The New York Times’ Tom Friedman has written a typically
thought-provoking column about Washington’s shutdown showdown in which he
reaches this conclusion: The fight is not about health care, it’s about the
health of our democracy.
thought-provoking column about Washington’s shutdown showdown in which he
reaches this conclusion: The fight is not about health care, it’s about the
health of our democracy.
Friedman argues that the outsized influence of the
hard-right tea party House members has created a dangerous path toward political “hostage
taking” and minority rule.
hard-right tea party House members has created a dangerous path toward political “hostage
taking” and minority rule.
“And this is the really scary part: The lawmakers doing
this can do so with high confidence that they personally will not be
politically punished, and may, in fact, be rewarded,” Friedman wrote. “When
extremists feel that insulated from playing by the traditional rules of our
system, if we do not defend those rules — namely majority rule and the fact
that if you don’t like a policy passed by Congress, signed by the president and
affirmed by the Supreme Court then you have to go out and win an election to
overturn it; you can’t just put a fiscal gun to the country’s head — then our
democracy is imperiled.”
Friedman amply makes the case that our politics has been
twisted by three structural changes: extreme gerrymandering of congressional
districts that allows Republicans to pander to their most conservative
constituents and ignore the rest; the ability of a single multimillionaire to
influence a congressional or even a presidential election, thanks to the
Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case; and the rise of separate
universes of voters created by right-wing (and left-wing) commentators who spew
their strident views on TV, radio and
online.
twisted by three structural changes: extreme gerrymandering of congressional
districts that allows Republicans to pander to their most conservative
constituents and ignore the rest; the ability of a single multimillionaire to
influence a congressional or even a presidential election, thanks to the
Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case; and the rise of separate
universes of voters created by right-wing (and left-wing) commentators who spew
their strident views on TV, radio and
online.
In other words,
the fringies on the right have somehow taken hold of the congressional agenda.
the fringies on the right have somehow taken hold of the congressional agenda.
Friedman writes that the openly biased media outlets have
“created another gravity-free zone, where there is no punishment for extreme
behavior, but there’s 1,000 lashes on Twitter if you deviate from the hard-line
and great coverage to those who are most extreme. When politicians only operate
inside these bubbles, they lose the habit of persuasion and opt only for
coercion. After all, they must be right. Rush Limbaugh told them so.”
“created another gravity-free zone, where there is no punishment for extreme
behavior, but there’s 1,000 lashes on Twitter if you deviate from the hard-line
and great coverage to those who are most extreme. When politicians only operate
inside these bubbles, they lose the habit of persuasion and opt only for
coercion. After all, they must be right. Rush Limbaugh told them so.”
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