"The Strange Political Culture of Today's GOP"

Unit: Political Culture

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-schmookler/the-strange-political-cul_b_8146870.html

Synopsis: In this article, Andy Schmookler juxtaposes long-standing American values and political ideology. With the example of the then current Speaker of the House's declaration on the Republican party's continued fight against the Iran deal, he claims that such a response defies two rules. First, that such behavior constitutes that of a sore loser, or someone with sour grapes, who does not deign to offer congratulations or at least respect to the winning party. The example of the hawks' battle over land lost in the Panama Canal Treaty during President Jimmy Carter's term in office was given, as in this modern time they lost, but in the past when the same thing happened they accepted the deal and moved on with their political concerns. Schmookler gave another example of the Republican party's bad attitude on the political field with health care, with President Obama and the Democrats coming out as the clear leaders with the creation of Obamacare. The author argues that the Republicans have still not moved on after five years after refusing to expand Medicaid at the state level and voting to repeal the act over fifty times in the House. The second rule that the Republicans are defying is the need for purposeful action; Boehner's comment emphasizes a political culture that does not care if their action will achieve positive results or not, as seen in the battle against the Iran deal and health care.

Analysis: This article creates imagery between the Democrats and Republicans reminiscent of squabbling children upset over the result of a play activity. It is difficult to think of individuals who hold power over the direction of the nation resort to such childish coping abilities for losing. The Republican party does not need any other obstacles standing in their way what with the upcoming presidential elections for 2016 and their failure in the past presidential elections compared to the Democrat's success. The author specifically named Ted Cruz as such a Republican who emphasizes the wasteful political action and opinions in exchange for a medic presence. The worry is what the voters will think; do the people want a party that is again threatening to shut down government over federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a major conflict for congressional Republicans? Although  more progressive topics like abortion stands with pro-choice liberals, does the role of religion in the more conservative and Republican pro-life stance on the issue need to be continually publicized in the political playing field instead of compromising or even admitting to loss? Perhaps the Republican party feel like they need to defend their ideals for their voters in the losing political culture to think that their opinions are being supported and worked on, but there comes a point when an issue has been resolved and put to rest and further fighting is futile and purposeless.