Collective Conscious

Now that the health bill’s done and done, the ‘ener­gized base’ that the GOP thought would carry it through Novem­ber is start­ing to dis­ap­pear.  The reform is now sup­ported by a broad plu­ral­ity — almost a major­ity — of Amer­i­cans, and Repub­li­cans who were for­merly clam­or­ing to up and repeal the whole thing are ready to set­tle.

Not sur­pris­ingly, the base is angry, par­tic­u­larly the Tea Party wing. They’re being read­ily co-​​opted by the defeated minor­ity party, to the point where even idol­ized Sarah Palin is ready to bring the Tea Party into the main­stream GOP proper. And they have, at last, real­ized they were lied to. The SS didn’t show up at their doors on Mon­day to euth­a­nize their grand­moth­ers. The IRS didn’t reach its com­mie ten­drils into their bank accounts and leech the life from them. No: in real­ity they’ve got bet­ter healthcare.

We’ll keep watch­ing to see how things shake out, but the GOP’s idiocy is get­ting even more bla­tant. They’re now block­ing the nom­i­na­tion of one of their own mem­bers by a bipar­ti­san com­mis­sion. They’re enforc­ing an old rule that pre­vents the Sen­ate from hold­ing hear­ings after 2pm with­out unan­i­mous con­sent. And they’ve stopped promis­ing to repeal the health care bill. So what are they doing? Lit­er­ally, noth­ing. This should play well with the base.