The New Terrorist Threat to America

Those who have been watching have seen it in action for decades, but only recently has the real threat to America and it's way of life begun to be made clear to everyday folks who are just trying to live their lives and don't normally watch politics.  This threat has grown organically over the years, fueled by secret money from shadowy groups pumping tens of millions of dollars into a singular effort to undermine representative government, the security of our citizens, and the stability of our economy.

No, I'm not talking about Middle Eastern fundamentalists who are part of Al Qaeda or Hamas.  I'm talking about a greater threat than small groups of terrorists pose; I'm talking of a threat created by a group of extremists in our own country who have taken over a once proud centrist national party and turned it into a radical social organization that bears no resemblance to its former self and who's sole objective is to force all with whom they disagree to bend to their will.  After getting a glimpse of this radicalism during the takeover of Congress in 1995 led by Newt Gingrich, then seeing more during the 8 long years under George W. Bush, we've seen it explode all over the country since the 2010 elections when unlimited (and unreported) corporate money flooded into the coffers of extremists after the Supreme Court's infamous Citizens United ruling removing most limits on corporate spending.   As the money poured in, corporate backed groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Crossroads GPS (Karl Rove's new gig), and Tea Party backer Dick Armey's FreedomWorks funded radicals who went after anyone in the Republican Party who wasn't far enough to the right.  Formally moderate republicans like Orrin Hatch and Rick Perry saw the handwriting on the wall and jumped onto the crazy train with both feet, spewing idiotic birther nonsense, talk of secession and privatizing Social Security and Medicare.  Those who didn't talk crazy or demand the dismantling of the EPA and the Department of Education were summarily shown the door in the primaries, replaced by those who did (and frighteningly believed their own rhetoric).

Which brings us to the self destruction that we are witnessing in every GOP controlled state and, indeed, on Capitol Hill as radicals hold the nation hostage to get its own ideological way.  After Republicans took over governor's mansions and state houses, there has been a coordinated assault on American life as we know it, including union busting, dismantling Medicaid and Medicare, firing tens of thousands of teachers, and defunding public education. They also throw in a little gay bashing as red meat for their base.  While we are watching with confused fascination as Republican presidential candidates actually say that it's Okey Dokey if we don't raise the debt ceiling, Tea Party activists are calling for a default on US debt that every single serious economist says is insane and risks catastrophic disruption of world markets. 

But that's not all that's going on.  Almost unnoticed as Republicans drive our economy toward the edge of the cliff, the FAA is actually shutting down today because funding for the agency runs out at midnight.  Thousands of employees are being laid off, with only air traffic control staying in operation through emergency funding.  Routine operations such as safety inspections, aircraft registration, and pilot testing are stopping.  Republicans have been holding this agency hostage for years, only funding it through short term continuing resolutions.  The reasons?  Republicans don't like rural airports (in Democratic states) getting subsidies so airlines will keep flying there; they've also insisted on another union busting provision in the latest funding resolution.  The Dems have stood their ground on these issues, since there is no connection between them and funding the FAA, trying to get the Repubs to move.  The Repubs have done what should now be familiar; they just stood there insisting that if they don't get exactly what they want, they'll just shut down the agency.  And that's what is happening today, virtually unnoticed among the debt ceiling frenzy.

This latest example is a case study of how the GOP now operates.  Under this radical new regime, there is no good faith negotiation, no compromise, not even recognition of the legitimacy of any other viewpoint other than its own.  Compromise and negotiations are seen as weakness.  Governing has ground to a halt, unemployment is skyrocketing, the economy is teetering on collapse, and all of that is just fine with politicians turned terrorists as they blame everyone else for their actions.  They are using the same tactics of fear to get what they want that Middle East radicals use.  Their weapons, though, are not bombs and guns (at least yet), but huge corporate dollars and unbending ideology that callously vilifies huge swathes of our population, and holds the economy hostage for ideological gain.

There is only one way to deal with terrorists...shine a bright light on them, their funders, and their actions.  The only language they understand is loud; the only response they respond to is strength.  The sooner the President and the Dems get this, the sooner they can start taking back territory.