America’s Real Traitors

by Walter Brasch

      The Tea Party wing of the Republican party thinks House speaker John Boehner is a rhino.

      Not the thick-skinned horned mammal that lives in Africa. This rhino is an R-I-N-O . . . Republican in Name Only.

      The Tea Party thinks Boehner, by sometimes listening to both sides and occasionally, but rarely, agreeing with some Democratic ideas, is a traitor. They believe anyone who disagrees with them is evil. A traitor. A RINO.

      The extreme right-wing is also delusional.

      John Boehner is as much a RINO as the one-ton plant eaters are Chihuahuas.

      The latest dust-up between the Speaker and the right-wing came when they wanted to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The Tea Party congressmen wanted to attach a condition to the funding. That condition would be to get rid of President Obama’s immigration policies. Vote to do that, and there would be consent among the right-wing to pass the Homeland Security budget. Disagree with them, and 30,000 federal workers would be laid off; the rest would be required to work without pay.

      That would include the Coast Guard. The Secret Service . The security guards at all airports. FEMA. And, ironically, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. You know, the agents who are the ones who enforce border protection and send undocumented workers back to their home countries.

      The Tea Party politicians are the ones who don’t want to help individuals – especially if it involves money. Let disabled veterans suffer–their mantra is they don’t want any new taxes.

      But, they have yet to oppose mass funding for defense, even if some of the funding went to projects the Pentagon decided wasn’t fiscally sustainable or necessary.

      And so, the Tea Party extremists threw their temper tantrum, threatening to block all funding for Homeland Security if they didn’t get their way.

      The President called for a clean bill. Authorize funding for Homeland Security. Deal with the immigration issues later. It made sense.

      Except to the right-wing.

      John Boehner, aided by moderate Republicans and Democrats, brought a clean bill to a vote. The House–with 52 Republicans opposed–passed the bill. The President signed it 10 minutes before the deadline.

      And for protecting the people of America, the Tea Party Republicans call the House speaker a RINO.

      Over in the Senate, 47 right-wingers, in violation of the federal Logan Act that bars interference in foreign affairs during negotiations, sent a vicious letter to Iran, trying to undermine the President’s legal and constitutional authority. Even the conservative New York Daily News condemned these senators, four of whom may become presidential candidates, none of whom believe in the Constitution and in the country.

      It’s not hard to see just who the real traitors are to America.

      Maybe it’s time to call those right-wingers who don’t believe in the country to call them what they are likely to become if they keep up their obstruction–extinct.

      [Dr. Brasch is a social issues journalist, and the author of 20 books. His latest book is Fracking Pennsylvania, an in-depth look at the health, environmental, political, and economic effects of fracking throughout the country.]