Republicans' non-stop extremism is a political suicide

Posted by Shyam Moondra

 

Not long ago, the Congressional Republicans, inspired by their Tea Party comrades, refused to raise the federal debt ceiling and even advocated to default on national debt. They threatened to shut down the government unless President Barack Obama accepted their proposals of decimating Social Security and Medicare programs to balance the budget. Those extreme tactics backfired; the U.S. debt was downgraded by the rating agencies and Obama easily won a second term as the president. The American people were thoroughly disgusted with the extreme tactics of Republicans which was reflected in the historically low approval rating of the Congress as an institution. After that debacle, one would think that Republicans learned their lesson. However, recently, Republicans again attempted to use extreme tactics and those tactics are again backfiring on them, which is not ideal on the eve of next year’s national elections.

In recent weeks, House Republicans first tried to shut down Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by introducing a bill that would have approved funding for DHS only if Obama's executive order on immigration was rescinded. To the embarrassment of Republican House Speaker John Boehner, the bill failed to win a majority of votes in the House. Even if that bill had passed in the House, there was no certainty that the Senate would have approved it, given a slim majority of Republicans there. And even if the bill cleared both Houses, Obama would have vetoed it with no chance of a two-thirds majority vote in the Congress to override the presidential veto. So, the question is, as a matter of tactic, what was the point in threatening to shut down DHS in face of increasing terrorist threats from ISIS and Al Qaeda. At the last minute, Boehner blinked and the House passed a clean bill to fund DHS, just hours before DHS was about to be shut down.

Then came Boehner’s invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give a speech to a joint session of Congress denouncing the nuclear deal that the major world powers and Iran were negotiating. Boehner extended the invitation directly to Netanyahu bypassing the White House, which was a major breach of protocol. Obama refused to meet with Netanyahu during his visit to Washington, DC and Vice President Joseph Biden, who usually presides over such joint meetings of the Congress, was conveniently absent because of a “previously scheduled” foreign trip. Many Congressional Democrats also skipped the Netanyahu’s speech. Since its inception, Israel has enjoyed bi-partition support from both parties and has received close to $1 trillion in foreign aid. However, Boehner’s extreme tactic of inviting Netanyahu without first clearing with the White House backfired and a majority of Americans disapproved the way Boehner did it. Boehner’s misstep also brought to the forefront the question why we are still giving financial aid to Israel whose economy has steadily improved in recent years and their per-capita income now equals those of many affluent European countries. The solid bi-partition Congressional support for Israel is, at the moment, fractured, which might work against Netanyahu in his bid to remain as Prime Minister after next Tuesday’s Israeli elections.

Last week, Republicans did it again, this time in the Senate. Forty-seven Republican senators sent an unprecedented open letter to the leaders of Iran, telling them that whatever deal they reach on nuclear issue with Obama, could be reversed by the next President or by the Congress. They did so knowing that the executive branch of the government has the sole constitutional authority to manage foreign affairs of the U.S. In fact, under the Logan Act, which prohibits individual citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, these senators may have committed a crime. Of course, the authors of the letter in question argue that they were merely informing the Iranian government about the U.S. constitution and that they were not trying to negotiate a separate nuclear deal. Many Republicans believe that the proposed deal between the major powers (five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany) and Iran (which stipulates restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities for ten years in exchange for removing trade and financial sanctions imposed on Iran by the UNSC) leaves the door open for Iran to develop nuclear weapons after ten years. When the letter became public, there was a wave of press editorials denouncing the move; the Republican tactic was termed as dumb, unproductive, and unpatriotic. The Republican letter to an adversary made the U.S. look like a divided country and that was hardly a positive thing for bringing the nuclear negotiations with Iran to a successful conclusion. Some of our closest allies called the letter unhelpful and mused over dysfunctional political landscape in Washington, DC. Even Iranian leaders blasted the letter and used it to support their own propaganda that the U.S. was disintegrating. Facing criticism at home and abroad, some of the senators, who signed the letter, began to publicly wonder if sending that letter to Iranian leaders was a wise move.

Every time Republicans engaged in an act of extremism, they failed and yet they keep making the same mistake again and again. In democracy, extremism is a political liability because most Americans are at the center of the political spectrum. A simple math would dictate that extremism is a losing tactic; it turns off the voters, who are now beginning to wonder if Republicans can really govern a divided nation. Recent mishaps of Republicans will hurt them in next year’s national and local elections.