in the White House, Republicans might even rediscovery the value of sanity at the state and local levels and stop trying to destroy the public school systems and so forth.  Why, it is even possible private armies in the woods would disband and seeking the violent overthrow of the federal government would stop seeming patriotic.

But I can think of at least two really bad things that would result.  One would be that Republicans would now have their perfect hostage strategy -- give us control of the government or we will go insane and make the country ungovernable.  I don't want to encourage hostage taking, so as long as Republicans remain unwilling to recognize the legitimacy of a Democratic President, I want them kept out of power.

The other is the matter of civil liberties.  Their current outrage about NSA snooping is a bit rich, considering how quick they were to defend such things when George Bush was in the White House.  People even warned them at the time that sooner or later the spy apparatus they were creating would end up in the hands of a Democrat and then what would they think.  At the time they dismissed such fears as foolish.  We are hearing a different tune now.  But make no mistake.  As soon as a Republican returns to the White House, Republicans will lose all interest in curbing the national security state.  I want a Democrat in the White House to keep the right wing in a lather of paranoia until that goal is achieved.

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