If there's only one admirable quality to pick out from the GOP, it's persistence. When the GOP has a goal, it hones on that goal and resists deviation from the path they've set out on as much as possible. When said deviation becomes all but inevitable, they switch paths and continue onward until that goal is achieved. Or until miserable failure becomes so certain that even Stevie Wonder could read the writing on the wall.
Unfortunately, the GOP's unique brand of persistence easily devolves into an unhealthy fixation on already-accomplished goals, For instance, the above dead horse represents the belated Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Off-screen are several House representatives, bat in hand, standing victorious after yet another posthumous equine assault:
The House GOP quietly blocked funding for ACORN last week, even though the anti-poverty organization has long since been both defunded and disbanded.
The legislative assault on ACORN, which shut down in 2010, was included in a Department of Defense appropriations bill that cleared the House on Thursday. Although the bill passed by a broad, bipartisan margin of 315-97, it garnered attention for an amendment proposed by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) that would have stopped the government from collecting masses of phone call metadata without reasonable suspicion.
Amash's amendment failed, but language to bar ACORN from receiving any money made the final cut. Section 8097 of the bill reads, "None of the funds made available under this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries."
Not that any of this matters, considering how ACORN and its subsidiaries have been dearly departed since juvenile delinquent James O’Keefe found his dad's old pimp suit and decided to play dress-up*.
Between this, the GOP's constant attempts in resurrecting Benghazi as the president's Watergate analogue and its repeated attempts at obstructionist legislation, it's little wonder the GOP doesn't have the time or energy to use its persistence for the actual good of the nation.
*According to the linked source, Jimmy didn't actually wear his pimp garb to the offices.
