Republicans are forcing the sequester because they refuse to accept revenue that could be achieved by closing loopholes that benefit the most powerful corporations or wealthiest individuals. President Obama is right. A majority of voters agree with him. They agree with him in polls. Democrats have won three of the last four national elections. House Democrats received more votes than House Republicans in 2012. The dominance of the right in the GOP leads to the dominance of Democrats in national elections. The social Darwinism of Ayn Rand, which is the policy of Republicans, is poisoned tea for the GOP. Republicans who claim the fingerprints of the president are all over the sequester are continuing the politics of delusion. The president is winning the debate. Again. The GOP brand is poison. Period.
{mosads}The heart of the GOP problem is this Ayn Rand philosophy of the survival of the fittest, made real by Mitt Romney’s condescending attacks against a majority of the nation in his famous 47 percent speech. Listening to Republicans leave the meeting with the president on Friday expressing their religious opposition to revenue, even through closing loopholes, is what forces the sequester.
I do not agree with all of the president’s moves in recent days. He could have done a better job of reaching out. But it would not have mattered. Republicans are so intimidated by the far right that they will not even accept what was once their own proposal to close tax loopholes. Republicans will sink deeper into the minority so long as they are addicted to their Ayn Rand, social Darwinist, survival-of-the-fittest economic ideas that alienate a majority of the nation and doom Republicans to long-term minority status unless they reverse these views.
It is ironic. The president’s legacy could ultimately include a jobless rate that should be intolerable, alongside a great Democratic realignment he will get credit for achieving.
In the end, the Republicans have nobody to blame but themselves, and in the end, as the sequester story unfolds, the voters will mostly blame the Republicans.