Driving from the Back Seat

Really wish I had more time to write about this, as it's a topic I've wanted to discuss for awhile now.  But one of the chief problems Republicans are facing these days, besides the fact that they're locked in a death spiral of relying upon an ever-shrinking group of crazies who have a stranglehold on the party which forces out the less crazy, thus strengthening the grip the crazies have.  That's been in the works for a few decades now, and becomes harder to fight against with each passing year.

No, the current problem that even the rightwing crazies have is that they still haven't understood that they're the ones in power.  They're the ones responsible for doing shit.  And if they don't do shit and even prevent others from doing shit, they're ultimately responsible for that.  It's like someone who's so busy backseat driving that they haven't realized they're in the front seat and behind the wheel.  They're shouting "Slow down, you're driving too fast!" while we're shouting "You jackass fool, you're the one driving!"

But they don't get that, and still think they're critics on the outside, yelling at "the Government" to fix our problems.  But...they're now in power.  They're the government.  They're not some loud-mouthed civics organization or powerful voting bloc throwing their weight around.  They're the ones responsible for doing stuff, and are expected to have actual plans beyond spouting the vague "Support America, Obey the Founding Fathers, Shrink the Government" rhetoric they've been relying upon all these years.

Defaulting on Accountability

And this is evident from the whole Debt Ceiling fight, where they were insisting that it was completely acceptable if we defaulted on our debt, and wrongly assumed Obama would get all the blame for S&P downgrading our credit rating.  After all, since Obama cared so much about it, it was clearly his problem and they could force him to listen to them.  And that's because they didn't understand that this was their responsibility too, and would be stuck with the blame if they did what they did.

And why did they make this mistake?  Because they were busy listening to the know-nothing radio hosts and other barstool talkers who weren't actually responsible for getting anything done; and imagined themselves to be part of that crowd.  Somehow, they still haven't grasped that they're not part of the crowd anymore.  They're part of the government, and it's a heckeva lot easier to criticize than it is to do stuff.

And so they sit there in the House, like little kids playing grown-up; passing symbolic legislation and showing how they'd do things if they were in charge.  Yet...they ARE in charge.  They CAN do real stuff.  And they ARE expected to DO real stuff.  They'd like to just sit back and criticize Obama, while insisting that they're of no importance and no one should bother criticizing them; because they're the critics, not the players.


And so we're still racing through a mountainous area with cliffs on both sides, while they continue to shout at us to slow down, while waging symbolic battles of Good versus Evil.  And they're honestly confused as to why anyone's holding them accountable for what they say and do.  And sadly, it's not an act.  They really don't get it, and the more we scream at them to grab the wheel and drive; the more they imagine they're doing the right thing.

After all, having liberals angry at them is the only way they know they're doing it right. They might not know what they're doing, but dagnabit, they know who not to listen to.