Friday, January 16, 2015

"Hostage-Taking" and "Comprehensive Legislation" Examples: 2013

EXAMPLES AND ANALYSIS: 2013 "Hostage-Taking" and "Comprehensive Legislation"
In the United States, we always do things in a grand way, so it’s a tribute to American exceptionalism that we have far outperformed China in the field of extremist ideologues. We don’t have some pathetic little foursome, but an unrivaled “Gang of 40.” That’s my name for the 40 hard-line Republican House members who have forced the shutdown of the federal government and are now flirting with a debt default that could spin the world into recession. In their purported effort to save America money, they’re costing us taxpayers billions of dollars. Obviously, there are differences — our Gang of 40 disdain Mao suits — but there is a similar sense in which an entire nation is held hostage by a small group of unrepresentative figures who don’t have much of a clue about economics or about where they’re taking the country. … The second is the way politicians seek leverage by brazenly threatening deliberate harm to the nation unless they get their way. The House Republican hard-liners lost their battle against Obamacare in the democratic process, just as President Obama lost his battle for an assault-weapons ban. But instead of accepting their loss as Obama did, members of the Gang of 40 took hostages. Unless Obamacare is defunded, they’ll cause billions of dollars in damage to the American economy.
-- New York Times pundit Nicholas Kristof, October 10, 2013.

Comment: This is "extremists" and "ideologues" and "hostage-taking" rhetoric.

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We — and by we I mean Congress, and by Congress I mean the Republicans in Congress — have again demonstrated just how broken and paralyzed our government has become, how beholden to hostage-takers, how vulnerable to extremism.
-- New York Times pundit Charles Blow, January 3, 2013.

Comment: This is "extremists" and "hostage-taking" rhetoric.

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