Letter: President Obama is standing on principle
Sometimes when we are in the middle of a big moment in history, we are blinded by partisanship. The debt ceiling fight is such a moment.
We have a far right group of ideologues who are demanding concessions they could not get because they could not win the presidential election or the Senate. They are saying that if the country does not accede to their demands, they will blow up the economy. The Republicans are willing to take everyone with them because they are so sure of their own righteousness.
If the Democrats in 2006 were to act in the same manner, they would have insisted that President Bush do away with the tax cuts he had passed when he had control of both the House and the Senate at the beginning of his Presidency. In spite of the Democrats having both the Senate and the House in 2006, they knew they could not get past the presidential veto. They respected the Constitution and what the Founding Fathers had in mind when designing the separation of powers and how they should operate.
The Republican Party obviously does not. They are in it to win by any means necessary.
For the president, this is not about winning this particular political battle. It is about how these political battles should be fought. He is going to win this battle against those who would use extortion as a means to a political end.
It is terrifying what will happen if the Republicans go through with their threat and severely damage ours and the world’s economy. It is going to cause much pain here and around the world. The only silver lining is that will be the end of the Republican Party as a viable political entity.
I have never been more proud of this president, and history is going to record this as one his finest moments.
John Lucas
Lodi
http://www.lodinews.com/opinion/letters/article_35612e9b-588f-5ce7-9776-35c3e91e3b6c.html
