Rewarding bad behavior

Tomorrow is finally the election.  I'm not looking forward to the smug, arrogant, crowing the Republicans are going to do when they retake the House.  They've promised that once in power there will be no compromise, no working with the President, and since their entire agenda for the past two years has been to take down the President, they should easily accomplish their goal.

I've been watching politics my entire adult life and I've never seen anything like the behavior of the Republicans since the 2008 elections.  They have set records for filibustering even the most trivial matters.  They've contributed to the backlog of cases facing our judiciary by refusing to vote on judges, and hampered federal agencies by refusing to vote on appointees, even to Homeland Security.  They have raised hyperbole, race-baiting, and fear-mongering to new heights.  They have voted against policies they themselves have advocated for years, merely to deny the President a victory.  They have been hypocritical, hateful, opportunistic, dishonest, and downright un-American. 

If you're unemployed, why would you vote for any of these guys?  They voted unanimously several times to deny jobless Americans an unemployment insurance extension, a critical lifeline to keeping their homes and keeping their families fed.  Then they blamed the unemployed for a bad economy which shed 8 million jobs while the Republicans were in power. 

If you're gay, why would you vote for any of these guys?  The Republicans voted against a critical defense bill, solely to stop the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  They were willing to sell out our troops and our defense merely to stop gays from serving openly.  If they win the House, do you think DADT will be repealed?  Even when the Pentagon report says that it can be done, there's not a chance the Republicans will vote for it.  And forget them acting on any other gay civil rights matters. 

If you're black or Hispanic, why would you vote for any of these guys?  They have spread fear of hispanics and immigration, stirring the fires of racism to further their political goals.  Do you think they'll pass any kind of fair immigration reform?  They've demonized black political action groups, driving progressive, beneficial groups like ACORN out of business by lies and deceit.  They've supported radical nutjobs who insist that the first black President isn't an American, that he hates America, that he's a Nazi. 

If you're middle class, why would you vote for any of these guys?  They've held hostage tax breaks for the hurting middle class in order to pass tax breaks for millionaires -- tax breaks that would cost the U.S. between 3 and 4 trillion dollars over the next ten years.  And they've done this by contradictorily spreading the fear of deficits in a time when deficit spending is critical in reviving the economy.  In short, they've sold out all Americans in order to give tax breaks to themselves and their rich sponsors.

When a child misbehaves, you don't reward him.  That just encourages the bad behavior.  If the Republicans are rewarded by an impatient public who aren't seeing things improve quickly enough, they'll just continue with the bad behavior.  Nothing will be accomplished for another two years.  Nothing will improve.

And we'll all pay for it.