Sick House Tea Partiers Celebrate the Sequester’s Human Carnage

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

Morality is the differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between what is considered good (right) and what is bad (wrong), and most human beings would consider intentionally causing harm to others is inherently immoral, and wrong. There is a segment of the population that lacks the basic human emotion of empathy and feels that knowingly harming other Americans is an ideologically moral imperative, and they are preparing to celebrate damage to the people and economy sequestration cuts will cause when they begin in two days.

According to Tim Huelskamp, a teabagger from Kansas, the sequester is “the first significant tea party victory in that we got what we set out to do in Washington,” and in Washington, teabaggers celebrate the start of eliminating government to advance privatization regardless the harm inflicted on the people. Huelskamp represents one side of what George Lakoff calls the “real moral divide in America” where extreme conservatives see government providing for the common good as an “immoral imposition on their liberty,” and it is Paul Ryan’s philosophy founded on Ayn Rand’s fictional work that Libertarian Koch Brothers support. That teabaggers are celebrating the sequesters’ damage demonstrates their lack of empathy for other Americans as well as sheer idiocy in that their ideological bent for killing government, and other Americans, will eventually contribute to their own demise. However, where Lakoff has it wrong is attributing the lack of empathy to “extreme conservatives” when in reality, it is all conservatives who believe government is inherently bad and worth eliminating so for-profit private enterprise can take over.

Lakoff continues that “conservative’s moral sense requires them to make the government fail in providing for the common good” and that it is a matter of justice to reward those who “selfishly pursued their self-interests, got rich, and avoided taxes that pay for provisions” they, and all Americans, use. The fact that the conservative intent of making government fail is to negatively impact most Americans represents a fundamentally flawed human being that believes those in need must be punished to reward the rich. The Republican anti-government agenda represents the ideological war conservatives have fought for over 80 years to undo the New Deal that helped all Americans, and is predicated on rewarding makers and eradicating takers. However, this new morality fails to acknowledge that makers are beneficiaries of the sweat, blood, and assets of the very people they are attempting to destroy, and make no mistake, their goal is destroying those who are not successful and the sequester is a major victory in the GOP’s two-year war on the economy, people, and government.

Republicans admit the sequester will wreak havoc on the economy, jobs, and the people, and although they feign concern, killing jobs while hurting Americans began at the start of the 112^th Congress when teabaggers swept into power promising to “shrink government.” In early 2011 when John Boehner was informed Republican spending cuts would adversely impact children, the working poor, and seniors besides killing 1.1 million jobs, he said “so be it.” If any American thinks Republicans, or their teabagger cohort, are concerned sequestration will inflict damage on Americans, jobs, or the economy, they are tragically deluded. There is a contingent of Republicans who are unhappy the sequester is not four times larger and believe if the GOP had made more Draconian cuts and slashed government more, they would have won big in the last election, and it informs the danger of ideologically pure conservatives gaining power because they see the sequester damage as a major victory in a war to end government.

These conservative idealogues are no different than extremist Islamist suicide bombers. They could not care less how much damage they inflict on the people because as long as they make government fail to reward the makers, they will have achieved a moral victory. Remember, teabaggers and their Republican facilitators were willing to allow a credit default that would have destroyed the full faith and credit of the United States in 2011 that led to the sequester to begin with, and fueled by their sequester victory are emboldened to expand the war on government as a moral imperative.

There are Americans who are lulled into complacency that the tea party is declining in popularity and losing public support, and although they appear to be a small faction within the larger conservative movement, their ideology mirrors Republican philosophy that government must be destroyed to make way for privatization. It is, and has been, Republicans’ moral sense that requires them to make government fail to make room for privatization and it starts with defunding, then destroying programs like Medicare and Social Security because government providing for the common good is an immoral imposition on the wealthy’s liberty. It explains why Republicans cut safety nets that feed children, seniors, and Veterans to make room for more tax breaks for the very wealthiest Americans, and why there is never a shortage of government funds for corporations, big oil subsidies, and the military industrial complex.

America is in a war for survival and despite President Obama’s re-election and overwhelming public support for his agenda, conservatives are on the verge of scoring a major victory in making government fail. With intransigent House Republicans in control of the nation’s purse-strings, there is little the President, or Senate Democrats can do to stop their continued assault besides reject their government-destroying cuts that will result in a stalemate, and more government failure. Subsequently, for the next two years House Republicans have little incentive to stop their assault on government, and the people, and believing it is their moral imperative, they have every reason to finish the job.

Author
Recent Posts

Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.