In the showdown between the Teaparty-controlled Republicans and Democrats, one of us is an Alcoholic and the other one a Codependent.  The Republicans have to stop drinking.  We’ve been their Codependent since probably Reagan’s time, but certainly since 9/11.  Basically, we’ve been their bitch for years.  As part of the Republican demands for raising the debt ceiling by October 17th, the Republicans not only want a one year delay of Obamacare, but also Paul Ryan’s draconian tax reform, the Keystone XL pipeline, partial repeal of the Clean Air Act, partial repeal of bank regulation legislation, Medicare cuts, cuts in several anti-poverty programs, medical malpractice lawsuit “reform,” more drilling on federal land, blocking net neutrality, and a suite of changes designed to make it harder for regulatory agencies to enforce regulatory requirements.  As some commentators have pointed out, this is like if under George W. Bush, with the Democrats controlling only the Senate, we had demanded the passage of single payer health care, the Dream Act and other immigration reform, cap and trade legislation, and tax reform along Democratic ideals.  Or we would have shut the government down.

The Teaparty didn’t win the last election.  They didn’t even win the majority of votes for the House: Democrats got 54,301,095 votes while Republicans got 53,822,442.  It’s just that their clever gerrymandering of seats after the 2010 decennial Census allowed them to craft districts in such a way that more of them stayed competitive for Republicans.  But regardless of the election outcome, the Republicans are pursuing their agenda as if they had won.  And their willing to risk the full faith and credit of the United States to do so.  Well, it looks like we’re finally going to stop being their bitch, and despite Fox news braying about the “liberal” shutdown and whimpering that Obama won’t “negotiate,” it’s possible that a majority of Americans might actually figure out what is going on here.