Jokers gone wild
Published October 3, 2013
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, October 3, 2013.
Norma Copes of Rockford, Ill., was not a happy camper when a reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times found her in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Tuesday. Copes was packing her tent after rangers told her she had to leave. The park was closing, thanks to the federal government shutdown.
“I’m really frustrated,” she said, “and I think, did I vote for those jokers? That is really my thought. Did I vote for those people that did this?”
She did. All Americans did. And now those “jokers,” the members of Congress, have brought the country to the point where the people can’t visit their own national parks. Where is Teddy Roosevelt?
Some people won’t take it. A group of World War II veterans — the heroes of our Greatest Generation — found themselves blocked from entering the site of their own memorial in Washington Tuesday. They removed the barricades and went in anyway.
Bully for them! Next, they should have stormed Capitol Hill and taken no prisoners.
Unfortunately, there are more severe consequences of the shutdown. One maddening story came from The Wall Street Journal, which reported Tuesday that the National Institutes of Health suspended clinical trials. Among the first patients affected were about 30 children, most of whom have cancer. Meanwhile, as medical researchers are furloughed, members of Congress are still getting their paychecks.
Americans are angry. This week’s High Point University/News & Record poll reported that only 15 percent of respondents approve of Congress in general — and the question was posed before the shutdown.
No one would tolerate employees who don’t do the jobs they were hired for. Keeping the doors open is a basic requirement for leadership in government, but this Congress could not pass a budget resolution to do that. The House has not even voted on one without phony attachments attempting to defund or delay Obamacare. If a preponderance of blame can be assessed, it must go to Speaker John Boehner for letting tea party Republicans dictate this disastrous strategy.
Such recklessness is possible in the House because so many members can dodge accountability. While the answer to Norma Copes’ plaintive question is that the American people did elect those jokers, most come from safe districts gerrymandered to ensure victory by one party or the other. Republicans have an advantage, having controlled most state legislatures at the last redistricting. Their primaries usually favor the most right-wing candidates, and general elections in lopsided districts fail to exert a moderating influence. With Democratic districts favoring liberal candidates, the result is greater polarization and extremism in the House of Representatives — and a failure to govern.
Americans, like the World War II heroes in Washington Tuesday, should declare this shutdown unacceptable. They should also demand that their state legislatures appoint independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions to put an end to gerrymandering and encourage voters to elect responsible representatives, not jokers gone wild.
October 3, 2013 at 9:37 am
Hampton Brady says:
It's a bit misleading when you say "the members of Congress brought..." this on the American people. It's not CONGRESS in total, that causes this problem. It's a specific branch of Congress, moreover, a specific small group within the one branch of Congress that brought this on America. It's the GOP in the US House and its "vocal branch" called the Tea Party.
So let's not paintbrush the whole Congress with this fiasco. Let's put the blame squarely on the group that is responsible, the irresponsible GOP.
October 3, 2013 at 12:41 pm
TP Wohlford says:
Mr. Brady --
So who do we blame for $400 billion in debt payments annually? Who do we blame for presenting only 1 budget on time since they took power in the Senate? Does the word "sustainability" mean anything to you?
And who thinks they will gain to shut down the government? Was it a President who needs to show he's a bad-(donkey) after the Syria debacle? Is it a Dem machine who thinks it can win back the House with this tactic? Hell, can you think of ANYONE in Congress or the White House who didn't want this showdown?
October 3, 2013 at 9:39 am
TP Wohlford says:
"They should also demand that their state legislatures appoint independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions to put an end to gerrymandering and encourage voters to elect responsible representatives, not jokers gone wild."
There is no such thing as a "nonpartisan commission" ever. AS the economist once said (referring to a plan where wise, impartial Washington leaders would take over a bunch of the US economy), "Where do you find such angels?
I propose that we elect a competent President, one who doesn't have to prove he still has his 'nads after backing down in Syria.
I propose we make sure that the Dems -- who wanted this shutdown in a gambit to take control of the House next election -- hear that we will vote them out of office too.
I propose that we elect grownups that see that we're approaching $400 billion a year in debt payments, and nothing good will happen, that this is not "sustainable" (I thought that liberals were all about "sustainability?), and we must change NOW.
October 3, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Tom Hauck says:
The WWII memorial is in an open area and normally one can walk to or through it -- night or day. The Park Service raised barriers for the first time since the Memorial was under construction. How shameful to put barriers where none existed -- and only to disrupt the final days of our "Greatest Generation".
