WILL WE KEEP REWARDING THE GOP FOR OBSTRUCTIONISM?

Republicans think they own the White House. When they lose a presidential election to a Democrat they go psychotic. Their behavior becomes irrational and they repeatedly put their own political interest over good governance. And, oddly, it sometimes pays off in elections.

Their selfish and childish behavior backfired when they impeached President Clinton (after years of accusations that the Clintons were involved in drug-running and murder, etc.), but it paid off in the last congressional election in 2010. When President Obama was elected the GOP proudly became “the party of no” — with their consistent obstructionism and by repeatedly saying no to policies that they had previously supported.

The health care plan was fought viciously by branding it “Big Government Socialism,” when in fact it is basically a Republican plan that was developed in the conservative Heritage Foundation — and put into effect in Massachusetts by GOP Governor Mitt Romney before being signed into law for the entire country by President Barack Obama.

The Heritage Foundation also conceived of Cap and Trade as a business friendly energy plan. John McCain and Sarah Palin were great proponents of Cap and Trade. Now that the Democratic President Obama signed onto the idea — well now it’s a “job-killing” plan that imposes government regulations on industry.

Basically, the President has said, “Okay, I’ll buy into your assertion that our country’s debt/deficit is our main problem, and here is my plan to cut the deficit by $4 trillion.” But, “the party of no” simply cannot say yes when they’re offered close to everything they’ve been advocating for decades. Their response to this offer? “Well, actually … lowering the deficit isn’t really what we want … what we want is no new taxes on the wealthy AND to have this exact same GOP-created-debt-ceiling-crisis two more times before the end of 2012.”

The Republicans just keep moving the goal posts — and obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. Their goal as I see it is not to govern the country, no, the goal is to undermine this president and tie his hands at every turn. The name of the game is Destroy President Obama, not Move Our Country Forward.

The Grand Old Party is no longer able to govern our nation. Will we continue to reward them with our votes in 2012 as we did in 2010?

Gawd, I hope not.