Confronting An Obstructionist Minority

Didn't the Democrats just win large majorities in both houses of Congress and didn't the country elect President Obama by a healthy eight million vote plurality? In November voters seemed ready for change and even some Republicans were willing to soften their stand on social issues in the hope that a new administration would address other more pressing national concerns.

How then has an obstructionist minority managed to gum things up, achieving power denied them in the electoral process and pretending their party is really where the country's at. Whenever an opportunity exists to impede the administration's agenda they are hard at it, which wouldn't be so hard to stomach if there were real substance behind their "no" doctrine. However, their empty sloganeering, their sniping tactics in Congress, their obeisance to the gun lobby and their financial backing of Norm Coleman's never-ending appeals of the Minnesota election are just dead-end politicking.

The right wing has its intractable advocates, of course, who support people like Representative Cantor and Senator Cornyn and think Representative Bachmann is on track even as she runs off the rails. Massaging the base works on some level, but minority efforts to hamper the simplest congressional procedures, hold up nominations and project their narrow vision on a public that has in many respects moved on, is simply a partisan blockade. Making conservative opinion part of the record is certainly one aspect of the core Republican mission, but acting as if it should serve to define our national principles is way outside the mainstream of current political thinking.

Nevertheless, Senate Republicans continue to stall Obama nominations to important posts. Tammy Duckworth, nominated to be Assistant Secretary at the Department of Veterans affairs, was held up by North Carolina's Senator Richard Burr for unknown reasons. One would think Duckworth, who lost her legs in combat serving our country, would be a shoo-in for the position. And there's the ever-present and oh-so-limited Senator Cornyn blocking the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel. Strangely, he says she lacks the "seriousness and necessary resolve to fight terrorism" although it's more likely he objects to her pro-choice advocacy.

The right wing calls Harold Koh, State Department's legal advisor nominee, a "threat to democracy" because he's an international law expert. The "fervent opponents of ...Koh turn out to be enthusiastic defenders of John Yoo" (ThinkProgress.org 4/4/09) that guy who penned the infamous memo referring to the Geneva Conventions as "quaint". As for Chris Hill, Obama's choice for Ambassador to Iraq, his nomination is being held up by Kansas Senator Brownback, a position embraced by the far right.

A conservative news group describes Obama as "polarizing", but isn't it the right wing chorus line that divides with its use of procedural impediments and claims we are headed for socialism, and questions like ‘do you want the government making health decisions for you'? In fact such decisions are made every day by insurance companies. And when clinics and hospitals servicing the needy close for lack of funds, the uninsured and under-insured, denied access to cancer therapy and meds, are essentially presented with a death warrant - - the most polarizing outcome possible.

One boost to the economy, distressingly, is that gun sales are up because the right wing claims Obama is going to take our guns away, though that isn't on his agenda. No doubt folks on society's lunatic fringe are building up their arsenals; one gun-shop owner says he's having trouble keeping ammunition in stock. In the next spate of shootings by frenzied wingers or distraught workers who have lost jobs, the charge of gun confiscation will have become moot. General Wesley Clark once invited people who like assault weapons to join the armed forces "we've got lots of them" he said. Now there's an idea.

In any case, reasonable people should be calling their senators to express displeasure about Obama's delayed nominees. Veteran's groups may have put enough pressure on Senator Burr to encourage him to finally lift his hold on Tammy Duckworth's appointment. Whatever the reason, her confirmation now appears assured.

Their constant rant often makes conservative positions seem more widely held than they really are. It can be exhausting trying to refute all the false claims and hysterical accusations that continue to consume a lot of right-wing air time. Sometimes one feels that the only thing left to say in response to all the nonsense is "oh please just shut up."