Monday, March 23, 2015

Tom Cotton’s Unpatriotic Forefathers: Treasonous Iran Letter Not First Time GOP Has Crossed the Line | Alternet

Tom Cotton’s Unpatriotic Forefathers: Treasonous Iran Letter Not First Time GOP Has Crossed the Line | Alternet

"The Republican senators who warned Iranian officials that any agreement they made with President Obama would not outlive the present administration appear to have been blindsided by the backlash against their letter. Republicans as well as Democrats have responded to the move with such fury that unnamed sources clumsily suggested the letter was only a “cheeky” reminder that Congress should have a voice in negotiations. Sen. John McCain downplayed the extraordinary letter as business as usual: “I sign lots of letters,” he told Politico.

But the firestorm continues to rage. Newspaper editorials slam the senators who signed the bill; more than a quarter of a million people have signed a petition calling for the senators to be tried for treason; ‪#‎47Traitors‬ has been trending on Twitter. Why has this letter garnered such a visceral reaction when attacks on the president and his policies are the everyday currency of the modern Republican Party?

It has created a backlash because it shows, with crystal clarity, that the ideology of Movement Conservatives is not simply partisanship. It is an attack on American democracy itself."