Jonathan Alter is the latest pundit to pile on with criticism of the Senate Republicans who voted down the U.N. disabilities treaty:
Cruelty, fear, cowardice, xenophobia and disrespect invaded the inner sanctum of the U.S. government this week, bringing embarrassment and dishonor to what was once the greatest deliberative body in the world: the U.S. Senate.
I wonder if Republicans are beginning to have second thoughts about this vote, considering all the negative attention it has garnered in the press. Perhaps they assumed that nobody would much care about the fate of a largely symbolic international treaty concerning a marginalized group of people. But at a time when Republicans can’t stop talking about how to re-brand themselves, this vote only served to remind people of the party’s worst ideological impulses. Even after a disastrous election, conservatives are blindly following each other over the brink of political relevance with stupid votes like this.
If Republicans can’t summon the courage to vote for something as benign as this treaty, can they really be trusted to do anything on the economy or immigration reform?
