Republicans Prefer to Act in Secret

The weakness of the Republican response to President Obama’s speech yesterday at Newport News was remarkable.  According to the NY Times, John Boehner said that the president was using the country’s military men and women as props for yet another campaign rally. In other words, Mr. Boehner had nothing of substance to say. He had nothing to add to the discussion.

We could not have a clearer demonstration of the bankruptcy of Republican political thinking.  The radical rightists who have come to dominate what was once a real political party have only one goal, and that is to reduce the size of the government. To achieve that goal, they are willing to do anything and cause any amount of suffering.  Having won their jobs by the most extreme gerrymandering in recent history, they are now dead set on making sure that thousands of other people lose their jobs and that thousands of businesses lose sales and perhaps go bankrupt.

For what purpose do they want to cause all that suffering? Well, as I said, they want to reduce the size of government, but what does that really mean?  It means that businesses will be free to rape our environment.  It means that the research and development that drives our economy will slow down. It means that there will be less educational opportunity because support for education will decline.  It means that our borders will be less secure, and our military will be less prepared.  It means that businesses that sell to the government will lose sales.  In the Fox Valley, it means that there will probably be layoffs at Oshkosh Truck.

 That is what the radical rightists want to do.  Of course, no one with any sense wants to see any of that. So, the radical rightists can say nothing except to accuse the president of “campaigning.” They are upset that he is telling the American People what the radical right wants to do.  I guess they would rather do it in secret.  I can’t imagine why.