The Republicans are Undemocratic
As I was listening to all the commentary on the Republican Governors refusing to take the stimulus money it dawned on me that this group of Republicans don’t believe in democracy. Now this is serious charge and if understood by the country, would be the end of their party. But consider this: Democracy means we all enter into a contract to live by majority rule (or in the case of the filibuster, super-majority rule). So clearly if we passed a law that said all men of a certain age must serve in the national service and some don’t, they are law breakers. If we allowed this to go unpunished we would have anarchy.
We had a vigorous debate about how to stimulate the economy and the majority ruled. Now we have some Republican governors who want to reject that stimulus package and the stimulus it might provide. They are denying our basic rule, which is the debate is over, the majority ruled, now you must give it a chance. In effect they are creating anarchy and submarining the stimulus package. It is clear that this segment of the Republican Party only believes in following laws they agree with. We never want to put these people in power.
In a related event, Senator Shelby of Alabama was caught by a local newspaper in a town hall meeting raising doubt about President Obama’s citizenship (politicalwire.com). It is the other side of the same coin. They don’t agree with him and therefore they will do what they can to undermine his government. They are a great bunch. There ideology is much more important than their country. Ideology trumps patriotism.