Didn't See This Coming.

Did anyone, could anyone have, imagined that in the 21st century, the election of America's first African American president would have been met with a degree of congressional racist obstructionism that would threaten the very economic viability of our nation?  For most of us, it was expected that there would be some kind of racist reaction from the electorate, and for many of us, this included the possibility of harm to the first black president.

I don't think anyone in either political party, on either side of the congressional aisle, expected the magnitude of congressional reaction, until it happened. At that point, congress went from being a presidential rubber stamp, to a virtual impenetrable wall of presidential obstructionism.  OK, granted the previous president was Republican, and the black president isn't, and the House is.

While the Senate is Democratic numerically, it isn't with the current level of filibuster abuse.  Regular congressional business, that would normally be conducted irrespective of who was president, like raising the debt ceiling and passing farm bills, had become, with the black president, no longer possible.

But as the inauguration of the unthinkable approached, Republicans called a clandestine meeting on Inauguration Day to consider their unthinkable strategy.  They decided that they would bring the American government to a halt rather than consider, much less facilitate, this president's agenda.  OK, granted, despite all evidence to the contrary, they were operating under the assumption that this president's agenda was Marxist, Socialist, anti-Capitalist, and Kenyan.  So, I can appreciate some fear from their conservative capitalist perspective.

However, well into this president's first four years, when it had to become obvious to Republican that not only is this president not Marxist, Socialist, anti-Capitalist, and Kenyan, he might be more of a centrist than even Clinton.  This is the Democratic president that offered the "Grand Bargain" in his first term and Social Security Chained CPI (an actual "entitlement" cut) in his second term. 

But the Republicans decided to stay the course, they set in that January 2009 strategy meeting.  As a result, they found themselves embracing a level of hypocrisy heretofore unseen in human history.  They found themselves blocking bills and legislative concepts they had even previously authored or coauthored.

Hypocrisy is one thing, but governmental gridlock, and playing "Chicken" with America's economy is another.  What's worse is you get the distinct impression that there are those in the Republican side of congress, who not only want to bring America to the precipice of ruin, but over it.  All because electing a black president made possible the election of these insane and racist Republicans.