The purpose of opposition parties in democracies is to oppose. At least in theory. At least the Republicans in the United States take that role very seriously. To the point that even when they are in power they still think like an opposition party.
Robert Perry last year in A Method to Republican 'Madness" Consortium News 03/31/2010 gives a history of Republican determination to sabotage Democratic Administrations going back to Lyndon Johnson's: "Whenever a Democrat is in the White House, the Republicans believe they are free [to] do whatever they want to block him from solving national problems, making him look weak and ineffectual." Never in the period have they had a Democratic President so willing to actively cooperate in the crippling of his own Administration and the possible destruction of his own Party. But their basic script isn't new.
As he notes, the Gingrich Republicans went after President Bill Clinton relentlessly with the goals of "tearing down a Democratic president and creating a sense of political havoc." And, today, from Washington to Wisconsin to Florida to California, we see the Republicans attempting the same approach.
Tags: barack obama, bill clinton, republican party, robert perry
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