Brazile: GOP, stop living in fear ift.tt/1fAz7vZ The Statue of Liberty looms over visitors below on Liberty Island in New York Harbor on Sunday, October 13. The statue was closed to the public by the federal governments partial shutdown that began October 1, but reopened Sunday after the state of New York agreed to shoulder the costs of running the site during the shutdown. Many government services and agencies remain completely or partially closed. The main entrance to Grand Canyon National Park remains closed to visitors in Grand Canyon, Arizona, on Thursday, October 10. Under pressure from several governors, the Obama administration said Thursday it will allow some shuttered national parks to reopen, as long as states use their own money to pay for park operations. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and state legislative leaders have said they would make state funding available. Empty tables overlooking Seal Rocks are seen inside the closed Cliff House on Wednesday, October 9, in San Francisco. The 150-year-old oceanside icon was ordered closed by the National Park Service for the duration of the partial government shutdown, leaving most of the restaurants 170 employees without work. Boaters gather to protest the closure of Everglades National Park waters on October 9 near Islamorada, Florida. About a third of the 2,380-square-mile park encompasses Florida Bay and has been closed to Florida Keys guides and recreational fishermen since October 1. A camping party at the Dolly Copp campground in Gorham, New Hampshire, on October 9 is told that the park will close on Thursday, October 10, at noon. The privately run campground in New Hampshires White Mountains National Forest was forced to close ahead of the lucrative Columbus Day weekend because of the federal government shutdown. Rick Hohensee holds a Fire Congress sign near the House steps on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, October 8. Officers stand at the base of stairs leading to the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, October 7. A bull elk appears to stick out its tongue at the closed north entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Montana on October 7 in a photo submitted by iReporter Brad Orsted. Orsted joked the animal was giving its opinion on the government shutdown. Tourists take photos at a barricade blocking access to the World War II Memorial in Washington on Sunday, October 6. River runners make camp in a dirt parking lot in Marble Canyon, Arizona, after being unable to access the Colorado River at Lees Ferry on Saturday, October 5. A closure sign is posted on the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Thursday, October 3. Metal gates closed with a chain block the entrance to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, in Kennesaw, Georgia on Thursday, October 3. A sign posted on the gates announces the parks closure, citing the government shutdown. Tourists take photos of the Statue of Liberty while riding a tour boat in New York Harbor on October 3. The statue is adminstered by the National Park Service and is closed as a result of the government shutdown. A single security guard patrols the closed Lincoln Memorial in Washington on October 3. A U.S. Capitol police officer walks past a statue of Gerald Ford in the rotunda on Tuesday, October 1. The Capitol is closed to tours because of the government shutdown. Barricades around the World War II Memorial in Washington prevent people from entering the monument on October 1. The memorial was temporary opened to veteran groups who arrived on Honor Flights on a day trip to visit the nations capital. World War II veteran Russell Tucker of Meridian, Mississippi, stands outside the barricade as he visits the World War II Memorial in Washington on October 1. World War II Veteran George Bloss, from Gulfport, Mississippi, looks out over the National World War II Memorial in Washington, on October 1. Veterans who had traveled from across the country were allowed to visit the National World War II Memorial after it had been officially closed because of the partial government shutdown. A park ranger secures a road at the entrance to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial on October 1 in Keystone, South Dakota. A sign is posted in the window of an IRS office in Brooklyn notifying that the office is closed due to the government shutdown on October 1. A visitor takes a picture of a sign announcing the closure of the Fort Point National Historic Site due to the partial government shutdown on October 1 in San Francisco, California. A hand-written sign informs visitors to Faneuil Hall, the nations oldest public meeting hall, that restrooms are closed as a result of the partial government shutdown in Boston, on October 1. Visitors to Independence National Historical Park are reflected in the window of the closed building housing the Liberty Bell, on October 1 in Philadelphia. Mark Weekley, superintendent at the National Park Services Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail, puts up a sign proclaiming the facility closed due to the federal government shutdown, in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 1. Hot Springs National Park employee Stacy Jackson carries a barricade while closing Arlington Lawn in Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas on October 1. The Washington Monument is seen behind a chain fence in Washington, on October 1. A National Park Service ranger finishes putting up a sign indicating all facilities at the Martin Luther King Historic Site are closed to the public in Atlanta, on October 1. A Capitol police officer walks through the empty Capitol Rotunda, closed to tours during the government shutdown on Capitol Hill in Washington, on October 1. An employee at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Springfield, Massachusetts, puts up a sign on October 1, to notify visitors that the site is closed because of a government shutdown. A U.S. Park Service police officer stands at the closed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington on October 1. A man looks into the closed Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington on October 1. A National Parks Service ranger posts a sign on the doors of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on October 1 notifying visitors that the church is closed. A U.S. park ranger places a closed sign on a barricade in front of the World War II Memorial in Washington on October 1. Park police and Park Service employees close down the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall on October 1. A sign informs visitors that the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial, west of Paris, is closed because of the shutdown on October 1. A man walks past a sign noting the closure at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Valley View, Ohio, on October 1. Members of the U.S. National Park Service close the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington