The G.O.P.: Seeds of Dysfunction and Obstruction

Republicans deserve the "credit" for sowing the seeds of obstruction and dysfunction that are apparent in the nation's political climate today. Washington's calm right now because the 112th Congress left town and went home, leaving the country stalled until a few weeks before the election.

If you review the record of their actions over the period since Ronald Reagan became president, you'll see the G.O.P.'s hand at work creating disharmony and stalling any opportunities for progress:

• crafting a cohesive minority that negated the effectiveness of the majority party.
• using party affiliation to damage the president of the other party.
•  undermining the public trust and reducing the House and Senate's credibility to a 9 percent approval rate.
• pitting colleagues with different views as partisan adversaries by using overheated rhetoric, ethics charges, and committee or confirmation hearings as political weapons.
• adopting a take-no-prisoners style of confrontation as the new way of doing business.

Although there are a number of star players, like  Rick Santorum, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and others,
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is the singular political figure who set the tone that followed.  If you watched the Republican Presidential Debates, you saw Newt at work and at his best. The crowd loved his references to the "food stamp president", his comments on making poor kids school janitors, his banter with Juan Williams about going to the NAACP to tell African Americans to stop looking for a handout. (You heard similar buzz words from "Righteous" Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann.)

The Republican Party's nominee, Mitt Romney, is waging a war of lies, half-truths, and distortions about President Obama's policies, record and political remarks as he tries to convince voters to send him to the White House in the 2012 Election. His rich financial backers seem to think they can buy the White House for him. Republican State legislators have implemented new voter ID laws, decreased early voting schedules, and caused mass confusion among voters which they hope will allow Romney to win the presidency.

Don't be fooled.  These guys mean business and have no shame in their game.  They'll lie, steal and cheat to get Barack Obama out of office. They'll be voting against the President, not for Mitt Romney. It's up to us to thwart their plans and return President Obama to office in November. In spite of everything the Republicans have done, "Yes, we can".