If ever there was an editorial that sums up the destructive potential of a Republican controlled Congress it is this that appears in today’s New York Times.   It should get as wide circulation as possible, so I am doing my bit to bring it to our GMD readership, who will vote, so they can pass it along to their friends, who might not .

Bullet point by bullet point, it itemizes the ways in which Paul Ryan’s budget plan would destroy the economy while brutalizing the poor and taking a final wrecking ball to the middle class.

As disappointed as progressives may be with the Democrats’ failure to deliver on many of the expectations that carried Obama to the White House, this is no time to throw in the towel and not show up to vote.

It is predicted that a characteristic lack of voting enthusiasm on the part of Democrats and liberals in general may very well carry Republicans to control of the Senate as well as the House.  

How can we let that happen in a country that, according to most polls, has a majority who disagree with Republicans on almost every issue?  

It is highly unlikely that a Republican will be elected president in 2016; but with a Republican controlled Congress, for all intents and purposes, the majority of Americans will have, essentially, no representation on the Hill.  

A Democratic president will be powerless to affect policy initiatives other than by executive order, which amounts to fiat.  This is the stuff that banana republics are known for; and it doesn’t ever end well.

We may find ourselves having more in common with the failed nation states in whose dissolutions we routinely meddle than with the model of democracy we hold ourselves to be.

As the Times editorial observes:

Mr. Ryan hopes to be promoted to the helm of the Ways and Means Committee now that its chairman, Dave Camp, has announced his retirement. That would put a man with very dangerous ideas in a position to do serious damage to the tax code and the safety net, which Ways and Means controls. His budget is mostly an exercise in grandstanding right now, but, in a short time, it could become a pathway to something far worse.

If the mid-term elections hand the Senate over to the Republicans there will be nothing to stop them from delivering the entire country to the radical right who have bought and paid for that privilege.

At least for now, the formula is still one citizen = one vote.

This is no time to say “what’s the difference?” and abandon the ballot box!  

We’ll find out what the difference is!