Boehner departure spotlights rift between the right and moderates

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner has abruptly announced his resignation, clearly influenced by crusading hardline conservatives opposed to what they say are his “go-along, get-along” ways. The immediate confrontation is over adoption of a federal budget with or without funding for Planned Parenthood, but other contentious issues coming up soon include highway funding, the debt ceiling and another threat of a government shutdown by the end of the year. Has Boehner been good for Republicans or bad? How will the party’s schism play out the rest of this year and next?

Boehner believes that he was elected to be speaker of the House of Representatives, not just speaker for an unruly minority of one political party, and that the purpose of government is to “govern.”

His arch-conservative critics, including Sen. Ted Cruz, see Congress as a political game show where they can make unrealistic ideological promises to stir up support from ultra-conservatives in the GOP.

Boehner’s critics apparently believe that the most important issue facing our nation is to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides health services to millions of women. To achieve this, Boehner’s critics are willing to close down the government.

These critics are creating an image of the GOP as a party more interested in right-wing purity than in governing for the benefit of all people. This image of a narrow-minded GOP will ensure its demise as a successful national party.

With Boehner’s resignation, the number drops to five who should also fall on their swords.

Theleast effective politicians at the national level in my lifetime are serving at this moment. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell should follow Boehner’s lead and make many of us happy five more times.

It was fascinating to watch the moral dilemma that played out last week for Boehner as he listened to Pope Francis address a joint session of Congress. You could see the anguish on Boehner’s face as the pope asked for an end to the immigration crisis, corporate greed, the proliferation of guns, unemployment, industrial waste, poverty, man-made climate change, unbridled capitalism and environmental degradation.

I wondered if he’d follow Pope Francis’ example of promoting peace, tolerance and the common good, or if he’d support his own party by shutting down the government, taking from the poor and giving to the rich, deporting immigrants, removing all gun controls and allowing corporations to destroy forests and wildlife, pollute the air and contaminate waterways —while denying climate change.

Boehner’s resignation is obviously bad for Republicans because it’s left their party a splintered mess, but this could behuge for Democrats.

Boehner has not been good for America.

He tried unsuccessfully to block or derail all of the president’s policies. He wasn’t interested in cooperation. He wanted things his way. Many in his own party abandoned him.

Hopefully, he has realized he was just an annoying bump in the road that continued to get steamrolled by both parties and the president.

Boehner was ineffective. To go along to get along isn’t leadership.

Currently, the GOP in the legislative branch allows the executive branch to rule, fearing that otherwise they will be accused of some PC label. That’s not leadership!

The GOP needs to develop unity, organization and aggressiveness toward the administration. The House needs to work for success. That’s what they were elected to do!

Boehner’s departure is good for all of us, especially for him.

The GOP will be just as dysfunctional, but the Tea Party will no longer have Boehner to blame and the raw fact that they are a minority with majority pretenses will have its inevitable consequences.

The Tea Party fantasizes that, because they are right and their anger is “righteous,” why compromise with those who are wrong?

Anger is not a guarantee of being right, only of feeling right. In fact, anger tends to beget more anger.

Boehner has been a stumbling block and a disgrace to the Republican Party. He and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have consistently refused to block any of Obama’s plans and have refused to try to negotiate better deals with Obama for the American people.

Boehner could have been more effective in dealing with the far right in his House caucus. He could have brought their issues to the floor and let the Senate and president bat them down a few times.

Faced with the realities of how our democracy operates, perhaps they would have become more willing to negotiate ways to advance issues with small wins. Failing that, he should have worked with Democrats much sooner to “clean up the barn,” as he put it.

His failure to work around the Tea Party members makes him complicit in accomplishing little. The Republican brand nationally is angry principle over practical accomplishment.

Boehner’s failure to lead effectively has allowed the perception to become more entrenched. He’s a principled public servant. The way he chose to carry out his duty simply didn’t work.

Boehner’s timely resignation might feel like the fall of the Republican Party, and topping the list of upcoming concerns is potential unchecked Tea Party denial of climate change.

We need a climate change solution that’s based on common sense economics. It’s a revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend, which includes a steadily increasing fee on carbon where 100 percent of the money is given back to American households.

Last week’s introduction of a climate change amendment authored by Rep. Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., with 10 Republican co-sponsors, clearly sends a signal that the Republican Party is not doomed and neither is the issue of solving climate change.

Boehner is evidence of the need for limited terms for federal judges and elected officials.

The Senate majority leader should also step down, as well as all other elected officials who have been in office more than six years.

Eight years is too long for some presidents. That should be decided by me. If so, Obama would have been impeached in his first term. He accomplished the goals of the socialist movement in his first term.

Boehner was fed up with the Tea Party extremists. They had their own agenda and were uncontrollable except by the the far-right billionaires who paid for their elections.

Though Boehner would never win a charm contest, he was a good man who would do nothing to harm America.

A looming government shutdown and the pope’s visit brought Boehner’s decision to a head. He couldn’t reconcile the hatred and fanaticism in his House with the messages of hope and kindness that Pope Francis was spreading.

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Boehner departure spotlights rift between the right and moderates."