Just when you think the Tea Party Republicans can’t stink up this country any more, you see something that gives you a welcome, overdue dose of American pride. Thank you former Army Captain William D. Swenson, who yesterday received the Medal of Honor for his amazing heroism when he rescued fellow troops and recovered bodies during a fierce fight in Afghanistan.

And then you have people like Ted Cruz, and Phil Gringrey and Michele Bachman and the rest of the Tea Partiers who have shown an equally amazing lack of patriotism for their country. Admitting they now have not enough votes to defund the Affordable Care Act, they continue to resist re-opening the government and avoiding default. America be damned. These people — and the people who support them — are now working actively against the government (or what was the government) of the United States, in violation of the oath they took when they entered the House of Representatives. Their motives are now clearly revealed as selfish and vindictive. And more, if you want to read into it a little more.

There was a demonstration on Sunday in the nation’s capitol by several thousand protestors supporting the Tea Party. It was advertised as a “million person protest” but there were more people at our local high school football game on Friday night. Some of the protestors carried Confederate flags. Mmmm, Confederate flags. Symbols of slavery. Black man in the White House. Wonder if there’s any message there? And– ridiculously — speakers like Cruz decried the closing of the nation’s war monuments, an action caused by Cruz and his comrades. Unbelievable. Cringe-worthy.

So, no matter how you cut it, I’m afraid, there’s a piece of America that stinks right now. It’s a stink off people whose actions — not just their perverted words — tell us clearly they no longer care about the country they profess to love. So maybe something happens at the eleventh hour, and the government is reopened and the debt ceiling is raised. Maybe there’s some sort of agreement. But maybe it doesn’t matter any longer — we’re not fighting for our country overseas, we have a more serous battle for our nation here at home. We have a republic in danger of disappearing; we are the world’s greatest power, now rapidly diminishing. And there is no doubt about who is blame. And it’s not the Kenyan in the White House. No, we have met our real enemy, and it is us. At least the tiny part of us who make up the Tea Party belligerents. What a disgrace.