http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/23191911-474/dc-debacle-requiem-for-the-yahoos.html

EDITORIALS October 16, 2013 8:04PM

Updated: October 17, 2013 2:22AM


The world has a question: Are Americans really so crazy and reckless?

Answer: No, only the yahoos.


And it’s way past time we showed them the door.

The entire circus of the last three weeks, in which the federal government was partially shut 
down and the nation staggered toward default, causing pain around the world, was the work of 
a small band of ultraconservative House Republicans, yahoos all.

They did not speak for America. We all knew that. But they did not speak for a great many 
Republicans, either, although they insist otherwise.

“The American people rose up and spoke with an overwhelming voice,” Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican 
yahoo from Texas, said Wednesday when it became clear his scheme to defund Obamacare had failed. 
“At this stage, Washington isn’t listening to them.”

Cruz went to Harvard, so let’s hope he’s kidding.

The American people did rise up and speak in an overwhelming voice, but not against Obamacare — 
for all their legitimate doubts — or in support of holding a gun to the economy’s head.

The American people rose up and spoke in an overwhelming voice against Cruz and his ilk. 
Every day the shutdown and debt-ceiling fight continued, the Republican Party’s poll numbers 
tumbled deeper into the basement.

The biggest takeaway from this manufactured crisis is that the Republican Party, if it has any 
hope of remaining a viable national party, finally must stand up to the yahoos in its ranks. 
No more tolerance for crazy ultimatums. No more feeding on the saddest populist anger, fear and 
ignorance. No more rigid extremism that calls compromise a sin. No more living in a cartoon 
alternate reality in which defaults don’t matter, global warming is a liberal plot and the theory 
of evolution is doubtful.

And all that hateful talk about a commie pinko Kenyan usurper living in the White House? 
When Donald Trump is your point man on that, you really ought to reconsider.

Some people will always wallow in ignorance, but the GOP — at its best a healthy conservative 
check on liberal excess — should be better than that.

Rather than double down on right-wing extremism for fear of Tea Party challengers in primary 
elections, the Republican Party would be smart to field more moderate — dare we say “mainstream” — 
candidates against incumbent extremists. After this latest debacle in Washington, voices of reason
 might stand a fighting chance.

Republican business people on Main Street and Wall Street, who were as alarmed as anybody by 
the prospect of default, would be smart to counter the money influence of archconservatives 
such as the Koch brothers by aggressively backing those more moderate candidates.

Republicans and Democrats alike would be smart to get behind state reforms in the drawing of 
congressional districts so that fewer districts lopsidedly favor one party over the other. 
Members of Congress from “safe” districts are rewarded in party primaries for taking the most 
extreme stands.

Above all, the Hastert Rule, which says the House speaker should not call a bill for a vote 
that does not have the support of the “majority of the majority,” should be invoked much less 
often. Were it not for the Hastert Rule, Tea Party extremists in the House would have been left
 howling in the night three weeks ago while more responsible legislators — Republicans and 
Democrats alike, reflecting the wider will of the people — passed sensible bills to fund 
government and raise the debt ceiling.

Had House Speaker John Boehner not insisted on abiding by the Hastert Rule, the circus never 
would have come to town. But Boehner cared more about keeping his job than doing right by his 
country.

Boehner will have another chance almost immediately to demonstrate he is no longer a Tea Party 
puppet. On Tuesday, Obama said immigration reform would become his top priority once the fiscal 
crisis was resolved, and he’s ready to sign a balanced and bipartisan bill approved by the 
Senate back in June. But the bill has been held up in the House, where Boehner — again abiding 
by the Hastert Rule — has refused to call it for a vote.

The bill likely would pass in the House, despite some thoughtful opposition and plenty of yahoo 
zenophobia, but would require support from Democrats.

Boehner again will have a clear choice: Do what’s right or throw in with the yahoos.