A sensible proposal

I really thought that today I was going to be building off of some of Pope Francis' recent statements, but I think this whole government shutdown has gotten to me.

Actually, if I can get back to Syria one more time, recently there was something on the news about some senators being critical of the president's efforts there, and I just knew they were going to show McCain, and they did!

I might be psychic, but not because of that. Knowing it would be McCain was more of a product of once reading that his thing was being a contrarian. (This was someone analyzing him, not quoting him.) Suddenly, how he could do such good things sometimes, and then be ridiculous about other things, all made sense.

And sometimes it worked, and he did good things. That seems to happen less often, though, and sometimes the ridiculous is just too ridiculous.

(If I may quote myself, "The most perfect symbol of this may be McCain missing aclassified briefing on Benghazi, complaining about the lack of informationduring that time period, and being angry when asked for a comment about thescheduling error that led to it.")

This is a big risk of being a contrarian. Sometimes it is important to go against the grain, and then it is admirable to do so. Doing it for the purpose of being in opposition, though, is something else entirely. Defining yourself by that may lead to you taking a lot of bad positions. (At some point I will get back to establishment/anti-establishment, and we'll explore that more.)

So, currently the GOP is in a kind of tough position, having set themselves firmly in opposition to everything the president and the Democrats in Congress put out there, no matter how practical and conservative, and it results in horrible situations.

As a progressive, and someone who does not hate poor people, I have grave concerns. As someone who is against contrarianism, I sort of feel like they should be spanked and sent to their rooms like the spoiled children they are emulating. But as a practical, somewhat jaded person, I am willing to work with it.

Here's what the GOP needs to do: Give up on defeating Obamacare, continued spending, and stimulus. The Bush tax cuts didn't work, deregulation has been bad, no-bid contracts...okay, let me walk that back. These policies have been helpful for corporations and the wealthy, but bad for everyone else, fiscal responsibility, good government, and the list goes on.

So give up on that, and focus on everything else. Fight the big government intrusion of the PRISM program. Complain about the drones. Complain about the backlog in the courts, the war on drugs, and there still being prisoners at Gitmo.

I know what you're thinking; that would be remarkably hypocritical. Ha, ha, gotcha! I know you don't worry about that. It would in fact be hypocritical, but it's necessary. These are reasonable areas for objection, the Tea Party/Libertarian side of things will approve, and there is lots and lots of room for pontification.

I know the real concern is that your corporate overlords will not approve. This one actually is a problem, but remember, as nice as large campaign contributions are, you still need people to vote for you. That has not been working out too well lately. Voter suppression efforts may work out, but you have a great opportunity here for winning legitimately, with the votes of happy constituents.

Doesn't that sound better than destroying lives, infrastructure, and progress?