I consider it singularly appropriate that this article from The Daily Beast refers to the current actions of the GOP as a murder-suicide.
Consider that there are basically two schools of thought among the more radical members of the GOP on how the attempt to defund Obamacare will play out. One says that the Democrats will cave in because they won’t want to be blamed for a government shutdown just to defend the Affordable Care Act. The other school believes that the Democrats will stand up and support the ACA but it will still be a win for the Republicans no matter what it does to the country because come 2014 the voters will blame the Democrats for the shutdown and vote accordingly, presumably giving the Senate as well as the House to the Republicans.
To show why I don’t buy into the idea that either of those are realistic let’s look at that American favorite, the TV cop show. The scene isn’t that uncommon in them, the villain of the piece, desperate to overcome the advantage the cops have over him, grabs ahold of an innocent victim to use as a shield and hostage to gain their goal. The gun is held to the hostage’s head and the hammer cocked back and the villain tells the authorities that if they don’t give the hostage-taker what he demands the hostage dies. In this scenario, though, let’s say that the villain gives a deadline for the authorities to meet his demands, it isn’t met and the trigger is pulled. The hostage dies. How many Americans watching this scene are going to blame the police? How many will blame the the guy who took an innocent hostage? I think most Americans blame the one who threatens the innocents, not the one who doesn’t cave in to extortion.