Written by michael payne   

The Republicans shut down the government -- again. They want to destroy The Affordable Care Act -- again. Has there ever been a political party in the history of America that has done so much damage to this government, the nation and its people? Enough is enough, it's time for the American people to shut this political party down and end its reign of obstruction and destruction.

This is a pitiful excuse for a political party; one that is coming unglued, in a state of chaos and deep divisions, unable to keep the various radical elements within it from undermining each other. Its maniacal plan to shut down the government unless President Obama and the Democrats agree to defund ObamaCare is the work of a corrupted political party that has lost all sense of reason and rationality.

Deep thinkers and problem solvers they are not; masters of obstruction and agents of destruction is what they are. They aren't in Congress to serve and govern, they are there to try to dominate and control. What has always struck me is their very apparent disdain for others that they consider to be below their status. Empathy and feelings for the needs and interests of their fellow Americans is not high on their list of priorities but the care and protection of their Corporate Masters is paramount.

And then we have the Tea Party, the most radical element of the radical Republican Party. Its leaders, Cantor in the House and Cruz in the Senate are fueling the engines of government shutdown. The warped ideology of this extremist movement within the GOP has nothing to do with positive, constructive ideas but, rather, concentrates on tearing things apart. The entry of this poisonous element into the Republican Party will serve to escalate its approaching demise.

Using the threat of the destruction of the Affordable Care Act, the ACA, as the only way to prevent a government shutdown represents the height of arrogance and irresponsibility. So exactly how this latest crisis will play out is not easy to predict, but here is what I think will come to pass and then what will follow:

By shutting down the government and holding the American people and their interests hostage in the process, the Republicans quite likely will suffer the consequences of their reckless actions and experience the anger and outrage of the American people who are sick and tired of them and the stupid games they play. In the end they will have accomplished nothing more than to convince millions more Americans that they are totally incapable of representing the people of this nation in any way.

So as the shut down continues the Republicans, as thickheaded and stubborn as they are, are now preparing their next strategy that will damage this government and the nation; that being their insidious plan to refuse to approve the enactment of legislation needed to approve the nation's debt ceiling in order to prevent a government default of its financial obligations. As a condition to agreeing to raise the debt ceiling the leadership of the GOP will demand the inclusion of the Paul Ryan budget, the same old plan designed to kill social programs, penalize the middle class, and once again defund or repeal the Affordable Care Act.

This second attempt to take this nation to the brink of disaster will, once again, end in a GOP failure as this threat to force the Democrats and the president will backfire. The Republican leadership will use every deceitful tactic at their disposal to force their demands on the Congress. But they will soon realize that if they actually cause a default on this government's financial obligations and have to bear the responsibility for the resultant chaotic conditions, that their candidates in the congressional elections of 2014 will be demolished. And so they will, once again, back off at the last minute.

But it will be too late as their reckless, irresponsible actions will have done irreparable damage to their already shoddy and shady reputations and that more and more Americans will see them as the hypocrites that they are. If this country and its people are fortunate, the elections of 2014 will spell the end of the GOP as we have known it and it will become a fringe party replete with antagonists railing against each other for control of a dying party; again, there is no guarantee that this will happen but, if the GOP membership and leadership forge ahead with their mindless threats to shut down the government, the chances of this happening will increase exponentially. And the outcome will be that this mindless, nonsensical attempt by the GOP to hold the American government hostage to its ludicrous demands will finally result in hammering the last nail into that party's coffin.

This then will be the perfect time to cleanse this entire American political process; it will open the door for other political parties with candidates who possess characteristics of honesty, integrity, moral principles, and a sense of logic and reasoning to emerge. This is an opportunity that, when presented, the American people must seize so that the obstructionists and the agents of destruction will be no more and the U.S. government can once again function in the best interests of the American people.

Michael Payne