Shutting down three lanes on the nation’s busiest bridge creates an inescapable metaphor. Not just Christie, but the entire right-wing has been determined to shut down the government for decades. And has. By God, if they don’t get their way, lanes are closed, jobs killed, government thrown into lockdown, and the nation suffers. How fitting the name of the iconic structure, George Washington Bridge (GWB), named for the nation’s father.
The Republican Party’s motives are three-fold: (1) philosophy, (2) vengeance, and (3) concentration of wealth/power.
Their philosophy is simple – Government doesn’t work so therefore it should be eliminated or shrunk to infant-size so it can be gradually drowned. Grover Norquist vowed: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
Their hate for government stems from other forms of acrimony cherished by the right – in this case directed towards the primary inanimate object conservatives have long abhorred. Government can do no right (except when performing destructive, violent acts on selected adversaries – real or imagined). Filling potholes is not a legitimate government task, but wiping out unknown, untold-thousands 7,000 miles from our shores is an appropriate fully-funded function.
The long-held obsession to perform revenge is also an underlying motive – passed down by the spirit of Nixon, some theorize, while others point further back to the 1932 defeat of Hoover and Roosevelt’s creation of safety-nets. Nevertheless, political payback is an obsessive motive entrenched in the party, manifested not merely in the latest New Jersey samples.
Certainly, shutting down three-lanes on a bridge pales in comparison to shutting down the nation. But the symbolism is glaring. The party led by bullies will naturally employ strong-armed tactics, threats, and intimidation – on all levels: local, state and national. Innocent citizens are but pawns in their power-grab, used indeed as leverage against political foes. Unsuspecting innocents locked in traffic are not only on a bridge, but over an entire nation.
There are no ethics in war. And since the right sees the left as the enemy engaged in war, “rules” are toothless. Or changed retroactively to fit the party’s objective: complete dominance. Republicans are not courteous opponents but hostile combatants. They have declared war on all “others” in the name of their rigid god and misinterpreted heritage. Polarization is not coincidental, but rooted in Republican absolutism sprinkled with dogmatic, cultic religiosity.
The centrist false equivalency claim “both sides do it” is aired relentlessly on Sunday talk shows as if no one is capable in recognizing the true culprit. When did Democrats shut down the government? Or a major artery of the nation?
The rising young star exposing Christie’s scandals is Steve Kornacki of MSNBC/Salon. The right promptly is into attack mode, attempting to kill the messenger. But Steve is real talent of Woodward/Bernstein fame, building lasting legacy.
Withholding disaster funds for political gain is a criminal caper for which Christie may not escape. As scandals go underground via federal investigations (not blathered to the public on Hardball every night), Christie is more vulnerable. Calm before the storm. Being a former federal prosecutor, Christie is tortured by this development.
Meanwhile, conservatives major on fiction. Scandals are regularly invented by FOX and the right, unfounded events which have no legs or basis in fact. “Benghazi” is the relentless refrain when Republican leaders are exposed. The targets are to tarnish Hillary for 2016 and damage Obama’s legacy. Truth getting in the way is no problem.
Republicans are eternally pissed about Nixon being run out of town. Bill Clinton’s impeachment wouldn’t have materialized had there been no Watergate. Naturally, the baton was passed down to Republicans in the Obama era, except with the added toxin of racism (another right-wing calling card).
Greed is the grease that lubricates right-wing wheels. Not only are the elements of Ayn Rand’s philosophy and vengeance pushing the party, but acquisition of wealth/power. What the right lauds as “free markets” is the re-certification of slavery – the opposite of boosting economies and improving the general public’s condition.
NAFTA was bad enough. But now comes TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), promising additional corporate power, outsourcing entire industries, and enslaving workers globally.
Held in secret, negotiations are being conducted outside the public eye – for good reason. The objective is to destroy unions, good wages, decent living standards, and environmental/safety regulations – in all nations. Concentrating wealth into the hands of the few is the #1 prime aim, of course, so naturally Republicans have jumped on board to enhance fast-track authority. (They can’t approve unemployment benefits but they work diligently at passing legislation that kicks the rest of the nation to poverty for at least a generation.)
There can be no viable infrastructure in a profit-driven, privatized, unregulated capitalist society. It degenerates into a lotto nation of Ponzi-pyramid schemes, inherited wealth, and total private ownership with toll booths stretching from coast-to-coast.
The only way to get rich is the lottery or being “born right.” Not only is the public’s wealth at risk, but the nation’s health. Food safety used to be a guaranteed government role before the rightwing sabotaged it. Unregulated capitalism means chaos. And death.
When has fixing potholes become a form of “radical socialism”? Answer: Since modern-era Republicans (Tea-Partiers) came on the scene. Gridlock is their cup of tea. There can be no “public option” for a party that believes in no public. All must be privatized and outsourced to feed the hunger of the greedy few.
Another debt-ceiling fight is brewing this month. Republicans still clasp to their belief that holding the nation hostage is an acceptable bargaining chip. The pattern of intermittent manufactured crises will not dissolve until the Republican Party becomes a weaker minority.
And still the right threatens to engulf all three branches. Is everyone’s vision impaired? Millions continue to vote against their own best interests due to the fact they’re brainwashed by religion and/or the gun cult.
The Republican Party’s most electable, Chris Christie, has been exposed – and along with him the SOP of the GOP on a national scale. News Flash: Dirty tricks didn’t end with Nixon but only accelerated. But who’s paying attention?