Your entire premises are flawed from the start. Clearly you are so enamored of the Left and filled with bs about the Right that any attempt to change your mind will probably be futile.
to start with, the cause of the 'shutdown' was entirely on reid, obama and the dems, for their complete refusal to compromise or even negotiate AT ALL. Only one side was all or nothing-the dems. The House passed measures to keep funding everything but ocare. It was the dems who decided ' all or nothing', who were totally willing to shut own whatever it took to keep their unpopular ocare just as they wanted it.
Do you want me to catalog all of the republican quotes targeting a government shutdown and once accomplished, stating 'we got exactly what we wanted.'
So it really was the Democrats that shut down the government? That's what Thomas Sowell said. Except he was lying through his teeth and you believed it because he told you so and it fit your prejudice. So it must be true. Another authoritarian trait.
Did the democrats change the rules the night before the resolution vote on the gridlocked Senate bill? No, the republicans did that here: http://rules.house.gov/bill/113/hj-res-59-sa-1
So what happened? The republican majority House Rules Committee voted the night of Sept. 30 to change that rule for this specific bill. They added language dictating that any motion "may be offered only by the majority Leader or his designee." That would be Eric Cantor. A lunatic fringe republican. The spending bill never made it to the floor for a full vote b/c of the republicans and Eric Cantor.
The irony that follows is mindboggling; the dems were willing to stall everything to keep their pet legislation alive and unchanged, despite the fact that the majority of the population DID NOT SUPPORT IT. Cruz, in his opposition to ocare, actually represented the majority of the nation. He did exactly what his constituents elected him to do. He did what he said he would do. How is that crazy?
There is no irony. The republicans set out to shut down the government from day one and they did it. And then they blamed the democrats and you ran with that incorrect story arc.
Another authoritarian trait.
And of course the richest irony of all was that the dems, after weeks of smearing cruz in the worst possible way, started seeing ocare unfold disastrously, and pressured obama to do EXACTLY WHAT CRUZ WANTED HIM TO DO.
Again, there's no irony b/c the republicans did exactly what they intended to do.
And please, tell the millions and millions of children and adults previously barred from insurance coverage due to a pre-existing condition like cancer what an unmitigated failure the ACA is.
I dare you. Total lack of empathy for other people--another Authoritarian trait.
Cruz's actions and statements were proven correct and COMPLETELY VALIDATED as events unfolded. The dems have been delaying and rewriting the law on the fly for months now, despite shutting down the gov in stubborness whe cruz asked them to do the same thing. How on earth can this be defended in tbe face of such blinding hypocrisy??
Do you see how you are projecting Cruz and his intended gov shut down on democrats? Sure, of course, the ACA was the law of the land after the Sup. Ct. gave it the greenlight so naturally, the democrats tried to shut down the government to scuttle their own legislation.
Do you see how crazy that sounds now? Do you see what you're doing by projecting Cruz's insane behavior on the democrats?
The only ones 'hurting america' is the obama adminstration and their policies, not 'ted cruz'. This is playing out before our eyes, despite the liberal media's relentless whitewashing and sugar coating attempts. Any 'hurt' caused by the shutdown was 100% on the administration, as they were not only ultimately responsible, but attempted to deliberately 'make it hurt' with nonsensical closures and such because they knew their media arm would spin it to ensure the majority of the public blamed the republicans, if not ted cruz personally.
More projection. What more needs to be said? We have a plethora of rightwing republican quotes stating - we're going to shutdown the government", "We got what we wanted, we shut down the government" The republicans changed the voting rules to putting all the power to bring an up/down vote on the bill in Cantor's hands and he declined, which assured a gov. shutdown. He's a republican.
And you still blame the democrats? That's straight out of the authoritarian psychological profile.
Lastly, your claim that the tea party 'gets marching orders' from rush or fox news is laughable...fox mostly represents the establishment GOP, who is actively waging war on the tea party. The whole 'rush' thing is just another left wing talking point. Ive never listened or watched Rush in my entire life. I think hannity is a smug annoying douche. Of the 3 main political groups( dem, GOP, TEA), none is so fundamentally anti-authoritarian in their ideology as the TP. This is clearly shown in their support for limited government, individual liberty, and their naturally suspicious of consolidated power, anti-establishment thinking, as well as their champions (cruz) refusing to 'play along' with their so-called 'leaders' despite massive criticism.
I did not supply an exhaustive list of rightwing authoritarian figures. I don't have to. The authoritarian psychology is one of 'follow the leader' out of fear. The authoritarian individual is a bully in groups, drawing wilder and wilder behavior from the support of his equally misinformed colleagues. Even when presented with counterfactual evidence, the authoritarian will cling to his dogmatic beliefs rather than mediate his understanding of the situation.
How does any of this represent 'rigid authoritarianism' ? For examples of that, there is no better example than the current democratic party, with their 'cult of personality' dear leader obama, their virtual lockstep with all marching orders passed down from him almost to a man, and their war on individual liberty and expansion of the central government authority, intention to 'work around congress when i know whats best for the american people', and general philosophy that 'government knows best' and that people cannot be trusted to make decisions for themselves.
And the 'racist' thing is so desperate and baseless, it does not even merit discussion.
See my prior distinctions. I'll make a full thread on this when I have the time. My two year old son just smashed my $2000 tv.
If liberals are anything, it's anti-authoritarian. We can't get out of our own way. We can't agree on anything. We wanted the Public Option, we got republican light. We wanted the end of the wars and Bush et al. tried for war crimes, we got dick, we wanted support for organized labor, OBama never heard of the AFLCIO, we wanted so much more and instead we got a rightwing moderate president in moderate leftwing rhetorical clothing.
Does that sound like liberals towing the Obama company line?
The people / government decision making meme is a waste of time. it's fairly meaningless.
Tell me, who flies the stars and bars? State's rights? Voter suppression legislation? Hint: it ain't liberals.
