Losing control of the dragon
by David Atkins
Representative Paul Broun (R-GA):
“America is going to be destroyed by Obamacare, so whatever deal is put together must at least reschedule the implementation of Obamacare,” he says. “This law is going to destroy America and everything in America, and we need to stop it.”
First off, I would love it if someone in the press would identify a federally elected Democrat who said anything remotely similar even about such far reaching laws as the Patriot Act or the Iraq War, much less anodyne efforts to expand the reach of private sector health insurance. There's no "both sides do it" equivalent for this.
2) What do you suppose the consequences to be of this sort of rhetoric? What if you were the sort of person who actually believed that your elected representative was telling you the truth? If a President your pastor suggested might be the Anti-Christ bringing on the end of days refused to budge on killing a law your Congressman said would literally "destroy America and everything in America," what sort of action would you be forced to take? And what if the sort of people who generally elected such politicians were armed to the teeth?
The Tea Partiers in Congress aren't just playing with political fire. They're playing with civil war. Just as the big money Chamber of Commerce boys let loose a Tea Party dragon they've already lost control of, so too may these Pied Piper Tea Party boys lose control of the people who follow them.
It won't get that ugly just yet. But wait until their demographic winter becomes fully apparent and all three branches of government revert to Democratic control. Do you suppose all these people will just lie down quietly and accept the dictates of democracy?
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