MANY QUESTIONS

By Edwin Cooney

As official Washington stretches, yawns and comes to life and the government reopens for business (which really means for politics) after a sixteen day shut down, politicians and their constituents still face some pretty interesting questions!

According to Senator Ted Cruz, the Tea Party’s latest superstar (sorry, Paul Ryan – sorry, Rand Paul – sorry, Marco Rubio), by voting to re-open the government, “the Washington establishment has ignored the will of the American people.” Okay, Senator, but the question is –- who are “the American people?”  Ah! Since neither Senator Cruz nor President Obama wants to disappoint the American people, could they actually be on common ground for a change?

According to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, “another government shutdown is off the table.”  The question is, off whose table? Senator McConnell’s table or Senator Cruz’s table?  Of course, I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin, the conservatives’ well-compensated mouthpieces, will have plenty to say about Senator McConnell’s table if the government shutdown option isn’t on it.

Since I hate to pick on people when they are down, I’ll take this opportunity to congratulate Senators Cruz and McConnell, along with such House members as Majority Leader Cantor and Budget Chairman Ryan.  I think they’ve finally destroyed the Republican Party.  After all, when you divide even a majority into two sections you come up with a minority.  If it can be said that the Republicans are already a minority, then, divided as they clearly are as of today, it’s possible that they are about to be politically impotent in the very near future.  So the question is, what happens to Republicans who are too conservative to join the Democratic Party and too liberal to be stomached any longer by conservatives?

This isn’t the first time a powerful faction from within one of our two major parties has tried to remake or redefine their party.  One of the most constant threads running through our political history is the havoc ideologists eventually create in both major parties.  Right after the Civil War, radical Republicans embittered southerners for the next hundred years through the establishment of government agencies such as The Freedmen’s Bureau and the military occupation and division of the South.    Southerners didn’t begin registering Republican until modern conservatism gave permission to the successful to openly resent forced association with racial and religious minorities by regulating the activities of private enterprise.

Liberals also dominate when they feel sufficiently powerful.  In 1938, Franklin D. Roosevelt decided after five years of political success that the Democratic Party should be the nation’s liberal political party and he launched an effort to purge conservatives from the party.  As powerful and attractive as he was, FDR failed in that attempt.  One of the people Roosevelt sought to replace was Georgia Senator Walter George.  He launched his “dump conservative’s campaign” at a political rally attended by George himself.  “Sorry, Walter,” the president reportedly said, “there’s nothing personal in this.”  As you might guess, George didn’t buy the president’s reassurance.  Much later, George made the following observation about FDR:  “Some people say that Roosevelt’s biggest problem is that occasionally he’s his own worst enemy. Well, you can be sure that as long as I’m alive, he isn’t!”

In the months ahead, we might get something of a clue as to what forces caused the Congress to shut down the government and to threaten to disrupt the full faith and credit of the United States.  We might even learn what kind of a deal was struck to end the impasse before people named Boehner, Cantor, McConnell, Ryan, Collins, Reed Murray and Obama write their memoirs.

One of the major criticisms of American politics is that both of our major political parties have been too “centrist” and thus mere dupes of “The Establishment.”  If conservatives get absolute control of the Republican Party and turn it into the” Conservative Party” and if liberals get control of the Democratic Party and make it the “Liberal Party,” is that perception likely to change?

As I’ve asserted many times since I began writing these weekly musings eight years ago, I like politics and I like politicians.  I defy anyone to demonstrate how democracy, liberty or freedom can exist without both politics and politicians.  What I fear we have been experiencing since the rise of modern conservatism is politics by political prelates.  If there’s anything more scary than that, it’s hard for me to imagine what it could be!  In a week or two, I’ll gladly enlarge on this theme.

Meanwhile, let’s take a breather -- it’s World Series time!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY