Republicans And The-End-Justifes-The-Means in Politics

The damage the Republican party has done to itself by following the-end-justifies-the-means principle throughout speaker Boehner's tenure is unparalleled. In possession of the biggest majority since 1929, they succumbed to the Marxist policies of Barack Obama, undoubtedly the worst and politically and culturally most damaging president we all have seen and will ever see in our lifetime. The Republicans failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they didn't defund Planned Parenthood, and they let Obama get away with his destructive immigration policies. In fear of being blamed for government shutdowns, they avoided them, rather than going all the way and making clear to the public that the blame is on the dogmatically progressive president. 

In November 2013, I published an essay on the troublesome predominance of the ends-justifies-the-means approach in politics (https://www.edwinseditorial.com/2013/11/the-end-justifies-means-but-one.html). At the time, a host of domestic and international issues provided the profound background to analyze the damaging effects of a mere consequentialist approach in political decision-making. 

 

The performance of the Republican Party of the Congress since their landslide win in the Congressional Elections in 2014 adds a new chapter to the book of consequentialist horror. Not even conservatives comprehend that any policy disregarding the principles of righteousness and justice and aims exclusively at temporary opportunistic expediency is doomed to fail in the medium and long term. 

  

This treacherous path to yield and surrender principles the political right in this country is supposed to stand for appears to be continued with the election of Rep. Paul Ryan as the successor to John Boehner. Ryan has a reputation for being pro-amnesty and in favor of quite open borders. His support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (T.T.P.) trade deal, which has been coined "Obamatrade' by hardcore Republicans, is not popular in many quarters of his party. His softness and personal tendency to surrender became visible in his vice presidential debate against Joe Biden when Ryan was unable to rein in the hysterically laughing Biden, losing a TV-debate he would otherwise have won on conceptual grounds. 

The appointment of Paul Ryan as the new speaker of the house heralds the continuation of the unfortunate course of consequentialist politics most likely pursued by the Republican party. The most alerting reason Ryan was not the right choice derives from the fact that Barack Obama and many in the Democratic caucus welcome his appointment. They believe that Paul Ryan will represent that compliant and accommodating counterpart they are used to from the days of Speaker Boehner. 

But let's hope they are wrong and, if Paul Ryan is elected new speaker, he will remind himself of the real values his party stands for, steer a more proper course, and takes the lessons from his poor debate performance into consideration.

U.S. Political System in Process of Degeneration

As the pundits on all major news outlets are surmising over who won the first Democratic Presidential Debate on CNN, I heard nobody mention the only real loser of that debate - the American political system and, therefore, the American people.

The decisive moment happened even before the candidates were introduced and entered the stage. At the outset, Barack Obama addressed the Democratic candidates and the viewers in a taped video message, advising them to work and fight hard to keep the White House in 2016. Mind you, if a Head of State, who has to be the leader of all people, addresses only the candidates of his political party, something is seriously wrong. It was a clear sign that the United States' political system degenerates ever more into a caricature of what it is supposed to be.
   
When it comes to the institutional pillars and the bipartisan principles of the political system he is constitutionally bound to serve, a president ought to rise above party politics and exercise some measure of political neutrality that his office demands. In other words, if Obama addressed both Democratic and Republican candidates, encouraging a fair and constructive race for the presidential elections in 2016, he would raise respect for the office he is holding. To abuse a video message before the debate of Democratic candidates for cheap partisan propaganda is repulsive.

But this is but one manifestation of the decline of the political culture in the U.S., besides the constant lying of even the highest political representatives, the shirking of responsibility for policy failures, and the polarization between political forces to the degree of outright hatred and attempted annihilation.

That the political system in the U. S. is degenerating into the lows of a Banana Republic is no longer an unfounded assumption. To initiate a swift turnaround is the call of the hour.