on October 1. A U.S. park ranger posts a closed sign at the Lincoln Memorial on October 1. A sign alerting visitors that the National Gallery of Art is closed stands outside the building on October 1. People look at a sign announcing that the Statue of Liberty is closed in New York on October 1. Fencing around the World War II Memorial prevents people from entering the monument on the National Mall in Washington on October 1. Signs taped on museum doors alert visitors that the National Museum of American History in Washington is closed on October 1. A U.S. park service police officer stands guard at the entrance of the closed Lincoln Memorial on October 1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 Congress and the President are trying to reach a deal to end the shutdown Donna Brazile: There are many lessons and cautionary tales to be learned here She says the politics of brinksmanship and extortion should be rejected by GOP Brazile: Republican Party base lives in fear and resorts to extreme tactics Editors note: Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and a Democratic strategist, is vice chairwoman for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee. She is a nationally syndicated columnist, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and author of Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pot in America. She was manager for the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000. (CNN) -- As Senate negotiators, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell huddle for another day to avoid the nations default this week, well know in a few days if Congress -- more accurately, House Republicans -- will choose to plunge this nation into a second recession, possibly triggering a global financial meltdown, or agree to compromise. In a marble hallway of the Capitol, the Ohio clock that has kept time outside the Senate chamber for nearly 200 years, stopped ticking. Its not just symbolic, but a result of the John Boehner-led government shutdown. The Senate curators who wind the clock have been furloughed. There are many lessons and cautionary tales to be learned from where we are. I want to focus on three. First, since the modern congressional budgeting process took effect in 1976, there have been 17 government shutdowns. (Almost half -- eight -- occurred while Ronald Reagan was President.) Some of them only lasted a few days. But the nature of shutdowns has changed: theyve gone from squabbles to policy. Constitutional brinksmanship has become a political tactic of the Republican Party. The shutdowns of 95 and 96 were a prologue to the shutdowns of 2011 and 2013. In the 90s, Newt Gingrich (then the speaker of the House) got a lot of what he wanted, but his methods disgusted much of the country, and the Republicans took a hit in the polls. In 2011, Boehner boasted he got 98% of what he wanted, but the country firmly rejected the tactics of brinksmanship and bullying in the 2012 presidential election. Obama, who had approached the budget negotiations believing that Republicans still thought compromise is an honorable word and a reasonable solution, learned otherwise. This time, hes not negotiating with what are essentially extortionists. Second, Abraham Lincolns adage still holds true: You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Experts are calling the Republican drop in the polls jaw dropping and significant and consequential. One Republican pollster said of the Republican Partys 20-point poll gap: This type of data creates ripples that will take a long time to resolve, and there will be unexpected changes we cannot predict at the moment. Its not just the American public who see through the shill and extortion. Rep. Devin Nunes of California calls some GOP colleagues lemmings with suicide vests, but he still votes with them. Several Republicans in Congress and six Republican governors have gone on record as opposing the shutdown. Even the conservative pundits are appalled. Tremendous progress in Senate Furloughed workers turn to food pantries Obama: Shutdown completely unnecessary Charles Krauthammer called defunding Obamacare misguided, going so far as to call them [House Republicans] the suicide caucus. Bill OReilly warned against anti-Obamacare hysteria and told Republicans not to shut down the government, or Washington would become Detroit, a place completely out of control. And Sean Hannity, of all people, has abandoned Boehner, telling his radio audience Friday that Boehner and the rest of the leadership team need to be replaced. Third, this shutdown and looming default are part of a fight that goes beyond budgets and finances. The fight has two parts: How do we govern ourselves? And who are we? Republicans lost the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012. They regained control of the House in 2010, but might well lose it in 2014. (In fact, had congressional districts not been monstrously gerrymandered, they probably would have lost control in 2012.) Our Constitution provides pathways for minorities to express their opinions and have a voice in the political process. The old-fashioned way to change policy and change laws involves winning elections (fairly) and using genuine compromise for the greater good. But Republicans in the House have chosen not to go that route, for two reasons. First, because of cui bono -- who benefits. The policy of shutdown, the politics of brinksmanship and extortion, benefits those who would profit from turning America into a de facto corporatist oligarchy. (Of course, a monster, once created, isnt always easy to control.) The second part of the fight is over demographics. America is changing. We are growing into our destiny of equality for all, becoming a diverse nation where neither race nor religion nor politics can stop a person from self-improvement. As our nation changes from predominantly West European to a mixture that includes larger percentages of Asians, Africans and Hispanics, the demographic -- and cultural -- dynamics inevitably change as well. Some people -- about two-thirds of the Republican Partys base -- cant handle that. They live in fear -- an amorphous fear of labels (words such as socialist have voodoo-like power) and of others. Its a fear preyed on and exaggerated. And all their fears have been transferred, scapegoat-like, onto Obamacare and the Democrats. What Lincoln wrote to a Republican in Congress who feared a financial crisis if they didnt compromise on slavery applies to the House Republicans attempted political extortion: Let there be no compromise on the question. ... If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again. ...Have none of it. Stand firm. The tug has to come, and better now, than any time hereafter. Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook/CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Donna Brazile.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 20:24:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015