The Idea of Civil Discourse

We are told things have reached a low point in political discourse in this country, to the state where the government has become dysfunctional. 

In order to sound fair minded, people will say, "Well, it's the fault of both parties... Let's give someone new a chance to straighten things out."

This is, of course, the position of the intellectual slacker.  

It is tough work reviewing the history of things said and done,  and not done to figure out who might be more at fault. Easier to say, well, they are both fighting, so we'll just indict both of them.

But, of course, this is exactly what the bully wants to accomplish. If you can tie up the functioning of government, of a committee, you can sour the citizenry on the whole idea of government, or, better yet, you can hope they'll say, well the crew in power isn't getting anything done.  If this quarterback can't get the team moving down the field, let's replace him with the next quarterback.  Takes too much time to analyze whether or not the offensive line is doing its job, or the receivers are getting open. Just move on to the next quarterback.

That's all you need if you are the crew not in power.

So when the leader of the minority party of the United States Senate stares right into the camera and says, "I will not vote for anything which might improve the economy because that might help re elect Barack Obama," he can do it without blushing, because he can have faith that few Americans will even remember he said it, will keep anything in mind for more than a millisecond. But if you can drill into their heads with repeated TV spots (paid for by the billionaires who own the Republican party) that this government in power is not succeeding--let's throw the ineffective bums out, well, you've won the game.

Now, of course, you will say, but then, when you are in power you have to govern, and then the other side will do the same thing to you.

This would pose a problem, if you cared about governing. But if you actually do not like the idea of government, well then, you are really in a nice place. You can eat the government up from the inside, like the spider wasp.

The spider wasp is a scary little bug.  Its mother implants it as an egg into the belly of a  spider, and as it develops, it eats the spider alive, from inside out, finally emerging to fly away, leaving behind the empty husk which was once the spider. 

Pretty hideous, unless you don't like spiders to begin with.

And that is today's Republican party. The spider wasp party.