GOP Lynch Mob Stoking Public Hysteria over Prisoner Exchange

Bowe Bergahl Held by Taliban 5 Years

Would the GOP have felt better had the Taliban sent Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's head to us in a cardboard box, or just left his body dangling from a tree somewhere in Afghanistan?  No.  They would have blamed President Obama in even more strident tones than what they're using now for having allowed such an atrocity to happen to a soldier who gave his life for his country blah...blah...blah.  They've already blamed the President for fanning racism because if he were white, the subject wouldn't come up so much. 

The President of the United States, as our Commander-in-Chief , has the constitutional authority to make prisoner exchanges. The last I heard, Israel exchanged 1,000 Palestinian militants for 1 Israeli private.  But, I guess for the GOP, poisoning the homecoming and wrecking the life of a young soldier who's been held prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years is a minimal price to pay if it might contribute to sullying the President's standing. Why not welcome the young man home. There will be plenty of time to find out whether he defected or was kidnapped or was wandering around with PTSD.  He's American. He broke down and cried when he learned he had been rescued by Special Forces. And he is back home in the bosom of his family possibly with valuable information about the workings of the Taliban.

The real problem is that the GOP is imploding before our very eyes, becoming uglier, more grotesque by the day.  But that's no cause for Republicans and  FOX News to begin sounding as unhinged as the  late Mr. Retribution from Santa Barbara, California.  At first I was puzzled as to why so bizarre an analogy would even come to mind. And then the connection struck me.  It's about entitlement.  If I can't have it no one can.  If I can't have power, I'll shut the government down. I'll shred the nation's credit rating. I'll see to it that none of the uninsured has medical insurance.  I'll get that black bastard out of the White House if it's the last thing I do.

But be forewarned. Narratives woven around a grandiose sense of entitlement always end tragically.