Washington's Endless Civil War by Robert Shrum

If you want to know what is happening in Washington because of right wing obstinacy and obstruction, this is the article to read.  Far right wingers have no concern whatsoever for the fate of the nation that they pretend to support and love. They are interested only in refusing any kind of cooperation with its first black president. Their hattred of him is so great, they will cut off their own nose to spite their face--and if you mention concern or empathy for their fellow Americans, they sneer and turn their heads away.  So much for "compassionate conservatism."  Their way is dark and treacherous, yet they refuse to see themselves as they are.  There is something very sociopathic in this behavior.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/11/washington-s-endless-civil-war.html  (for entire article)

Right-wing legislators can’t believe Obama is still in the White House—and they’re ready to obstruct him at almost any cost.

EXCERPT: it’s conceivable that the far right in the GOP House could force draconian cuts in everything from education and student loans to health research, transportation, and public safety—and yes, military hardware and personnel. Indeed the sequester would bring layoffs to tens of thousands of federal workers, and then to many more Americans as a depleted economy slides toward recession.

This is what happened in Europe with austerity politics: cutting too sharply, too soon—that is the Republicans’ essential demand. It’s idiotic economics and preposterous politics, but the GOP firebrands, assuming they are safe in their gerrymandered districts, may lemming-like do massive damage to the country while dooming their party to a generation of defeat at the presidential level.

Maybe the Republicans will attempt to decapitate the federal government by leaving it without major Cabinet officials. In the end, they’ll fail—and thanks to the drafters of the Constitution, at least the deranged GOP House has no say in the confirmation process. But what’s happening is more proof that what we have in Washington is not a functioning Congress, but a one-ring circus on the far right.

I hope I’m wrong—that somehow Boehner locates his conscience; that enough Republicans decide to do what’s right rather than far right; that the GOP heeds Chris Christie’s counsel that “compromise [is] not a dirty word.” But it’s more than possible that Christie will become an exile in his own party—and that the greatest nation on earth may become a hobbled, dysfunctional democracy.    If so, Americans will settle the issue at the polls in favor of progress—unless a dwindling, demographically depleted Republican Party succeeds for a while in imposing new Jim Crow-like restrictions on voting. But long-term, that’s a losing game. And today, the GOP is the party that won’t compromise; the party that threatens economic chaos; the anti-Medicare, anti-Social Security, anti-women, anti-Hispanic, anti-gay, anti-young party.  There’s no future in that.