Tea Party and GOP failure  

It is now time to recognize that the Tea Party movement is a failure. Our government and Congress has been dysfunctional and ineffective for six years now largely because of Tea Party influence.

Finally, we now are in the first government shutdown in 17 years.  And Americans who elected these Tea Party representatives should now see the seriousness of that failure and the result of their action. There is no place in our government for extremist representation. It does not correctly reflect the majority sentiment and more importantly can distort the absolute effectiveness of government and our Congress.  

Tea Party representatives and other right- or left-wing extremists by definition represent outlier groups or factions. They do not reflect the majority of Americans. Yet because of ineffective primary opposition, big money and special-interest election buying (e.g., Koch Industries), dirty campaigning, etc., they somehow get elected as our representatives.

And because of their views, values, and obstinance, they see only “their way or the highway.”

This mentality would normally be crushed by a more dominant faction and strong leadership within Congress.

But when that dominant faction and leadership cannot get this extreme faction to join the majority, the dominant faction finds itself governed by the extreme faction in order to maintain its majority voting position, as it currently has in the House of Represntatives.

This then drives the entire GOP representation and movement into failure. And only when this failure results will the situation eventually correct itself through future elections that attempt to restore the representation of the majority.  

But in the interim of those two or four years between major elections, the American public suffers in the form of congessional lockjaw and huge economic costs.

There always will be liberals and conservatives in our representation and government. This has always been and will continue in the future.  It is an effective checks and balances system to control costs, regulate big business, and limit inequality and injustice. But when our representatives have their own agendas that don’t represent the American majority and society, it becomes “We the Congress instead of We the People.”

This is the point when the people must rise up and correct this distortion. The people’s voice must be heard in Washington. Your representatives must hear your voice in the interim. And those representatives that choose to run their own personal agendas should be dispatched in the next election for their actions and misrepresentation.

We cannot afford a disfunctional and ineffective Congress for years at a time as our government. We have too many serious issues and needs that are not being addressed and bills not even being discussed because of individual political rants, election posturing, and ridiculous exhibitions involving self-serving political idiots reciting Dr. Seuss as part of 21-hour filibustering sessions. The time has come to put an end to this.

As was once said “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” And so should you.

Bob Crnkovich is a resident of Whitefish.