In Senator Ted Cruz’s 21-hour long-winded spiel before the Senate (9/23–24, 2013), the Republican junior senator from Texas spoke of 1940s history and Neville Chamberlain’s much criticized speech to the British people about his negotiated compromise with Adolph Hitler to foster “peace in our time”; he was, in effect, asking the Democratic-controlled Senate to do exactly that with demands of the Koch Brothers-controlled Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives. But let us digress for a moment and look back at two significant turning points in our history.
First, Senator Cruz’s command of American and World history falls short if he does not recall 1934 Germany, the political games waged and the rise of the Third Reich. Or better still, perhaps he does know about 1931 German history as forces coalesced to make Hitler, though he was not a German citizen contrive to become one, run for the office, and win the election to become president. [1]
Could selective memory have played a role in the junior senator’s recall of history?
Perhaps! But even the much maligned Princeton history curriculum must have covered the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and the build-up to World War II. The best guess is that Senator Cruz used selective memory along with a Dr. Seuss’ children’s story to impart his message to his Senate colleagues and his Tea Party base.
Did the junior senator from Texas also forget the larger story of Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates in Tripoli?
The Library of Congress account is instructive. [2]
When Jefferson became president in 1801 he refused to accede to Tripoli’s demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual payment of $25,000. The pasha of Tripoli then declared war on the United States. Although as secretary of state and vice president he had opposed developing an American navy capable of anything more than coastal defense, President Jefferson dispatched a squadron of naval vessels to the Mediterranean. As he declared in his first annual message to Congress: “To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and had permitted itself to denounce war, on our failure to comply before a given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean. . . .”
With the humiliating loss of the frigate Philadelphia, and the capture of her captain and crew in Tripoli in 1803, criticism from his political opponents, and even opposition within his own cabinet did not deter Jefferson from his chosen course during four years of war. The aggressive action of Commodore Edward Preble (1803–4) forced Morocco out of the fight and his five bombardments of Tripoli restored some order to the Mediterranean. However, it was not until 1805, when an American fleet under Commodore John Rogers and a land force raised by an American naval agent to the Barbary powers, Captain William Eaton, threatened to capture Tripoli and install the brother of Tripoli’s pasha on the throne, that a treaty brought an end to the hostilities. Negotiated by Tobias Lear, former secretary to President Washington and now consul general in Algiers, the treaty of 1805 still required the United States to pay a ransom of $60,000 for each of the sailors held by the dey of Algiers, and so it went without Senatorial consent until April 1806. Nevertheless, Jefferson was able to report in his sixth annual message to Congress in December 1806 that in addition to the successful completion of the Lewis and Clark expedition, “The states on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at present to respect our peace and friendship.”
What Senator Cruz, the Koch Brothers and Teapublicans are demanding of President Obama is that in order for them to do their legislated job of passing a federal budget they will hold the Affordable Care Act hostage for at least a year and plan to repeat the action on a yearly basis so long as they remain in power.
May their days be mercifully numbered!
As President Thomas Jefferson said: “To pay tribute means that the threats will be repeated and extortion continued.”
President Barak Obama said the same thing when he said, “I will not negotiate with extortionists.”
And just what does this extortion look like?
In return for a one-year suspension of the debt ceiling, House Republicans are demanding a yearlong delay of Obamacare, Rep. Paul Ryan’s tax reform plan, the Keystone XL pipeline, more offshore oil drilling, more drilling on federally protected lands, rewriting of ash coal regulations, a suspension of the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to regulate carbon emissions, more power over the regulatory process in general, reform of the federal employee retirement program, an overhaul of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, more power over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s budget, repeal of the Social Services Block Grant, more means-testing in Medicare, repeal of the Public Health trust fund, and more. [3]
But for now 100% of the Republicans in the House passed their version of the government funding budget bill that demands delay the implementation of the Affordable Care Act—also known as Obamacare—for one year and lifting a tax on medical devices designed to help fund the Act.
I doubt that anyone can fail to see the resemblance between TeaRepublican’s legislation and Barbary Pirates of an earlier era. Though I doubt that Senator Cruz will recognize himself, I wish I were a graphic artist because Pirate Cruz would make a fine illustration to accurately depict our current bout with extortionists.
Time ran out at 12:01 yesterday, Oct. 1, for this Congress to enact a government funding bill. This body has repeated their 1995 long shutdown under Newt Gingrich’s Republican leadership. This nation will once again experience the hard lessons of a government shut-down
Way to go, Teapublican Pirates, way to go!
Notes
[1] Shirer, W.1. (1959). The rise and fall of the Third Reich.(pp 117–188). NY: Simon and Schuster.
[2] “America and the Barbary Pirates: An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe” by Gerard W. Gawalt
[3] The GOP’s Declaration Of Total War On Our System Of Government
Sara DeHart, MSN, PhD is a health and political writer living in the Northwest.
Most Republicans are horrible, but I’m not sure how much better the majority of Democrats are. Though both parties receive money from the same sources, they get paid varying amounts from different corporations and they need to at least appear to be responsive to needs of constituents. I see differences between the majority of Democrat and Republican representatives are analogous to differences between neoliberals and neoconservatives. There’s subtle differences in approach and emphasis but both ultimately serve the corporate-security state.
If you review nominations for the United States Supreme Court by Democratic and Republican presidents there is a vast differences between the two political parties. Think about who brought us the current Corporate Supreme Court. That is the root of our current problems.