A Dysfunctional GOP is Failing to Govern

When the Republican took control of both houses of Congress in January, we heard a great deal about the party being set on a course to prove that it could govern the nation and that it was responsible enough to hold the White House come 2016.  Two months later, what the GOP has delivered is dysfunction and batshitery as the party continues to pander to the most insane and extreme elements of the party base, the infamous Iran letter being but the most recent example.  Such dysfunction should come as no surprise given the fact that the base to which Congressional Republicans prostitute themselves reject knowledge, scientific facts, often don't even know geography - e.g., Tom Cotton - and live in a fantasy world detached from objective reality.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the GOP's dysfunction.  Here are excerpts:

It was only January when Republicans took full control of Congress, but already it is safe to say they have no earthly idea of what they want to accomplish.

What we’re seeing is not just a bit of sputtering before the GOP machine cranks up and begins to systematically fulfill its governing plan. There is no plan. Republican majorities in both the House and Senate are so out of control that they’ve managed a feat once thought impossible: They make the Democratic Party look like a model of unity and discipline.

McConnell should be deeply embarrassed that a mere freshman, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) could invite widespread ridicule by convincing 46 of his colleagues (including McConnell himself) to sign a dangerously inappropriate letter to the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It is one thing for a rookie senator, perhaps impressed with his new status, to decide he can barge into sensitive international negotiations that are clearly the president’s to conduct. But to convince so many others to go along with such a bad idea suggests a disturbing lack of adult supervision.

Predictably, Senate Republicans who signed Cotton’s missive have had to spend days explaining why. The better question, in my view, is how: Specifically, how could McConnell allow his majority to be hijacked in this manner?

Not that McConnell showed any greater ability to control events during the long and pointless fight over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.  . . . Did McConnell allow the scenario to play out as a way of teaching House Republicans the limits of their power? If so, it was a triumph of hope over experience. We’ve seen this movie again and again, and it always ends the same way: with the House leadership apparently shocked to learn it takes 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate.

For all the post-election talk about how the GOP was going to show the nation it is capable of governing, by now it is clear that many Republicans in Congress do not share this goal.

Refusing to make the compromises needed to pass mandatory legislation, such as budget appropriations, leads to self-inflicted wounds such as government shutdowns for which Congress is blamed. These are not difficult concepts to grasp. Yet many House Republicans — either for ideological reasons or because they fear inviting a primary challenge from the right — will not compromise at all.

Opposition to Obama — rather than any set of ideas, values or principles — is the party’s North Star. So if a letter that seeks to torpedo the president’s Middle East policy is circulating in the Senate cloakroom, anyone thinking about the Iowa caucuses is going to sign on.