Playing To The Mob
by digby
It would appear that the Republicans have decided that America is now a Hobbesian hellhole so devoid of decency and good will that they can repeatedly hold unemployed people hostage for political purposes and be rewarded for it.
Remember Jim Bunning's one-man government shut down earlier this month? Remember how everyone -- even Republicans -- condemned it?
Well, it seems the GOP has had a change of heart. According to a report by Politico's Manu Raju this morning, multiple Republicans in the Senate are now preparing to repeat Bunning's scheme to block unemployment benefits if Democrats attempt to pass an emergency extension of them again, a move that could come as early as this week.
Playing the role of Bunning next time will likely be Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). But he'll have an ensemble cast to help.
The unemployed only comprise 10% of the working population so a good portion of the other 90% will probably agree that they're all just freeloaders ("I got me a job, why can't they get one too?") And a few more are so mind-bogglingly ignorant that they'll go along with the rationale that the biggest problem we face right now is a future debt. But most of the people who will respond positively to this are the shock troops who simply don't believe that anyone but their team has a legitimate claim to govern this country. The whole thing is a base motivation strategy (in both senses of the word "base")but it's really just another bit of proof that the right wing of this country has become a nihilistic force with no remaining pretensions of virtue.
And god help us if these people are rewarded for this behavior at the ballot box. They are so morally twisted at this point that I'm not sure what they'll do, but it isn't a good idea to take any chances. Considering their overwrought reaction to the passage of a health care bill, I think we can see how easily their deluded sense of besiegement could turn very ugly if they have the power of the state at their disposal.
.