In explicating his shrill sounding Symphony No. 5 in D minor, the composer Dmitri Shostakovich said: “It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying: ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing,’ and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering: ‘Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.’”

Since the rise of the fringe group known as the tea party, old school Republicans have sure suffered a great deal of metaphorical stick beatings of their own. There was visible and widely publicized confusion and flurry as hushed Americans rushed to choose sides, especially on “Obamacare.” During all this, the accusatory calls of socialism impede good thought. Armies of pseudo-activists (by which I mean the worthless sign holders) have formed rank to cast President Barack Obama out as the pariah of America.

The most recent and deplorable antics involve the hostage taking of the government itself, the details of which must be heard (Hint: it involves Obamacare). What is irritating is the context under which the recent government shutdown has taken. Why is everybody blaming the government “in general” on the shutdown? Is it because they, meaning all members of Congress, failed at a compromise? As with any use of the generality “they,” the wording here is important.

Americans grow weary of the typical beating around the bush and idle talk, so let’s see this straight: The government shutdown is entirely the fault of the GOP, namely the tea party. What is unfortunate for the good Republicans, such as Sen. John McCain, is their credibility is hastily forgotten when we typecast the label “Republican.”

A predictable response would be: “But the GOP didn’t shut down the government; the Democrats did by failing to negotiate.”

In response to this, I’ll colloquially say: “B.S.”

Setting up a fake middle ground is not coming to the table nor is it in the spirit of compromise. And what compromise is needed, anyways? The debt ceiling has been raised 74 times since 1962. Eighteen of these raises occurred under President Ronald Reagan.

The sinking reality for the Right is that the Affordable Care Act is here to stay and, saliently, people like it. The empty and misinformed assertions against Obamacare have run their course. “But the actual bill was more than 2000 pages.” Yeah, well, “War and Peace” is really long, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad book.

No matter how far the shrilling sounds, the public has snatched the stick from the aggressor’s hand and reelected the man who dared reform health care.

This most recent debacle counts as the latest in more than 40 House attempts to repeal the Obamacare. I can almost see the winded McCain at his desk, or what I imagine to be his desk, sighing as he tweets polling figures showing the overwhelming opposition to the House proposal to defund Obamacare. When will the tomfoolery end?

Much can be said of the hyperpolarized political environment of which both parties are certainly victims. However, the tea party represents the worst forms of fear mongering and anxiety that spoil the tone in which we conduct our conversations. Seldom will you find adults behave so selfishly and so childishly in any other facet of life. This latest showing merely reveals them as the opportunists they truly are.

Nonetheless, re-election politics requires a villain for the purposes of both contrast and drama. In this scenario, the Democrats are the villains and the Obamacare is the bomb that requires defusing. After all, simple-minded voters throw faith into the arms of the “heroes” and “defenders” of liberty, for which I do not blame them. This is political racketeering at its finest.

There was a time not too long ago when Congress could actually pass bills, such as voting to raise a debt ceiling. The 111th Congress was the most productive Congress since the 1960s. What has happened since? Unsurprisingly, the 112th Congress, dominated by the yea party, was the least productive.

Numerous GOP representatives have called out in sycophantic fashion for the Senate to “listen to the American people” and defund Obamacare. Prudence would unclog deaf ears to the wisdom of their senior Republicans.

Despite what my own representative thinks, I like Obamacare, for more reasons than that I think the name will make a fine mark in history. Despite its shortcomings (single-payer would have been nice), I join with many Americans with arms folded, sassily remarking: “Its about time.”