The Radical Right Has Declared War On Us - A Scorched Earth/Shermanizing March To RW Utopia
A lot of right wingers fancy themselves as students of military history. In their deliberate effort to extort the Nation into accepting their radical agenda, many parallels can be drawn to General William Sherman's March to the Sea. In the eyes of some on the right, they are truly in a win-win situation.
On the one hand, if the Democrats give into their demands, then they will have managed to impose their radical agenda on the Nation even though they control one house of just one branch of government.
However, if the Democrats refuse their demands for ideological ransom, then they will seek to create as much economic destruction in their wake through the shutdown of the Government and possibly a default on the Nation's debt. Afterall, the possible success of Obamacare could threaten their credibility, since many have staked their political futures on its repeal. Thus, if they can purposely create an economic catastrophe, they could blame Democrats for the ensuing economic crisis, particularly since the corporate media will continue to push the false equivalency that Democrats and President Obama share equal blame. Thus, if everyone is to be blamed, then no one is really responsible.
The CEO of Freedom Works have very publicly urged the radical right to push the Nation into default if necessary to achieve their ideological ends. And, with safe political districts, many House Republicans are relatively insulated from any backlash. Thus, they can safely engage in a scorched earth campaign against the Country. In their eyes, if they cannot win, then they would rather plunge the world into a deep recession and truly believe that it is our fault for not accepting the wisdom of their radical ideology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. It is a military strategy where all of the assets that are used or can be used by the enemy are targeted, such as food sources, transportation, communications, industrial resources, and even the people in the area. The practice can be carried out by an army in enemy territory, or in its own home territory. It may overlap with, but is not the same as, punitive destruction of an enemy's resources, which is done for purely strategic/political reasons rather than strategic/operational reasons. It was most famously used by Joseph Stalin against the German Army in the Second World War, by William Tecumseh Sherman during his March to the Sea in the American Civil War, by Lord Kitchener against the Boers, and by the Russian army during the failed Napoleonic invasion of Russia.
The strategy of destroying the food supply of the civilian population in an area of conflict has been banned under Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Conventions. The relevant passage says:
It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive.
Despite being prohibited, it is still a common military practice. The protocol only applies to those countries that have ratified it; notable countries that have not ratified it are the United States, Israel, Iran and Pakistan
= new reply since forum marked as read
Might want to fix that before someone gets offended. 
having a discussion to figure out what to do about that over here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023771974
Not intending to hijack your thread... It's an important point you're making here. Something has to be done about it though. Your thoughts would help this discussion too.
