Once during an interview on MSNBC, President Barack Obama said of then-House Majority Speaker John Boehner: “The only thing that’s stopping him [from negotiating] is that John Boehner right now has not been willing to say ‘no’ to a faction of the Republican Party that are willing to burn the house down because of an obsession over my health care initiative.”
Those tea party extremists like Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), and others were the kids who were bent on having their own way.
I was reminded of a college friend who had a babysitting job for an academic couple and one of the conditions was that she was never to say “no” to their child. Everything had to be addressed in the affirmative.
Some say it’s a page from Dr. Benjamin Spock’s bestseller “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Childcare.” Critics say the book, first published in 1946, promoted entitlement, instant gratification and permissiveness for a whole generation.
Speaker Boehner was likened to the head of household who has no control over his own children. They were so removed from the realities of the average American that they could not see the seriousness of a prolonged government shutdown. An estimated 800,000 people were directly affected by the shutdown that went into effect October 1, 2013 – the same day that the Health Insurance Exchanges (under the Affordable Care Act signed into law March 2010) were scheduled to open and begin writing policies that would go into effect January 1, 2014.
We knew the day would come that Dr. Spock’s generation of entitled kids would show up in various spheres of influence, but never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined they would hold America hostage. Those so-called leaders had no sense of shame nor any understanding of what diplomacy is all about. They are a selfish, egotistical breed. They are that neighborhood brat who owns the basketball, and if he loses, throws a tantrum and takes the ball home so nobody plays.
In the Amplified Bible, Jeremiah 49:7 says in part: “Is there no longer wisdom in Teman [a district in Edom]? Has counsel vanished from the intelligent and prudent? Is their wisdom all poured out and used up?”
The steadfastness and wisdom of President Obama will be sorely missed!
