Written by Thomas Magstadt   

Polls show that voters of all stripes blame a gaggle of extreme rightwing House Republicans for causing the current government shutdown. If the defunding deadlock turns into a debt ceiling standoff it could trigger a stock market crash; if the stock market crashes, the US economy could seize up; if the US economy seizes up, Europe and the global economy will almost certainly be plunged into another deep recession, possibly a depression. It could be catastrophic.

Or maybe not. But here's the point: nobody knows and by creating a dark chasm of uncertainty in minds, markets, and the mass media both at home and abroad the Wingnut wing of the Republican Party is courting disaster on a scale of historic proportions.

The Republic will likely survive the crisis, although in a greatly diminished form – representative democracy is based on majority rule and minority rights, not the other way around. At present, the rules in both the House and Senate put the minority (or even a single legislator with an axe to grind) in a position to tie the Congress in knots. Carried to such extremes as we have witnessed in recent times, the power to obstruct is the power to destroy.

So it's still an open question what shreds of the tattered Constitution will remain intact or whether abominations like the filibuster and other impediments to majority rule will ever be eradicated. It's difficult to see how Congress will ever change unless the practice of "gerrymandering" congressional districts ruled unconstitutional and the role of private money in political campaigns is severely curbed. Corporations are not people, and stuffing money into a candidates' pockets is not speech.

Let's say the Republic does survive, will the Republicans survive? Again, the answer is almost certainly yes, but in what form? For liberals, the hope is that the Tea Party extremists will be punished at the polls next year, that moderate Republicans will be rewarded, and that sanity will be restored to the US Congress. If that were to happen, perhaps the gridlock, rancor, and recurrent budget crises could be put behind us.

But there's another possibility, members of the Republican wrecking crew like Steve King (R-Iowa) and Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) are counting on. Here's a quote that says it all:
“We’ve got a name for it in the House: it’s called the Senate surrender caucus,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas. “Anybody who would vote for that in the House as Republican would virtually guarantee a primary challenger.”

How Republicans vote in the 2014 election will tell the tale. Democrats can't limit the damage done to the Republic, only Republicans can do it. And if they do, if the tables are turned and Tea Party incumbents face moderate challengers in Republican primaries, they just might save a grand old party that has lost its way.