Obsession nearly cost us a nation

Obsession was at the heart of the federal government shutdown. The results were very plain and very painful for the average American. This single-minded focus by a small minority of the Tea Party nearly caused a national implosion. Notice I say the Tea Party, which sadly is in control of the GOP, not the entire GOP or Republicans in general; more than a few tried to stop them in fact. A lot were simply cowed into silence and submission as the Tea Party went ahead and held an entire nation hostage for more than 16 days.

What was the obsession? Well, to be honest there are actually two. One is President Obama. Since I can do very little about that, let us look at the second, which has been a major obsession with the Tea Party in general and the source of the shutdown. It is the Affordable Care Act, a bill passed by both houses of congress, signed into law by the president, and challenged and upheld in the Supreme Court. This was all done under the rules of the U.S. Constitution, the way every law in this nation has been worked out since day one the United States has been in existence.

Now, if it is a bad law — and there have been such in our history — there is a process that is used. It is called a repeal. That is also part of the constitution. Somehow that tidbit didn’t take in the minds of the Tea Party types.

They tried something else and look at the results: a shutdown of the government and the hurt millions of innocent Americans at a cost of billions of dollars, plus the added bonus of the anger and resentment of nearly every American. The blame also falls on the entire Congress and administration at the White House. They, too, had a measure of pain in this mess. The extremes of both parties in part and parcel share the blame in this insanity. The Tea Partiers were the only ones proudly advertising their obsession. What was that saying about pride going before the fall?

Even Sen. John McCain said they (The Tea Party) were focused on the wrong thing. Last I heard, he is a Republican. He is against the Affordable Care Act as well. But he did show some wisdom in stating that the entire shutdown idea was dead wrong. I respect his views, quite a bit to be honest. I do not agree with all of them. At least he was willing to work with the other side. His history of doing so is quite plain and public.

Now that we as a government are back up and running. What should happen now? Well, for starters we must never, ever let this kind of disaster happen again. And it might just do that in January 2014. This short-term thinking will not work. This is not how we should allow this government to run things. We need long-term ways to do things. I seem to recall we did so some time ago. We need to do that again desperately. Otherwise, we stand the chance of going though another nightmare of a shutdown time and time again. That must stop — now.

I believe that all members of Congress, the White House and the leaders of both parties involved need remedial education. They should be required to attend classes on the principles of the following: civility, cooperation and compromise. These are things both parties are equally guilty of losing in the past 20 years.

Since this entire fiasco put veterans and their active counterparts at risk, the instructors should be drill sergeants from the Army and Marines. No insult to my fellow Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard vets, but I feel that the Army and the Marines produce the meanest DIs (drill instructors) on the planet. Congress and the rest of Washington, D.C., deserve only the best and the meanest to re-educate them. You might laugh, but I’m dead serious on the first (the classes) and wishful thinking on this last suggestion (the DIs). I highly doubt either will ever come to pass. But you have to admit, it would do them all a great deal of good to put the fear of God into their eyes with a really good dressing down by some of our finest. It’s something they would never forget, either. (I still remember mine by name to this day.)

The obsession that brought this nation to the brink of self-destruction must never be allowed to happen ever again. It is proof that this small-minded group within a group has been given far too much power over the GOP. Proof is in the pudding. A foul taste rises from a dirty bowl. The toxic mix by both parties has also made a nasty brew. Both pudding and brew need to be tossed out. The bowl and mug need to be washed clean.

The sad reality is that there were no winners, but there were plenty of losers — mostly the American citizens caught in the middle of a fight that never should have happened in the first place. I hope Congress and those parties involved get the message this time. Honestly, I have serious doubts they did.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.