We've tried elections

I should know better than to read an essay such as this just before going to bed. The uneasiness (and not sleeping) at 3:00 am. is not good.

I've written about Sara Robinson's understanding of what the GOP and its backers are really up to. Her essays about that first appeared two years ago. Alas, Robinson hasn't written anything in many months. So it is good to hear other voices taking up the cause, though essayist Terrence Heath shares a home with Robinson with Campaign for America's Future.

To explain his point Heath goes back in history -- to Poland in 1568. This was the start of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was a mighty power of the time, feared by Stockholm and Moscow. It extended east far beyond the borders of modern Poland and included much of modern Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, and Estonia. As the Polish nobles set up their form of Parliament (yup, only nobles represented) they agreed that all legislation must be unanimous. For not quite a hundred years no nobleman wanted to be the one to keep a bill from becoming law. A few bills were vetoed (and it took only one no vote), but the system ran smoothly.

But starting in 1652 a nobleman vetoed not only one bill, but the entire legislative session. Starting in 1669 (if I read it right) the veto was applied to 48 of the next 55 sessions and in 1688 the session was dissolved before it even started. Russia, Austria, and Prussia used their influence on individual nobles to get them to veto a session. Polish government became paralyzed. And in 1772 Russia and Austria began to invade and partition a weakened Poland. With Prussia joining the fray Poland disappeared from the map in 1795, not to reappear until 1918.

Poland rotted from within because its government was paralyzed. The surrounding countries picked off the pieces.

Sound familiar?

No, America is not facing invasion from Canada or Mexico and those two countries are not quaking in their boots in the face of our might. However, the Tea Party Caucus has shown they are truly willing to drive the country to collapse if they don't get their way.

Mitch McConnell has said the debt ceiling bill will never be "clean" again, containing only what is necessary to raise the ceiling. The GOP will hold it hostage every time it needs to be raised. No doubt they will also hold hostage the budget and anything else they can.

Why? Because conservatives can no longer get what they want through standard political processes. McConnell again, speaking this time before the debt mess was resolved when a balanced budget amendment was part of the package, said "The Constitution must be amended to keep the government in check. We’ve tried persuasion. We’ve tried negotiations. We’re tried elections. Nothing has worked."

Read that one again. Elections don't work.

Here are a few examples that today's conservatives offer as proof that elections don't work: We elected Barack Obama. Between the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid the government has gotten involved in health care. We banned whites-only lunch counters. We banned child labor. The government has gotten involved in education. I'm sure there are more.

But we live in a democracy! we shout. Rick Horowitz, in the Huffington Post, tries to explain that to the GOP House freshmen: "Why is it that we're supposed to treat your commitments, to your constituents, as sacred, and unalterable, and everyone else's commitments, to their constituents, as fish wrap?"

There were a few, including Bachmann, who refused to vote for the compromise bill. Though Bachmann's rantings in Washington are quite secular, on the campaign trail her speeches use the language of Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism. Both these strands preach that God's laws (no matter how convoluted your reasoning to make what you want to somehow be approved by God) trump man's laws.

As I've written before, mostly when summarizing Sara Robinson's work, conservatives believe they are destined to rule America, democracy gets in the way of that goal, so the GOP is out to prove that democracy doesn't work. McConnell has admitted as much.

I hope someone has started (or will soon start) writing a book on what the GOP did over the course of at least 30 years to prove democracy doesn't work (for them) and step-by-step how they went about dismantling it.