Did Republicans Shoot America in the Foot?

       After reading this article Republicans Shoot America in the Foot I find myself pretty ruffled, which shouldn't come to a surprise since the author is the president of a union. Leo Gerard, the person who wrote this article, is president of the United Steelworkers union and was also appointed to the President's Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. As you can see from some of his previous works such as "Get your GOP hands off my medicare," this article is going to be full of hatred and slander: and it is.
       The article is primarily about the government shut down, and of course how it's all the big bad heartless GOP's fault. It's full of emotional based appeals about all the workers put on furlough, how badly it affected the fiscal structure of the government, and some primary sources such as restaurant owners near national parks. But it is also full of random tidbits of slanderous remarks towards the GOP which are just unnecessary. I'm not trying to justify in any way that what the Republican party did was right, but at the same time I don't have any squabble with it. What I do abhor though is how almost every paragraph ending in a pure hate statement such as "To the GOP, job losses are just collateral damage." or "It's one thing for the GOP to blast itself in the foot; it's unconscionable for Republicans to shoot America." 
       The article didn't have any information that hasn't been covered on every news station in America these past couple of weeks. I believe Leo Gerard wrote this only to get himself off on his own bias towards a group that doesn't share his own beliefs. I just can't take this article serious with sentences like "To Republicans, governing is a fistfight, a war. It's about destruction" and "It's gunning down America." I guess it's just my personal opinion but if you want to persuade me don't only use pathos based arguments when it comes to politics; I'd rather see facts and arguments based on logic, then maybe even a solution to the problem to make me say,"hmm, you know what man, you're absolutely right."