So, this week, Kentucky Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul were caught in an open mic moment talking about their government shutdown as a matter of public relations strategy and how they can still win over the hearts and minds of the easily duped, and something, with Sen. Rand Paul doing most of the talking about how he was just over at the CNN watering hole making the propaganda rounds and the vibe over there was that a majority of people in this country just don’t get that it’s the Republicans who are willing to negotiate and it’s the Obamacare-loving president who is being unreasonable.
Life and death gamesmanship just needs better messaging.
So, Sen. Rand Paul’s plan is to continue along with their reign of terror and “win” with wordplay by repeating over and over again how Republicans are more than willing to negotiate the release of the hostages from the position of the terrorist.
See, you people are so confused. So brainwashed by the mainstream media. Can’t you understand that this is all for your own good, America? Republicans are the reasonable ones! The terrorists are Freedom Fighters!
What many people seem to be missing is that the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for big businesses with over 50 employees to make coverage available has already been delayed a year to appease our Right wing Corporate Overlords who have been less than enthused about their employees having the freedom to walk away from their horrible bosses without fear of losing their healthcare insurance.
So, Republicans have already gotten their one-year delay. Being the shrewd hostage-takers that they are(for lack of a better cliche), they want it all.
The live mic exchange went like this:
Senator Paul: “Do you have a second?”
Senator McConnell: ”I’m all wired up here, um.”
Paul: “I just did CNN and I just go over and over again ‘We’re willing to compromise. ‘We’re willing to negotiate.’ I think… I don’t think they poll tested we won’t negotiate. I think it’s awful for them to say that over and over again.”
McConnell: “Yeah, I do too and I, and I just came back from that two hour meeting with them and that, and that was basically the same view privately as it was publicly.”
Paul: “I think if we keep saying ‘We wanted to defund it. We fought for that and that we’re willing to compromise on this’, I think they can’t, we’re gonna, I think… well I know we don’t want to be here, but we’re gonna win this I think.”
I think it’s important to point out that Senator Rand Paul is a functioning imbecile who fails over and over again to demonstrate the ability to understand the most rudimentary concept of government, or his proper role within it. And this kind of poll-tested rhetoric being employed by Sen. Rand Paul is a great reason why people in general seem to despise politicians.
But Steve Benen writes:
This comes up all the time with the junior senator from Kentucky. In August, Paul spoke about the philosophic nature of “rights,” though his opinions on the subject were laregly gibberish. The senator says he cares deeply about minority rights, which he struggles to grasp. Paul talks about drone policy, which he flubs badly. He’s expressed a great interest in the Federal Reserve, which he doesn’t understand in the slightest. Paul claims to hate Obamacare, but he fails to appreciate what the policy is and what it does. He says he’s deeply concerned about the deficit, but doesn’t know what the deficit is.
In Rand Paul’s interview with CNN earlier in the week, the one in which he ran back to tell Obamacare-lover Mitch McConnell all about how they’re “gonna win” if they just continue to charge up Cemetery Hill and repeat that it is the Republicans who are more than willing negotiators standing up to the rigid, obstructionist president, said of the impending debt-ceiling set for October 17th: ”There’s no reason to raise the debt limit.”
No reason! But why, pray tell?
“What’s going on is, interestingly, the Democrats are scaring people saying we might not pay [interest on the debt] because Republicans don’t want to raise the debt ceiling,” Paul said on CNN. “If you don’t raise the debt ceiling that means you won’t have a balanced budget, it doesn’t mean you wouldn’t pay your bills.”
Adorable. Sen. Paul went on to say in that interview that “We should pay our interest and we shouldn’t scare the markets, so if I were in charge – I’ll say, absolutely we will never default.”
Well, they are in charge, and we are shut down– with our national credibility on the line being used as a pawn in a game of checkers. It’s a divided government. House Republicans can pass a clean Continuing Resolution right now to at least allow the hostages a bathroom break before they use our debt limit as another “winning” negotiation tactic. But House Speaker John Boehner showed no signs of a peaceful end to this standoff today on ABC’s This Week.
So, according to Sen. Rand Paul, if Republicans are in charge, they’ll “never default” on our obligations and this whole national nightmare can all be put to rest if we just hand over our government.
These are dangerous people.
(Image via Confederate States Of America)