Written by Dallas Hyland
Earlier this month, in a flagrant display of disdain for the Obama administration’s policies, John Boehner and the Republican Party snuck in a guest speaker to the American Congress showing an unprecedented show of allegiance to the head of another country.
Benjamin Netanyahu was in hauntingly familiar form as he seemingly reprised his 2002 address to the United Nations warning the world of the WMD threat posed by Iraq, this time warning of Iran’s nuclear intentions.
The benefit of hindsight now allows a clearer line of sight as to the intentions of the WMD charade which successfully lead the United States to preemptively attack a sovereign country and remain at war for over a decade.
But as if this was not enough to completely weaken our solidarity as a nation in the eyes of world, Republicans upped the ante by drafting a letter to Iran–signed by 47 of the 54 of them–warning that if Iran entered an agreement with the United States not acceptable to them, they would essentially undo it in 2016. (presuming they can by presuming they will win the election)
The letter, presumably intended to undermine negotiations between the two countries, united the Republicans briefly before it became what it was: a quite ridiculously serious act of sedition.
This has a two-sided ramification for the United States.
The first is that the country will not be taken seriously when it makes negotiations because it will not be trusted to honor them.
Second, and more importantly, it blatantly demonstrates a division in our country that exposes it to threats from our enemies. Under similar circumstances in our history, people were thought to have been treasonous for such behavior.
The argument for the behavior of our Republican faction may be consistent with the party’s insistence that the Obama Administration, and particularly, the President himself, is on a spree of sorts of violations of constitutional law. The National Defense Authorization Act, the executive orders, the naming of National Monuments where cows may need to graze or fertile land needs fracking to name a few.
Supposing, all sarcasm aside, that they are correct in their concerns. Does undermining the office of the president help them or hurt them?
More importantly, does it help or hurt the American people?
Were we to be able to set aside for a moment the entrenched and polarized arguments on each side of the line–and in the middle for that matter as well–would we collectively agree that something is seriously broken within our government and that the solution may be to fix it, not continue breaking it?
There is a great scene in “The Godfather” where Freddy Corleone, eager to impress his new friends, contradicts his brother Michael in a negotiation with other mobsters. Michael, deeply devoted to his brother but realizing the magnitude of the offense and the danger it exposed his family to, chastises Freddy. The result of that foolish gesture is the perception of weakness in the Corleone family as they are divided. They are relentlessly attacked soon after.
Arguably, the stakes in a nuclear age are quite higher than a Mafia war, fictional or not, and the Republicans are looking like insolent little brothers trying to impress people who are not their friends, while making some here at home question their loyalty.
See you out there.
Dallas Hyland is a freelance writer, award-winning photographer, and documentary filmmaker with three films currently under his belt. The opinion editor of The Independent, Hyland’s investigative journalism and opinion columns have ranged in topics from local political and environmental issues, to drug trafficking in Utah, as well as the international front, covering issues such as human trafficking in Colombia. On his rare off-days, he can be found with his family and friends exploring the pristine outdoors. Listen to him live as a regular guest co-host on the Perspectives talk show on Fox News 1450 AM 93.1 FM in southern Utah.
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