Democratic Congressman Tells GOP to ‘Wake Up’ From Their ‘Ideological Wet Dream’

By John Parkinson
@jparkABC
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Sep 20, 2013 

A Democratic lawmaker took to the House floor today to implore Republicans to “wake up” from their “ideological wet dream,” as the lower chamber prepared to vote on a spending bill that would fund the government while simultaneously defunding Obamacare.

“I rise in strong opposition to this radical, right-wing effort to walk our economy off of a cliff and cause a government shutdown,” Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said during floor debate leading into the vote. “I invite my colleagues on the other side to wake up from this radical, ideological wet dream and come back to reality.”

Alan: In "Republicans for Revolution," Mark Lilla sets forth the history apocalyptic radicalism: "There have always been two kinds of reactionaries, though, with different attitudes toward historical change. One type dreams of a return to some real or imaginary state of perfection that existed before a revolution. This can be any sort of revolution—political, religious, economic, or even aesthetic. French aristocrats who hoped to restore the Bourbon dynasty, Russian Old Believers who wanted to recover early Orthodox Christian rites, Pre-Raphaelite painters who rejected the conventions of Mannerism, Morrisites and Ruskinites who raged against the machine, all these were what you might call restorative reactionaries. A second type—call them redemptive reactionaries—take for granted that the revolution is a fait accompli and that there is no going back. But they are not historical pessimists, or not entirely. They believe that the only sane response to an apocalypse is to provoke another, in hopes of starting over. Ever since the French Revolution reactionaries have seen themselves working toward counterrevolutions that would destroy the present state of affairs and transport the nation, or the faith, or the entire human race to some new Golden Age."  

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/republicans-for-revolution-by-mark-lilla.html 

The House later approved a spending bill that keeps the government open for three more months, but strips funding for Obamacare.

The freshman Democrat’s lively word choice raised some eyebrows throughout the hallowed halls of Congress, unaccustomed to a break in decorum in an institution dominated by overt politeness, mutual respectability and restrained civility.

As he continued, Swalwell called on Congress to return to the negotiating table “to talk about what we can do to avoid a government shutdown.”

“We all know how this should end. There’s a way to fund the government which would pass this chamber with votes from both sides of the aisle,” he said. “I can only hope that the Republican leadership will eventually listen to the pleas from the Americans in my district and in the whole country and pursue this bipartisan effort. Until then, I urge all members to oppose this bill.”

The House-passed legislation will likely be amended in the Senate, which is expected to send the bill back to the House next week as the shutdown showdown drags on.